The Oklahoma City Thunder trailed by as many as 29 points to the Utah Jazz before losing 109-93 on Friday.
The Thunder, Orlando Magic and Detroit Pistons all lost, making this a night with no change on the Tankathon leaderboard. Oklahoma City and the Magic are tied for the third-best odds in the NBA draft lottery, while the Pistons are one game ahead of them for the second-best odds.
Though it was a defeat, OKC head coach Mark Daigneault spoke about how it was good for the Thunder to go up against Jazz center Rudy Gobert, the likely Defensive Player of the Year.
Wing Svi Mykhailiuk, who led the Thunder with 19 points, talked about how he used a Steve Nash method to create some space and open looks against Gobert and the drop defense that the Jazz play.
Mykhailiuk, guard Theo Maleddon and forward Gabriel Deck all played well, but the Thunder didn’t have enough juice to truly get going against the intense Utah defense.
They shot 42.9% from the field, 31.6% from 3 and, entering the fourth quarter, had only attempted six free throws in the entire contest.
Here are three takeaways from the game, including the return of center Al Horford to the Thunder bench.