OKLAHOMA CITY — If someone were to guess what the Oklahoma City Thunder’s regular-season starters could look like, Tuesday served as a pretty accurate preview.
Facing the Milwaukee Bucks, the Thunder utilized their 124-101 preseason win over them as a chance to see how their starters hold up against a title contender for 75% of a game.
Three quarters of play showed that they not only held up well against two-time MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard — they thoroughly dominated the duo.
Playing their starters 22-plus minutes, the Thunder had full control of their matchup against the Bucks and led 96-75 after three quarters. Following a 59-54 halftime lead, OKC scored 37 points in the third quarter to pull away.
It was a well-balanced attack by the Thunder’s starter. Four scored at least 10 points with Josh Giddey, Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren contributing 18-plus points.
Antetokounmpo was limited to 18 points and 10 rebounds. Lillard — who is very familiar with the OKC hoops — had just five points and four assists. The Bucks’ leading scorer was Malik Beasley, who scored 20 points on 7-of-13 shooting and 6-of-11 from 3.
A growing preseason theme has been the Thunder’s offense humming along and generating high-scoring games. Heading into Tuesday, OKC ranked No. 3 among NBA teams in preseason offensive rating at 115.7.
That number will increase due to in large part of the Thunder’s starters. OKC shot 48-of-85 (56.5%) from the field and dished out 34 assists. It also shot 18-of-39 (46.2%) from 3.
“I think it’s great,” Holmgren said on the offense. “We’re really hitting a good stride and figuring things out… I feel like we’re in a really good spot. We’re starting to click and mesh with each other. Coach talks about having good efficiency and the more efficient you play as a team, the bigger the pie is for everybody.”
The defense was also equally impressive against the Bucks. Outside of Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez, Milwaukee played their regular starters a decent chunk of minutes. The Bucks struggled on offense as they shot below 40% from the field.
“Like I said the other night, I was a little disappointed where we were defensively and I thought tonight was a nice step forward,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said about their defense. “Lot of progress on that end of the floor. Looked like we knew what we were doing in our normal schemes.”
Daigneault hinted at using one of their final two preseason games as a chance to ramp up the minutes of their starting lineup and it looks like he used their blowout win over the Bucks as the opportunity to do so.
With this likely being the last time the starting lineup played extensive minutes for the remainder of the preseason, the Thunder’s five looked excellent.
“It’s great,” Holmgren said about playing a nearly healthy Bucks in preseason. “We’re gonna see great teams like this all season long so the earlier we get to see that type of competition and really sharpen our swords.”
Let’s assign Thunder player grades for this preseason win.