There aren’t a ton of positives to come out of the Thunder’s first lopsided loss of the 2019-20 season, a 111-85 drubbing at the hands of the Indiana Pacers.
But here are three rapid reactions.
Oklahoma City’s shooting wasn’t just cold, it was downright frigid.
When Steven Adams missed a six-footer to start the game, it should’ve been a sign that the Thunder were in for a long night. OKC missed their first five shots from the floor and never recovered.
Their only lead came at 12-10 with 6:30 to play in the first quarter.
As noted by The Oklahoman‘s Joe Mussatto, OKC’s three-guard lineup of Chris Paul, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dennis Schröder that has been so effective at times this year, combined to shoot only 8-of-28 from the floor. The trio accounted for 27 of the team’s 85 points.
Even Danilo Gallinari, who led the team with 14, had a quiet night and missed all of his three-point attempts.
Devon Hall made his NBA debut.
Hall saw limited time in Tuesday night’s loss, but it’s still good experience for the guard out of Virginia that the Thunder signed to a two-way contract.
He played for seven minutes and took only one shot, which he made, a layup with 5:55 left to play in the game.
Hey, the free throw shooting was good.
Usually, the free throwing shooting is something that stands out as a glaring negative on the post-game stat sheet.
Tuesday, it was one of the best things about the box score.
Oklahoma City shot 87.5% from the charity stripe, making 21-of-24. Gallinari was a perfect 8-for-8, Gilgeous-Alexander a perfect 4-for-4 and Abdel Nader and Dennis Schröder hit both of their attempts.
The biggest issue with the free throw shooting was that both Chris Paul and Hamidou Diallo, guards that need to be taking to the basket and getting fouled, didn’t take any free throw attempts.