Tag: Aaron Wiggins

Player grades: Jalen Williams’ game-winner lifts Thunder past Trail Blazers, 111-109

Player grades for the Thunder’s 111-109 win over the Trail Blazers.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Dribbling to the left elbow, Jalen Williams hopped for a fadeaway jumper that swished in. The second-year forward celebrated the eventual game-winner to give OKC a two-point lead with two seconds left.

Needing a miracle, Malcolm Brogdon instead turned it over on the final possession as he tried to throw a sidelines lob to Deandre Ayton. The Oklahoma City Thunder avoided the upset in their 111-109 win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

“I didn’t think we had (effort and energy) in the first half for whatever reason, but the guys did a good job at trying to work ourselves into the game and we found that in the second half and got tough,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win.

After the first quarter, it looked like this third matchup between both teams would play out the same way the first two did — with a Thunder blowout win. OKC built a 38-28 lead and led by as many as 13 points in the first frame.

But a 38-point second quarter by Portland flipped the score as it entered halftime with a 66-58 advantage. Suddenly, the Thunder were in a dog fight.

Coming out of halftime, the Thunder utilized a 30-point third quarter to enter the final frame with an 88-86 lead. Both teams continued to exchange points from that point forward in the final 12 minutes.

With 30 seconds left, Anfernee Simons hit a highly difficult 3-pointer to give the Trail Blazers a three-point lead. OKC quickly responded as Williams pulled it within one point on the next possession before pandemonium unfolded.

After Brogdon was called for a double dribble with 15 seconds left, Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups lost his cool and charged after the officials for the critical call, earning himself two technicals and an automatic ejection.

After the game, head official Bill Kennedy explained Billups received two technicals because of physical contact with a referee and his reaction to the first technical. Billups said he was upset because he tried to call a timeout when Brogdon was trapped before his turnover.

It was reported by ESPN that the Trail Blazers will protest the result due to Billups’ ejection resulting in two free throws and possession for the Thunder.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander split the technical free throws, which meant both teams had 109 apiece with 15 seconds left. OKC had possession and Williams hit the aforementioned self-created jumper.

“We have a group of guys that work super hard and it makes it easy to trust them,” Gilgeous-Alexander on his teammates scoring clutch buckets. “They’re guys that work hard and at the end of the day, win and be the best version of themselves.”

What did Daigneault see on the game-winning basket by Williams? Utilizing Gilgeous-Alexander’s gravity to see up their second-best scorer.

“Just a last-shot situation,” Daigneault said on Williams’ game-winner. “Knew that Shai would draw a lot of attention on kinda a false action there. He had just made one before that and decided to go to him… I thought he was really engaged in the game, so that’s why I went to him.”

A failed lob attempt ended the contest and the final buzzer sounded. It was a  successful avoidance of a bad loss to the Trail Blazers thanks to a chaotic final few possessions.

The Thunder shot 48% from the field and went 7-of-23 (30.4%) from 3. OKC also shot an uncharacteristically 18-fo-28 from the free-throw line that highlighted the off night it endured.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 33 points and 10 assists. Williams scored 19 points. Chet Holmgren had eight points and six blocks.

Meanwhile, this was the best outing yet for the Trail Blazers against OKC. Portland shot 43% from the field and went 18-of-39 (46.2%) from 3. Six players scored double-digit points for the Trail Blazers.

Jerami Grant had 18 points and five rebounds. Brogdon collected 18 points and seven assists. Simons scored 17 points and had five assists. Jabari Walker collected a 14-point and 13-rebound double-double.

Off the bench, Scoot Henderson had his best outing against OKC yet. The 2023 No. 3 pick totaled 19 points on 7-of-18 shooting, seven assists and four rebounds.

This was an important win for the Thunder. If OKC is going to keep pace for the top seed, then it needs to collect wins over the worst teams in the league. It took more work than most anticipated, but it avoided a large upset.

“They have respect for those players, they know who those players are,” Daigneault said. “We knew we were gonna have a tough opponent tonight. We didn’t come in expecting an easy game and it wasn’t.”

The Thunder will now look to sweep this home-and-road back-to-back against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday. It’ll be another similar test where OKC enters as heavy favorites.

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Player grades: Thunder’s late comeback falls short in 141-138 loss to Hawks

Player grades for the Thunder’s 141-138 loss to the Hawks.

Trailing the entire game, Isaiah Joe had a chance to complete a 21-point comeback with a corner 3 at the end of regulation. Alas, the sharpshooter’s attempt fell short as the final buzzer sounded.

Playing on the second night of a home-and-road back-to-back, the Oklahoma City Thunder fought admirably after looking sluggish for most of the contest in their 141-138 loss to the Atlanta Hawks.

“We didn’t have our best tonight obviously but I thought we stuck together and stayed in it,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the loss. “I thought as the game wore on, we got more and more energy and more and more engaged after obviously a sluggish start.”

Not scoring their first points until nearly four minutes into the contest, it was evident fairly early the Thunder entered Atlanta battling fatigue. A flight delay the previous night only guaranteed OKC tipped off with a scheduling disadvantage.

To the Hawks’ credit, they took advantage of this and got off to a 39-25 lead following the first quarter. The Thunder’s offense started to pick up in the second quarter with 34 points, but Atlanta’s 37-point second frame saw OKC enter halftime trailing 76-59.

The third quarter saw both teams turn it up a notch with their scoring — the Thunder scored 44 points and the Hawks scored 40 points. Entering the final frame, OKC trailed 116-103.

From that point on, the Thunder and Hawks continued to exchange buckets. With less than three minutes left, it looked like OKC’s hopes of a comeback finally vanished as Atlanta led by 15 points.

Instead, what proceeded was a 14-2 run by the Thunder in the final 2:20 of the contest to work their way back for the aforementioned chance of potentially tying it up.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander single-handedly almost mounted a comeback as he scored the final nine points of the contest. Overall, he led OKC with 33 points and 13 rebounds.

Jalen Williams was OKC’s other big scorer with 21 points. The Thunder enjoyed a productive night from their bench with 49 points.

After a slow start, the Thunder turned into a scoring machine for the final three frames. Overall, OKC shot 55% from the field and went 18-of-36 (50%) from 3. It shot 20-of-26 from the free-throw line and collected 30 assists on 50 buckets.

The problem for the Thunder was on the other side — the Hawks scored with ease as they had 37-plus points in the first three quarters. Atlanta shot 51% from the field and went 14-of-39 (35.9%) from 3. It went 31-of-33 from the free-throw line and had 30 assists on 48 buckets.

The monster scoring night from the Hawks was headlined by four 20-point scorers. Atlanta’s backcourt led the way as Trae Young had 24 points and 11 assists while Dejounte Murray had 22 points, six assists and six rebounds.

Jalen Johnson scored a career-high 28 points on 11-of-18 shooting and Bogdan Bogdanovic totaled 23 points and shot 5-of-11 from 3 off the bench.

“The energy that we needed to have wasn’t there for much of the night on the defensive end,” Daigneault said. “… We just didn’t play well enough to win.”

Considering the circumstances, this one felt like it was safe to pencil in as a scheduled loss for the Thunder. After picking up a massive win over the Boston Celtics, it only makes sense OKC struggles on the second night of a home-and-road back-to-back.

It felt that way for most of the game. But even though the Hawks led wire-to-wire, OKC’s late flurry to turn it into a three-point deficit makes this loss easier to stomach.

“It’s not always going to be perfect (but) I’ll always ride with these guys any night,” Daigneault said. “It wasn’t our fastball tonight… To continue to fight the way we did was impressive.”

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Player grades: Thunder look lackadaisical in 110-101 loss to Rockets

Player grades for the Thunder’s 110-101 loss to the Rockets.

Hitting on a corner 3-pointer, Aaron Holiday put the final nail in the coffin for OKC’s comeback hopes, extending Houston’s lead to a game-high 17 points with a little under eight minutes left.

The Oklahoma City Thunder played catch-up for most of the night and fell to the Houston Rockets, 110-101.

“Credit them, they outplayed us on both ends of the floor,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the loss. “I just thought we were a step slow on offense with our attacks. Had a hard time generating rhythm tonight on that end of the floor.”

The first quarter previewed the off night: The Thunder trailed the Rockets, 32-22, after 12 minutes. A late second-quarter run helped cut the deficit to five points entering halftime.

Though they entered the fourth quarter trailing by six, the Thunder’s chances of a comeback evaporated with the Rockets’ 17-6 run, fueled by five 3-pointers, to start the final frame.

The Thunder lost this game from outside. They shot an ugly 8-of-29 (27.6%) from 3. Meanwhile, the Rockets were a sizzling 15-of-33 (45.5%) from deep. Just that area of the game produced a 21-point difference.

Overall, OKC looked sluggish against one of the best defensive teams in the league. It shot 43% from the field.

“We were just a little stagnant,” Aaron Wiggins said on the offense. “Both with the ball at times and individually being in our spots. We got to be able to willing to move to create opportunities for other off-ball.”

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for the Thunder with 33 points on 18 shots. The other four Thunder starters combined for 29 points on 10-of-38 shooting.

Meanwhile, the Rockets had a well-balanced scoring attack. Five players scored in double digits. Houston dished 28 assists on 40 buckets. Houston also dominated the boards, 53-30. Jabari Smith Jr. led the way with a career-high 18 rebounds to go along with his six points.

Alperen Sengun had 21 points, seven assists and six rebounds. Dillon Brooks scored 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting. Holiday scored a season-high 22 points and went 6-of-7 from 3 off the bench.

Though it was a nine-point loss, the Thunder never seemed in a groove against the Rockets. OKC managed to cut it to one point in the third quarter, but Houston always answered with runs to keep a healthy distance on the scoreboard.

“We had them in striking distance. It never quite felt like we had control of the game,” Daigneault said. “They were outplaying us and it felt like that … They did a good job at holding us off.”

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Player grades: Thunder concludes in-season tournament with 106-103 loss to Timberwolves

Player grades for the Thunder’s 106-103 loss to the Timberwolves in their final in-season tournament game.

Trailing by 3 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s deep 3-point attempt clunked off the backboard as the final buzzer sounded.

The Oklahoma City Thunder couldn’t create any late-game magic in their 106-103 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves. The loss drops OKC’s final record of in-season tournament group play to 1-3.

“We could’ve attacked it a little bit better,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on Minnesota’s zone defense. “We also missed some shots during that stretch. And a combination of those two things made it hard on us… The second-half offense really hurt us tonight.”

After leading 61-53 in the first half, the Thunder’s offense sunk as the Timberwolves limited them to 42 points on 31% shooting the rest of the way.

The second half saw OKC struggle to generate quality looks as the Timberwolves suffocated each drive to the basket. Minnesota chipped away at OKC’s lead and entered the final frame trailing by just two points.

Troy Brown Jr. — who closed this game out in place of Anthony Edwards, who missed most of the second half after a hard landing on his hip — scored five quick points to give Minnesota a five-point lead with 31 seconds left.

A Chet Holmgren 3-pointer helped give OKC some slight hope as it cut its deficit to two points with 27 seconds left. After trying to force a turnover, the Thunder finally decided to foul Karl-Anthony Towns, who swished in both free throws to regain a four-point lead.

A Gilgeous-Alexander dunk cut it to two points once again with five seconds left. Brown Jr. split a pair of free throws and gave OKC a shot to tie it trailing by three points with four seconds left. The final possession resulted in the aforementioned Gilgeous-Alexander 3-point attempt that didn’t go in.

“Trying to get the ball to Shai in some space,” Daigneault said on the final play. “Gobert on the ball I thought was a little disruptive to the entry pass and pushed us a little further out than we would’ve liked to be.

“But at the end of the day, we had a really good player with the ball, down three, and that’s what you can ask for.”

Overall, the Thunder shot 41% from the field. This included an 11-of-30 (36.7%) from 3. Rebounding continues to be an issue for OKC as it was outrebounded, 51-36.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves also struggled on offense as they shot 42% from the field. The difference for them was from outside as a 14-of-33 (42.4%) night from 3 helped keep them in it.

“I thought they were uncomfortable with the way we were guarding them,” Daigneault said on the defense. “I thought there was a little slippage in the third (quarter). After we built a little bit of a lead, we let Edwards get a little loose there.”

Gilgeous-Alexander led OKC in its three-point loss. The 25-year-old scored a game-high 32 points. In his first game at Minnesota, Holmgren had 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Meanwhile, the Timberwolves survived the absence of Edwards, who scored 21 points and had five rebounds before he exited the game with a hip injury in the third quarter. Brown Jr. stepped up and scored 17 points.

The frontcourt duo of Towns and Rudy Gobert led Minnesota to the win. Towns had 13 points and 10 rebounds while Gobert had 17 points, 16 rebounds and four blocks.

“We have to get better as a team and practice and the film room and continue to get better,” Holmgren said on the loss. “We can’t just brush it off because then we can’t learn lessons from it.”

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Player grades: Thunder avoid trap game with 134-91 blowout win over Trail Blazers

Player grades for the Thunder’s 134-91 win over the Trail Blazers:

Playing on the second night of a road back-to-back, the Oklahoma City Thunder avoided falling for a textbook trap game in their 134-91 blowout win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

After picking up a season-defining win against the Golden State Warriors on Saturday, the Thunder avoided any potential hangover by taking care of business against a short-handed Trail Blazers.

“I just thought we played to our identity regardless of the circumstance and regardless of who was on the floor,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win. “Which is a testament to the guys and then also the guys who’ve kept themselves sharp that haven’t gotten as many minutes.”

The Thunder had a hot start as they led, 33-21, after one quarter. That lead ballooned to 76-43 thanks to a 43-point second quarter. OKC’s scoring efficiency in the first half reached historic levels. Its 88.5 true-shooting percentage marked the best shooting first half in the league since 2020.

“It felt good,” Lu Dort said on the first half. “It’s just the trust that we have in this team and how we moving the ball and we’re so comfortable playing together.”

Any faint hopes of a miraculous comeback by Portland were quickly squashed by OKC with a 25-point third quarter that actually extended its lead to 35 points entering the final frame.

“I thought we showed great maturity, great discipline to the zero-to-zero mindset,” Daigneault said on OKC’s fast start. “I thought our execution to the game plan early really set the tone to the game.”

Overall, the Thunder shot 61% from the field. OKC also had a season-high 22-of-36 (61.1%) night from 3. It also went 14-of-14 from the free-throw line.

The historic offense production marked the first time a team finished with a 60-60-100 shooting night for a game in the last 25 years.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with an easy 28 points on 13 shots. Chet Holmgren continues to build on his best game yet with 16 points and six rebounds.

Considering this was the third road game in four nights, OKC elected to lengthen its usual rotation by playing all 15 available players. This included 11 players in the first quarter.

The Trail Blazers being one of the worst teams in the league increased OKC’s margin of error and allowed Daigneault to experiment a bit and play the end-of-bench guys early minutes.

Meanwhile, the Trail Blazers are playing for lottery balls. Portland’s lengthy injury report confirmed that as No. 3 picked rookie Scoot Henderson headlined the abnormal number of absences.

Portland shot 40% from the field and went 9-of-34 (26.5%) from 3. It also committed 17 turnovers that resulted in 29 points for the Thunder.

The Trail Blazers were led by Jerami Grant, who finished with 14 points on 4-of-12 shooting. Deandre Ayton had 11 points and five rebounds. Shaedon Sharpe was held to seven points on 3-of-8 shooting

Outside of enjoying the obvious blowout win, OKC not sleeping on the Trail Blazers afforded it the luxury to rest their starters for 1.5 quarters in the second half. That was a huge gift considering this was the third road game in four nights.

“We just got to keep it rolling,” Dort said on OKC’s 10-4 start. “It’s a long season. We have a lot of games left. We can’t get comfortable. We got to get more.”

Let’s look at Thunder player grades.

Recap: OKC Thunder’s Thursday practice (Nov. 2)

Here’s what Mark Daigneault and Aaron Wiggins had to say following Thursday’s practice.

The Oklahoma City Thunder practiced the day after their 110-106 loss to the New Orleans Pelicans. After leading by 22 points, the Thunder suffered an ugly loss to the Pelicans, who were without Brandon Ingram.

The loss dropped OKC’s record to 3-2. It continues the six-game homestand when it welcomes the Golden State Warriors on Friday for the first in-season tournament game.

Following practice, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and Aaron Wiggins spoke with the media.

During the session, Daigneault announced Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss Friday’s game with a left knee sprain he suffered against the Pelicans. He also said Jaylin Williams (hamstring strain) and Kenrich Williams (back spasms) continue to progress, and the former is closer to returning than the latter.

Let’s recap what Daigneault and Wiggins had to say along with other practice notes.

Player grades: Comeback attempt falls short in Thunder’s 117-115 preseason loss to Hornets

Player grades for the Thunder’s 117-115 preseason loss to the Hornets on Sunday:

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.

Recap: Sunday’s 2023-24 OKC Thunder training camp

Here’s a quick recap of Sunday’s Thunder training camp as Mark Daigneault, Kenrich Williams and Aaron Wiggins spoke to media.

The Oklahoma City Thunder held the final day of training camp on Sunday ahead of their preseason opener against the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, Oct. 9.

After camp, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault and wings Kenrich Williams and Aaron Wiggins spoke with the media.

During the session, Daigneault revealed Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will miss their preseason opener for rest purposes, and Vasilije Micic will miss it due to an ankle sprain.

Practice footage was also recorded and tweeted by media who were in attendance on Sunday.

Let’s recap what the trio had to say as the 2023-24 training camp comes to a close.

OKC Thunder 3 goals: What Aaron Wiggins has to accomplish in 2023-24 season

Here are 3 goals Aaron Wiggins can achieve this upcoming season.

In this continuing series, Thunder Wire assigns three goals to each of the 21 players, per Spotrac, that make up the Oklahoma City Thunder roster.

The Thunder’s season kicks off on Oct. 25 against the Chicago Bulls. After a surprising 40-42 campaign that ended a win shy of the playoffs, OKC enters this year with playoff aspirations.

Let’s assign three goals for Aaron Wiggins. After being a late second-round draft pick in 2021, he’s played himself into being a rotation player over the last two seasons. The 24-year-old will likely see a similar role this upcoming season as a backup wing.

With plenty of new additions, Wiggins will once again have to fight for consistent playing time.

2022-23 Thunder player grades: Aaron Wiggins

Handing out a final grade for Aaron Wiggins’ 2022-23 season.

The 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder’s season ended with the play-in tournament loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, which means it’s time for reflection.

Being one of the biggest overachievers in the league, the Thunder finished with a 40-42 record after being predicted by many to have high lottery odds.

Now that the season is in the books, let’s go back and evaluate all 19 players who suited up for the Thunder this season. Grades will be handed out to every player in terms of what their expectations were heading into the season and how they lived up to them.

The eighth player in this installment is Aaron Wiggins, who quietly improved as one of the Thunder’s more reliable wing options off the bench despite shaky playing time.

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(Editor’s note: We are starting individual grades for all players from the 2022-23 Oklahoma City Thunder. To access other reviews as part of this ongoing series, click here.)