OKC Thunder player grades: Thunder lose in historic fashion against the Grizzlies
All the formulas were there for Thursday’s Thunder-Grizzlies game ending as an ugly loss and that’s exactly what happened as the short-handed Thunder fell to the Ja Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies, 152-79.
The 73-point margin of victory is an NBA record.
The fully healthy Thunder squad is one of the worst teams in the league, which was expected, given they are the youngest team in the league. But a banged-up Thunder squad missing two of its three best players along with all of its veterans on the second night of a back-to-back is just a recipe for disaster.
That was the case tonight as the teams struggled on both ends in a game that was pretty easy to predict how it was going to play out after the opening minutes.
Nonetheless, there’s really not much for fans to be irrationally angry about when discussing the long term health of the team. This lopsided loss speaks more about the result of bad circumstances than the Thunder as a team. There have been plenty of other examples this season of this team staying competitive in games they should not be in to begin with.
That does not mean that this historic loss should not be any less embarrassing. Losing by 73 is unprecedented. Especially against a team missing its best player. Getting blown out in the NBA is one thing; getting annihilated like this is just unacceptable and hopefully is more of a blip than a trend.
Let’s take a look at some grades:
Lu Dort: D-plus
Dort was easily the Thunder’s best player Thursday night. He finished with 15 points. Dort’s plus-minus of minus-53 is the biggest number that popped out when looking at the box score, but I’m just going to file that under the team just playing awful in general and not individually appoint it to Dort.
Mike Muscala: B-minus
The veteran sharpshooter had a decent game off the bench with 12 points and shot 3-of-7 from 3. But I think the veteran’s most impressive contribution was off the court when he addressed the media and said the team should embrace this performance and learn from it instead of just burning the tape and moving on.
Muscala is the oldest player on this team and is looked upon as a leader due to his experience. So what he said mattered more than most. Him saying the team should embrace the hurt and learn from this performance is a great sign of maturity and self awareness for the veteran. Not everything will be peaks, so when the valleys arrive, it is important to embrace them and recognize it as part of the journey.
Game Interest: F
I have a feeling that a lot of Thunder fans tuned out by halftime and deservedly so. Plenty of other things they could do for their evening instead of watching a glorified scrimmage. Just a bad game overall that is getting a lot of national media flack.
Hopefully this game doesn’t ruin the Thunder’s national image as a tanking team that isn’t even trying to win games when it has been the complete opposite up to this point of the season. But considering nobody outside of Oklahoma really watches Thunder games religiously, it is hard to believe people are going to give this team the benefit of the doubt. I expect a similar discourse to develop after the first Houston Rockets game of the season where the Thunder lost by 33 points.
As Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault always says, the team had a chance to taste its own blood and now they have three days off the look back and reflect on this historic loss.
The Thunder travel to Michigan to play the Detroit Pistons next on Monday, Dec. 6. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (concussion) and Josh Giddey (flu) should probably be back by then. Those two being back on the floor should fix a lot of the issues that were on display tonight.
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