The Oklahoma City Thunder have made it a tradition this season to stay in games that they have no business in staying in. Wednesday was no different but this might have been the most impressive performance of the season for the team. The Thunder were without six players – a list that includes Josh Giddey, Darius Bazley, Tre Mann, Aleksej Pokusevski and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl all being placed under health and safety protocols. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault, who is also under health and safety protocols, also missed his second straight game and Mike Wilks was interim coach once again.
Meanwhile, less than an hour before tip, the Thunder ruled out Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with right ankle soreness.
The only true starter the Thunder had this game was Lu Dort. Key rotation player Kenrich Williams only played seven minutes before spraining his right ankle. The rest of the starting lineup and rotation consisted mostly of guys who have been serious time in the G League or at the end of the bench all season long.
With all of these circumstances, it spelled a blowout loss for the Thunder against the reigning Western Conference champions Phoenix Suns. While the final score — 115-97 — makes it look like that’s exactly what happened, a 30-16 fourth quarter inflated the number and hid the fact that the Thunder made the Suns sweat all game long as the shorthanded squad even gained the lead multiple times late in the third quarter. The Thunder, on a second night of a back-to-back, had ran out of gas in the tank as tired legs quickly took over and the Suns took advantage and blew a potential upset open.
“I was really proud of our guys,” said Wilks after the game. “I don’t think the final score is indicative of how close it was.”
Let’s take a look at player grades for this valiant effort.