The Oklahoma City Thunder suffer an ugly loss against a not so good Detroit Pistons team. SGA put on a classic SGA performance but had little to no help. He started off extremely hot scoring 16 points in the 1st quarter, and ending the first half with a tough and-1 basket over Jaden Ivey to give him 21 for the half. The rest of the Thunder was not so positive as Lu Dort got into early foul trouble, leading to Darius Bazley getting some extra playing time.
(Photo by Chris Schwegler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Bazley played some great defense, collecting 3 steals and 2 blocks, but he could not quite get going on the offensive end, just shooting 3-9 FG. Not only was Dort in foul trouble, his shot continued to look off. Entering the night he was just shooting 19.6% from 3-point range, and he started the Thunder off with a 3 which gave Thunder fans some hope that he had found his shot, but then went on to shoot 1-6 (16.7%) from beyond the arc. Another disappointing performance was from Josh Giddey, who committed 3 turnovers and just shot 25% from the field on 12 attempts.
As for the Pistons, they had a balanced overall team effort game. They trailed by 16 in the late 2nd quarter, but quickly came out of the half shooting lights out from 3, starting the 3rd on a 24-6 run. The Pistons shot very poorly but were able to get to the free throw line, 33 attempts. They also outrebounded OKC by 12 which was a huge factor. They were led by solid performances by Cade Cunningham, Saddiq Bey, and Jaden Ivey.
After taking a 8 point lead in the 4th, in came Mike Muscala to keep OKC in the game. In just 14 minutes of action, he provided 11 big points and 4 boards, and he was keeping them in the game with his 3 triples. Another guy that stepped up was Kenrich Williams who showed why he was signed to a contract extension this past summer. He scored 11 points on 61.9 TS% and grabbed 8 rebounds, with 6 of those being on the offensive glass. But down the stretch, it just was not enough as the Thunder failed to boxout late in the game, and could not stop fouling. Thunder needs to shoot better than 40/30/65 splits if they want to win games. The Thunder fall to just 4-6 and look to bounce back against the 9-1 Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday.
Box Score Numbers:
Thunder:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 33p/7r/5a/4b/56.5%FG
Kenrich Williams: 11p/8r/4a/62.5%FG
Mike Muscala: 11p/4r/1b/50.0%FG
Darius Bazley: 8p/4r/3a/3s/2b
Tre Mann: 9p/5r/3a
Josh Giddey: 9p/6r/2a
Pistons:
Saddiq Bey: 25p/5r/2a
Cade Cunningham: 21p/11r/7a
Jaden Ivey: 15p/11r/6a/2s/3b
Bojan Bogdanovic: 12p/2r
Isaiah Stewart: 11p/12r/2s/2b/57.1%FG
Hamidou Diallo: 11p/8r/66.7%FG
Awards:
Most Valuable Player:
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Know Your Role:
Kenrich Williams
Defensive Menace:
Darius Bazley
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