Frank Jackson’s 3-pointer at the buzzer rolled in and out, then bumped off the glass, and then fell off the rim.
As it dropped off the basket, the Oklahoma City Thunder completed their collapse after holding a 19-point lead to enter the third quarter. They lost to the Chicago Bulls 105-103 on Friday night.
Oklahoma City finishes with a 1-2 preseason record going into the regular season.
For the first three quarters, the Thunder played very, very well. The starters got extended minutes relative to the first two games.
Al Horford again led the team as he finished with 17 points and made four 3-pointers. He also had eight rebounds.
Darius Bazley had a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 14 points and five assists.
Those three, joined in the starting lineup by Lu Dort and George Hill each played at least 20 minutes and all had positive plus-minuses on the floor.
That’s certainly a positive. Wins and losses in the preseason are less important than performances, and there were positives around, particularly from Horford and Gilgeous-Alexander.
In the first half, the bench played well, too. Aleksej Pokusevski, Mike Muscala and Hamidou Diallo were all keys in a 20-4 run in the second quarter that pushed Oklahoma City ahead of the Bulls.
In the fourth quarter, though, the bench was unable to hold onto the lead.
The bench unit as a whole went 16-for-47 from the field, just 34%. Aleksej Pokusevski and Mike Muscala combined for 25 points as the other seven scored 24 total.
Pokusevski showed a lot of confidence, both as a playmaker and as someone who called for the ball late on multiple occasions despite being a rookie.
Sure, it’s the preseason, but his performances and attitude over these three games make him look like someone who can have a role on the Thunder this year.
Diallo finished with 11 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Jackson, who was excellent in the second game, had eight points in 16 minutes and shot 2-for-8 from the field. Kenrich Williams attempted just two field goals in 17 minutes, and Isaiah Roby had three points in 10 minutes.
While the first three quarters were very good, the Thunder were outscored 34-13 in the fourth quarter. In the regular season, this isn’t likely to happen, as starters would not be benched that entire final frame.
But the bench does need to find more consistency, or we may see a lot of these lead changes without the starters on the floor during the year.
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