The Thunder came out clicking on all cylinders against New Zealand tonight. Steven Adams of the Oklahoma City Thunder wanted to dominate early against his countries team. Steven came out and set the tone for the Thunder in this one and established himself in the paint early. If Steven can play like this throughout the season NBA teams will be in trouble. In a day and age where people think the center position isn’t important enough in the All-Star Game Adams makes it look good. Adams has been a monster in the preseason so far for the Thunder and has been able to work on his pick and roll with Chris Paul. The Thunder need to continue using their defense to translate to the offense as they made it tough on the New Zealand team from the opening tip. Steven Adams had 19 points and 10 rebounds on the night and was able to do the majority of his dominant stat line in the first half. The New Zealand Breakers shot 41% percent from the field and the Thunder’s length made it challenging on the night. The one bright spot in the game for the Breakers was the game of Robert Loe who scored 19 points for them. Robert was able to shoot and drive to the basket while gliding in the air through Thunder defenders. Former OKC Thunder training camp player Scotty Hopson also helped with 15 points for the Breakers.
Some of the players that stood out tonight for the Thunder were Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Hamidou Diallo, and Darius Bazley. Shai was able to continue his smooth game tonight against the Breakers as he had his shot and slashing to the paint working for him. Shai has shown a lot of leadership and has been leading the Thunder in scoring from the scrimmage to now. The way that his game just flows and translates in this OKC offense has been amazing. Shai has shown that he’s worked on his 3 point shot and also his floater too. Shai finished the game against the New Zealand Breakers with 18 points on the evening in 23 minutes. Hamidou Diallo has shown a lot of improvement this season so far as he’s showing everyone he’s more than just the NBA Dunk Contest Champion. Diallo has shown growth in his jumper and also defensively he’s been getting after all the opponents he’s guarding. Hamidou has been able to use his quickness to his advantage and it’s been on full display this preseason. If Hamidou can make the most of his minutes during the regular season he can be a huge piece to this second unit. Diallo finished the night against the Breakers with 16 points and had all the parts of his game working tonight.
The other player that was really impressive was Darius Bazley because he’s showing that he can hit the 3 pointers and he’s been defending at a high level. Bazley is the wild card for the Thunder because he can do everything from drive to the basket all the way to shooting outside. When Bazley has both the inside and outside game working for him you can see that he gets extremely confident in himself and it shows in his game. Bazley can be what Jerami Grant was to this team in the past and it’s only a matter of time before we get to see what this rookie is all about. Bazley finished with 12 points on the night and the Thunder were able to cruise to a victory against New Zealand with ease.
The Thunder will be playing against the Dallas Mavericks on October 14th in Dallas. Hopefully, this time around the Mavericks will play their starters and we can see the young OKC Thunder core against starter talent. In Tulsa, the Thunder faced the Mavericks but they didn’t play Luka Dončić or Kristaps Porziņģis. This should be a good test for the Thunder and they’re a division rival as well.
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