Game Recap: Thunder 102, Hornets 113

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Kane Dane
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The Thunder registered assists on 29 of its 37 made baskets and hit 16 3-pointers, however a late third quarter rally by Charlotte put sufficient distance between the Hornets and Thunder to lead to an OKC loss.

After three-straight subpar performances, all of which have been outlined by lopsided first quarters, the Thunder was decided to take a constructive step ahead throughout the center a part of this four-game residence stand. That aim was achieved because the Thunder performed a particularly aggressive first half in opposition to the Charlotte Hornets, maintaining this recreation inside two possessions from the three:30 mark of the primary quarter right through the 5:30 mark of the third interval.

Defensively the Thunder was extra locked in and collectively, even whereas mixing in newcomers like Jaylen Hoard and Justin Robinson for prolonged minutes. Offensively the ball skipped across the perimeter and located the open teammate because the Thunder racked up 15 assists on its 18 made baskets within the first half.

“We have been actually aggressive,” mentioned head coach Mark Daigneault. “We hit the paint with the ball. We stored it transferring. We actually tried to share it.”

The offense primarily flowed by means of the fingers of the Thunder’s two 19-year-old rookies, Aleksej Pokuševski and Théo Maledon, each of whom scored 25 factors on the evening. They’re the one pair of Thunder rookie teammates to attain 20-or-more factors in the identical recreation, and did it for the 2nd time this season. Pokuševski lit it up from behind the 3-point line, making his first 4 photographs from deep on his strategy to 7 whole makes within the recreation, which is probably the most by a rookie in OKC historical past and tied for probably the most by any NBA rookie this season.

The 7-footer coolly dropped in jumpers with persistence over the un-bothersome outstretched arms of opponents, but in addition caught his nostril into performs by difficult Charlotte drivers on the rim, beating a full-court press by dribbling 94 toes all the best way to the rim and snapping up some bodily rebounds as he completed with 9 boards and 4 assists as nicely.

“The work pays off. We simply bought to maintain working as a result of, we’re enjoying nicely which is sweet, however we’ve bought to maintain training nicely and maintain enjoying robust,” mentioned Pokuševski.

Maledon, in the meantime, attacked in quite a lot of methods, getting all the best way to the rim on some drives, flattening a trio of 3-pointers after which calmly hitting mid-range jumpers when the Hornets tried to run him off the arc.

“We’re actually optimistic about these guys and loads of the fellows that now we have,” mentioned Daigneault. “They performed nice tonight as a result of they’ve improved they usually’ve improved due to the method they’ve taken.”

The Thunder lower the Hornets result in simply three factors at 80-77 simply earlier than the tip of the third quarter, however Charlotte bought a pair of buckets from its backcourt – a Terry Rozier stutter-step bucket and a Devonte’ Graham 3-pointer to push its lead again out to eight earlier than the quarter break. That run continued into the fourth body, because the Thunder turned the ball over 3 times whereas Charlotte bought a fast 7-0 spurt to make the run a full 12-0 burst. That put some insurmountable separation between the groups over the ultimate 10 minutes of regulation.

Tonight’s play of the sport occurred a number of occasions, with each Pokuševski and Kenrich Williams using the identical approach to shake off an aggressive defender. Popping out of the halftime locker room with some added perspective, Pokuševski dribbled in direction of a teammate out prime however felt that the 2 Charlotte defenders have been leaning right into a change to attempt to cease up OKC’s dribble-hand-off motion. Pokuševski dummied the hand-off, veering in direction of the lane on the final second to catch his defenders without warning. The outcome was a simple end on the rim together with his proper hand on the left facet of the ring.


A couple of minutes later, Williams used the identical tactic – his play in the end ended up in a bounce ball after a foul name was reviewed and overturned, however the outcome was much less vital than the correct utilization of the fake-out. Leveraging a urgent, aggressive protection in opposition to itself is one strategy to win the small battles throughout the recreation.

“It’s simply form of a counter in opposition to switching,” mentioned Daigneault. “That’s simply one of many little tips you should use in opposition to a switching workforce. These guys did job of recognizing it.”

9

Variety of each rebounds for Kenrich Williams within the recreation, along with a career-high-tying 9 assists for the versatile ahead. Regardless of capturing simply 2-for-12, Williams discovered different methods to affect the sport, as he usually does. Williams crashed the glass to assist create additional possessions for his workforce or finish Charlotte’s second probability hopes, whereas additionally attacking off the bounce and discovering teammates on the dunker spot or unfold out behind the 3-point line.

Théo Maledon

“It was an method and a will to actually be aggressive. It was one thing that we watched in observe and that’s one thing that we have been attempting to placed on the ground. Actually to stay collectively and being aggressive and regardless that errors occur, ensure that we’ve bought one another’s backs on the defensive finish or making the additional go for the opposite participant to get a greater shot. So it was actually about that and it’s one thing that we have to carry over for the longer term and the following recreation.”
–Théo Maledon

“We bought again on monitor competitively. We actually competed for 48 minutes. We actually pulled collectively and performed collectively and tried to resolve issues collectively. They have been the higher workforce. They out-executed us a bit of bit, however we actually fought and competed tonight.”


–Coach Daigneault

After taking an important stride ahead in opposition to Charlotte, the Thunder can be proper again in motion to proceed its residence stand in opposition to Japanese Convention foes by lining up in opposition to the Cleveland Cavaliers on the second evening of a back-to-back.

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