OKC Thunder hang tough in back to back despite missing key pieces

What a week, and it is only Thursday! I have consumed way too much coffee, getting far too little sleep, the OKC Thunder have made a flurry of roster moves and been hit with the NBA’s health and safety protocols for the first time all year. There is no good time to send players to the League’s Health and Safety protocols, but in a week that the Thunder play Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday is less than ideal.

The Oklahoma City Thunder had 13 players available for this back-to-back set against the Sacramento Kings. The team sent Darius Bazley, Aleksej Pokusevski, Tre Mann, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, Josh Giddey, Derrick Favors, Mark Daigneault, and their top assist coach Dave Bliss to the health and safety protocols. They got Favors back on Wednesday, though they of course were also without Vit Krejci who is still with the OKC Blue nursing a sprained ankle. To combat this, the organization inked Scotty Hopson, Rob Edwards, Olivier Sarr, and Jaylen Hoard to ten-day contracts. Oh, and after a 30-point night on Tuesday, star point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed Wednesday’s game against his mentor Chris Paul due to right ankle soreness. Not a recipe for success for this scrappy upstart team.

OKC Thunder hang tough in back to back set despite missing key players

On Tuesday, the OKC Thunder rolled out a starting lineup that included Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Paul Watson Jr, and Isaiah Roby. Yes, that was the first five, no, this is not April First. That was the same play Wednesday against the Suns, but due to SGA being a late scratch, acting head coach Mike Wilks was forced to start Ty Jerome against his former team.

On Tuesday, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 30-points in a fast pace, back-and-forth game with the Kings who are fighting tooth and nail to reach the NBA Play-in Tournament. This was an interesting game for Gilgeous-Alexander, who did not shoot the ball well but as stars do when their team needs them, SGA altered his plan of attack, got downhill to the tune of 12 free throws in the final frame. His free throw attempts eventually tallied up to a career-high 17 in this game.

The OKC Thunder eventually fell in this game 117-111, though Aaron Wiggins poured in 14-points and Lu Dort chipped in 19.

Though perhaps the best effort this team made was a 115-97 loss to the best in the west Suns, who could not pull away until the final minutes of this game even without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in the Thunder lineup.

Aaron Wiggins brought it again, turning in a career-high 22 points the only OKC Thunder rookie to have a 20-plus point outing and he has two of them. Wiggins also hauled in eight rebounds, dished out an assist, and swiped a pair of steals while shooting 52-percent from the floor.

Ty Jerome, in a spot-start role like an old grumpy out-of-shape 34-year-old hurler for the Kansas City Royals in a meaningless baseball game in August, actually performed to the tune of 24-points, eight rebounds, five assists, and a trio of steals.

Roby, Watson, and Muscala all scored in double-figures in this tilt as well for the OKC Thunder. Scotty Hopson and Rob Edwards got their first looks in a Thunder jersey as Edwards played nearly two minutes and missed his only shot attempt while Hopson scored four points in seventeen minutes.

Mike Muscala said after the game despite many people not believing in moral victories, he is still proud of his team tonight. As every OKC Thunder fan should. Oklahoma City gets a day off Thursday before their annual New Years’ Eve home game as they welcome the New York Knicks to the Paycom Center.