Trailing in transition, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl caught the ball from Aaron Wiggins and had a chance to hit a layup to send Sunday’s preseason game into overtime.
Instead, the ball failed to go through the hoop and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s comeback attempt fell short in their 117-115 preseason loss to the Charlotte Hornets.
“Obviously we came up a little short, but I thought we came with it tonight,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault on their effort.
Preparing to play on a sleepy Sunday afternoon, the shorthanded Thunder used their third preseason matchup to rest their starters and several key players.
Prior to the game, the Thunder elected to rest Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Josh Giddey, Lu Dort and Isaiah Joe. Kenrich Williams (back spasms) and Aleksej Pokusevski (ankle sprain) were also ruled out.
The long list of injuries grew during the game as the Thunder ruled Cason Wallace — who started and had five points in eight minutes — out with a toe sprain in the second quarter.
With arguably their top-nine players out for most of the night, the Thunder used their loss to the Hornets as a chance to allow their depth players to play a heavy dosage of minutes.
Even without their starters, the Thunder offense didn’t miss a beat, scoring 115 points on 42-of-91 (46.2%) shooting. The ball movement was crisp as active off-ball movement and cuts helped OKC generate 30 assists on its 42 field goals.
“Offense was really good,” Daigneault said. “I thought we generated great rhythm. Worked together. Got our cutting in. Moved the ball side to side.”
For a third consecutive preseason game though, the defense continued to show leakages.
The Hornets scored 117 points on 46-of-88 (52.3%) shooting in their two-point win. Charlotte utilized 69-point middle quarters to help it enter the final frame with an 11-point lead. Without Holmgren, the Hornets scored 62 points inside of the paint.
The Thunder made it interesting in the fourth quarter, cutting the Hornets’ lead to as little as one point against Charlotte’s reserves. OKC had a pair of layup attempts in the final seven seconds that missed, which would’ve either given it a one-point lead or tied it and forced OT.
The Hornets were led by P.J. Washington, who’s grown a reputation for turning into Steph Curry when facing OKC. During an essential must-win game for the Thunder late last March in the midst of their Play-In push, he scored 43 points and played spoiler in the upset.
In a much less pressure-filled environment tonight, Washington had 31 points on 13-of-18 shooting and 5-of-8 shooting from 3 in 24 minutes. The Hornets elected to treat this game as a regular-season matchup with their starters playing 20-plus minutes.
LaMelo Ball had 16 points, six assists and six rebounds in 24 minutes. Terry Rozier finished with 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting and six assists in 26 minutes. 2023 No. 3 pick rookie Brandon Miller had eight points and seven rebounds.
Meanwhile, the Thunder were led by Jaylin Williams and Aaron Wiggins in this exhibition. Williams received his first start of preseason and played the point center role. Wiggins — who is from North Carolina — had several fancy finishes around the rim for 16 points.
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.