Thunder basketball is officially back!
The game that got the NBA shut down has finally been played and the Thunder picked up right where they left off when the season was suspended. Since this was the game that caused the suspension of the league, there was a lot of anxiousness and it showed.
The game started off very slow and sloppy for both team but mainly the Thunder who had 5 turnovers in the first few minutes of the game. One of the things head coach Billy Donovan is great at is knowing when to call a timeout which he did after the 5th turnover and being up 13-9.
Whatever he said in that timeout worked because it got the offense going led by Danilo Gallinari who had 11 points in the opening frame. They ended the 1st on a 16-6 run and held the Jazz to 15 points in the quarter which was the lowest amount of points they have allowed in any 1st quarter this season. The defense didn’t stop there as they continued to lock in on defense despite the Jazz picking up their offense a little.
Jazz did score 27 points in the 2nd quarter and did shoot 50% from the field but they couldn’t do anything with the Thunder offense who scored 37. The Jazz came into the game with the 11th ranked offense and were 2nd defending the 3 but that didn’t matter to the Thunder who shot 73.7% from the field and 50% from 3 in the 2nd quarter.
That strong quarter helped them shoot 64.9% from the field and 40.9% from 3 in the half. They played excellent on both ends of the floor and had a 24 point lead going into halftime.
The Jazz are a good team and have came back on teams this year but that wasn’t the case tonight. The Thunder offense wasn’t all there in the 3rd quarter but the defense stayed strong and continued to stay strong throughout the rest of the game. The Jazz ended up shooting 39.1% from the field and 25.8% from 3. No Jazz player could get going at any point of the night.
Credit to Lu Dort and Hamidou Diallo for that. Donovan Mitchell and Jordan Clarkson are the two guys who could get going at any point but the defense of Dort and Diallo kept them in check the whole game as they shot a combined 9-32.
The Thunder were led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who had 19 points and 6 assists and Chris Paul who had 18 points 7 rebounds and 7 assists. Steven Adams added 16 points and 11 rebounds while Danilo Gallinari had 15 points and 4 rebounds.
The Thunder moved into the 5th spot in the West and baring a complete collapse in the bubble for them they will finish no lower than 6th which helps them avoid the Clippers and Rockets in the first round.
The next bubble game will be on Monday at 3PM ET against the Nuggets who is a team they could possibly see in the playoffs.
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