Game Recap: Thunder 106, Raptors 112

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Kane Dane
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It will take a season-high 24 lead modifications to find out a winner in Sunday afternoon’s matchup. A pair of undrafted Montreal natives took the highlight within the scoring column whereas the Thunder’s rookie Aleksej Pokuševski put his versatile sport on full show.

It was raining 3s in sunny Tampa Bay on Sunday afternoon. Each the Raptors and the Thunder got here out of the gates capturing at hyper-efficient clips from behind the arc. OKC went 6-for-10 within the first body largely to its sophomore guard Lu Dort who exploded for an unbelievable 21 factors in his first 11 minutes of taking part in time. The Montreal native went an ideal 7-for-7 from the sphere which included a spotless 5-for-5 efficiency from deep. The 21-point outburst put Dort amongst unique firm as certainly one of simply seven gamers in OKC historical past to document 20 or extra factors in a single quarter.

“He actually had it going within the first,” mentioned Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault. “He clearly made leap photographs, which is what acquired him getting into Utah, however he’s diversified his sport. He’s gotten to the rim and completed. He’s made some good performs as a creator. So when he’s form of acquired his ground sport going and he’s making the fitting performs and he’s attending to the rim, he’s attending to the road, he’s mixing within the catching shoot threes, that’s when he’s at his finest. I assumed he did that early after which they cranked it up on him slightly bit.”

“Actually simply get to my spots after which when my teammates discovered me, simply had confidence to knock it down,” mentioned Dort.

Three of Dort’s 5 3-pointers have been assisted by rookie ahead Aleksej Pokuševski within the first quarter. Considered one of which included a no-look, one-handed cross court docket move zipped to Dort on the fitting wing. Poku put his well-rounded sport on full show early on with 4 assists.

“He’s taking part in with plenty of pressure. He’s staying easy however he’s discovering the open man,” mentioned Daigneault. “He discovered Lu early and his ground sport was wonderful tonight.”

In the meantime, on the opposite facet of the ground, there was one other undrafted Montreal native who was placing on an offensive present. Raptors ahead Chris Boucher went toe-to-toe with Dort within the first quarter. Whereas Dort completed with 21, Boucher opened the sport with 17 and wouldn’t decelerate for the remainder of the sport.

Toronto started to show the tides halfway by means of the competition. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer by Boucher on the finish of the second quarter reduce the Thunder’s double-digit result in simply seven going into the locker room. By the third quarter, the Thunder’s as soon as 12-point lead dissolved in as Toronto gained a one-point benefit. It was a 14-5 run sparked by a ten level third-quarter effort from Gary Trent Jr. who would end the sport with 23 factors.

Crunch time in NBA video games takes on a completely completely different life than the earlier 43 minutes of sport play. Margins for error slender, possessions change into infinitely extra priceless and time turns into an additional defender. The Thunder hasn’t discovered itself in lots of clutch-time video games for the reason that All-Star break which made Sunday’s collection of occasions all of the extra necessary for the younger, growing group on the ground.

There had been a season-high 24 lead modifications between the Thunder and the Raptors main into the ultimate minutes of the fourth quarter. Every big-time bucket by the Thunder was answered with an equally eye-popping shot by Toronto.

Rookie Théo Maledon gave the Thunder a three-point lead after he dropped in an and-one layup with 4 minutes left within the sport. The play gave the Thunder a quick second of momentum, however Toronto snuffed it out earlier than OKC might take benefit.

After Maledon’s and-one, Toronto responded with an 8-0 scoring run to construct up a five-point lead with simply 33 seconds remaining within the sport. Regardless of a pair of free throws from Lu Dort to chop the sport to 3 factors, a dagger 3-pointer by fellow Montreal native Chris Boucher put the Raptors up six with simply 11 seconds remaining. Boucher completed with a game-high 31 factors, 10 of which got here within the last 12 minutes.

“I actually suppose it got here right down to getting stops late within the sport,” mentioned Kenrich Williams. “I feel general we have been getting good photographs. We had some open seems however they simply didn’t fall. That’s a part of the sport.”

“These are shut video games that we’re making an attempt to shut with guys which might be in numerous roles that they haven’t been in. They’ve been within the scenario earlier than however in all probability not within the function that they’re in and we’ve simply acquired to study from it,” mentioned Daigneault. “The possession sport, the final six minutes of video games, is a unique animal on each ends of the ground. It’s far more about execution. The physicality goes up. It’s a extremely completely different really feel and sport than the ground sport minutes one by means of 42. So it’s only a lesson that each participant has to study.”

There was a sequence of eye-catching performs on back-to-back possessions within the third quarter worthy of Play of the Sport recognition. It began with a bucket by Bazley who completed the sport with 16 factors. The Thunder’s second-year ahead missed his first try on the rim, remained relentless on the glass to get his personal rebound then with each ft flat on the bottom, elevated for a dunk over the Toronto defenders.

On the following possession, Trent Jr., hungry for a response to the spectacular play by Bazley, attacked the rim together with his traditional explosiveness. Nonetheless, ready for him on the basket was the 7-foot Serbian who had already logged three blocks within the sport. As quickly as Trent elevated, he was met with each forearms of Pokuševski who utterly erased any whisper of a shot try from Trent Jr.

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As if eight factors, 5 assists and 7 rebounds wasn’t sufficient of a well-rounded stat line, Pokuševski additionally swatted away a career-high six blocks. The trouble marks essentially the most by a rookie in OKC historical past and essentially the most by a rookie within the league this season.

General, Poku turned the primary NBA rookie since 2004 to document a stat line of 5 or extra rebounds, factors, assists and blocks.

“Enjoying protection is one thing that I wish to attempt to be higher at to assist the workforce,” mentioned Pokuševski. “Blocks, utilizing my size is one thing that I can do nice in order that’s what I’m making an attempt to do.”

“It’s only a signal of progress for him,” mentioned Daigneault. “In the event you zoom out, and also you have a look at issues in totality, the truth that he’s right here in April and blocking six photographs and defending the rim and guarding his spot and playmaking the way in which that he was tonight, big, big progress”

“We had plenty of actually good moments. We ticked ahead in a pair areas that we tried to level out and simply clearly didn’t execute effectively sufficient, in all probability, down the stretch to win that sport. However they hold preventing and so they hold competing and so they get themselves up for each sport and prepared for each sport. That’s what we have now to do, particularly throughout a troublesome stretch. This can be a character take a look at. These guys have finished a terrific job of simply form of getting again to zero and nil daily. We’ve simply acquired to proceed to do this. We now have no different possibility.”


–Coach Daigneault

Simply two stops stay for the Thunder on its four-game dwelling stand. After a brief journey to Tampa Bay, the Thunder closes out its back-to-back in Washington to tackle the Wizards earlier than closing out the highway stint in Indiana in opposition to the Pacers on Wednesday.

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