Tag: Tre Mann

OKC Thunder player grades: SGA scores 37 points on 16 shots in loss to Kings

SGA has another high-efficient 30+ point game as the Thunder lose to the Kings.

The Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Sacramento Kings, 131-110, in Monday’s game against two teams in the bottom of the standings.

Even with the loss, it’s hard not to be mesmerized by another elite scoring game for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander as he finished with 37 points on 16 shots. Since returning from his ankle sprain, Gilgeous-Alexander has scored 105 points on 62 shots. This has easily been the best scoring stretch of Gilgeous-Alexander’s season and arguably of his career.

Now while the final score indicts a 21-point blowout, this was actually a close game for most of the contest as it went into halftime tied up at 59 apiece. The Kings were able to use a 72-point second half to blow this game open and create a significant enough lead to put this one away.

De’Aaron Fox led the way with 29 points while Harrison Barnes’ 23 points and Trey Lyles’ 24 points helped out as well. Former Thunder rookie Domantas Sabonis finished with 14 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists.

Overall, the Thunder defense wasn’t really there this game like it is most and the Kings were able to get anything they wanted pretty easily, especially in the second half. Outside of Gilgeous-Alexander, not a ton to be too impressed with outside of the fact that some of the bottom roster guys were able to contribute and that this loss helps out the reverse standings tremendously. Let’s take a look at player grades.

 

OKC Thunder news: The Ringer’s KOC praises Tre Mann in Monday’s column

KOC continues to show the Thunder love as his latest NBA observations column features some Tre Mann hype.

The Ringer’s Kevin O’Connor’s latest NBA observations column featured some Oklahoma City Thunder love as he praised the other rookie guard on the roster that has steadily improved this season in Tre Mann:

“Mann is a bucket-getter who has struggled to score efficiently during his first pro season. In February, though, he’s shown more consistency and some impressive flashes, starting with 29 points on 14 shots against the Mavs on February 2. Over his last four games, he’s averaging 21.8 points. I thought his 22-point performance against the Pacers was the best overall game of his young career.”

“Mann probably won’t a team’s centerpiece, but anytime a player can create off the dribble like he can they belong in the discussion. At 21, Mann is still growing into his body. He grew 2 inches and gained 15 pounds after his freshman season at Florida. The additional size helped him blossom as a sophomore, but excelling against NBA physicality is the next step. His progress has been encouraging, with more consistent production recently.”

Like O’Connor mentioned, Mann is one of the best scorers and shooters on the team already as a 21 year old. Mann has been given a lot of starting nods recently due to injuries to Gilgeous-Alexander and now Giddey and continues to produce impressive numbers when given the chance to have a bigger scoring load. It’s still too early to tell, but if the Thunder got a borderline starter and good scorer with the 18th pick in the draft, then that’s a massive win for the rebuild.

O’Connor also expressed in his piece that he really loves with the Thunder are building with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey being centerpieces along with other intriguing young talent that could pan out surrounding them such as Aleksej Pokusevski. With the amount of young talent, great culture and crazy amount of draft picks, O’Connor believes that the Thunder could be building something special in Oklahoma City.

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OKC Thunder player grades: SGA’s 36 points pushes Thunder to OT win over Pacers, 129-125

Plan A Shae don’t care about your tanking efforts.

The Oklahoma City Thunder leave Gainbridge Fieldhouse with an overtime win and a season series split over the Indiana Pacers, 129-125.

In terms of the bigger picture of lottery odds, this win hurts the cause as the Pacers are just now a half-game back from the Thunder in the reverse standings. With the opportunity to grow some distance between themselves and the field for the fourth-best lottery odds, this win makes things much more interesting in the final stretch of the regular season.

With Josh Giddey a late scratch due to hip soreness, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was able to play on his Plan A as the lead ball-handler and turned in one of his best scoring games of the season as he finished with 36 points on 13-of-24 shooting. Tre Mann also stepped up and added 22 points.

For the Pacers, Buddy Hield led the way with 29 points and had seven players in double-digit scoring.

In terms of the actual 53 minute game, it was a very competitive contest as both teams went back and forth without either really growing that big of a lead. The Thunder’s offense was humming along as it scored 92 points in just the first three quarters. The worst three point shooting team in the league shot the ball well from outside as the Thunder went 11-of-31 (35.5%) and also dished out 23 team assists. The Thunder finished with five players scoring at least 10 points. Let’s take a look at player grades.

OKC Thunder player grades: SGA scores 32 points in return in a 124-104 loss to the Suns

SGA scored 32 points in his return but the Thunder lose by 20 to the Suns.

The Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Phoenix Suns, 124-104, in the team’s first game back from the All-Star Break. While the final deficit appears to look like a blowout game, the score does not justify the Thunder’s efforts to make this a competitive game as the Suns start a several-week stretch without Chris Paul.

This was a five-point with a little over five minutes left in the fourth quarter until the Suns decided to go nuclear and finish the contest on a 21-6 run. The Thunder were able to make it a competitive game despite a lackluster start that saw them trail by 17 points after the first quarter. The returning Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey led the way for the Thunder as the backcourt duo did most of the offensive heavy lifting.

For the Suns, Devin Booker’s 25 points and Cameron Johnson’s and Mikal Bridges’ 21 points led the way for the team to come out with a win in the final home stretch of the regular season as they sit with a comfortable first seed lead.

Overall, this was a good first game back from the break as the young and rebuilding Thunder were able to make last year’s Western Conference champions earn a win.

Rookie Power Rankings: How the rookie class fares at the All-Star break

Rookie Wire takes a look at the top first-year players over the last two weeks of the 2021-22 season.

NBA All-Star Weekend gave the current rookie class a tremendous opportunity to showcase themselves on a national platform and the group largely performed exceptionally.

The basketball world saw 12 rookie players compete in the Rising Stars game on Friday. Detroit Pistons guard Cade Cunningham was named the Most Valuable Player of the festivities after leading Team Barry to the championship.

On Saturday, Houston Rockets guard Jalen Green performed in the Slam Dunk Contest. While it didn’t go the way Green had hoped, the second pick still dazzled with his athleticism and leaping ability in Cleveland. He even vowed to return next year and redeem himself.

With the final stretch of the season upon us, Rookie Wire took a look at some of the best recent performances of these first-year players. The rankings are not for Rookie of the Year purposes but, rather, to illustrate the best players week to week.

OKC Thunder player grades: Josh Giddey records third straight triple-double in 114-106 loss to Spurs

Josh Giddey records another triple double in a loss to the Spurs as the team heads into ASB

On the final game before the All-Star break, the Oklahoma City Thunder lose to the San Antonio Spurs, 114-106. Considering just how many players were missing from this game for the Thunder, it’s an encouraging result that they were able to keep this game competitive for the full four quarters.

The biggest headline from this loss centers around Josh Giddey once again. Who finished the game recording his third consecutive triple-double. Giddey joins Oscar Robertson as the only rookie in NBA history to record three straight triple-doubles. The team is completely different now than when Russell Westbrook was here, but it appears that one thing remains constant as Oklahoma City is the capital of triple-doubles with Giddey collecting four at the unofficial halfway mark of the season.

Outside of that, Tre Mann, Theo Maledon and Isaiah Roby all had fine games as all three scored at least 17 points. For the Spurs, it was a very evenly distributed scoring effort as six players scored at least 15 points in Keldon Johnson, Jakob Poeltl, Dejounte Murray, Lonnie Walker IV and Devin Vassell.

Overall, this was good performance for the Thunder as they head into All-Star break. Let’s take a look at player grades.

Thunder: Josh Giddey makes history with back-to-back triple-doubles

Giddey finished with 28 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds and one steal during an overtime win over the Knicks on Monday.

Josh Giddey on Monday registered his second straight triple-double to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to an overtime win over the New York Knicks on the road.

Giddey finished with a career-high 28 points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds and one steal during the 127-123 win to become just the seventh rookie ever to record back-to-back triple-doubles. He is the fourth player to have a triple-double in their Madison Square Garden debut.

The win by the Thunder snapped a five-game losing streak. Thunder guard Tre Mann produced a career-high 30 points in the win and joined Giddey as the only pair of rookie teammates in the past decade to each score at least 28 points.

Giddey was most happy about picking up the win in the Big Apple.

This was the place I was most excited about when I got drafted. You hear so many stories about the Garden and it was circled on my calendar for a long time. To be here undermanned on the road with a young team, and to win like we did in overtime, it’s a big win. We needed it to get kinda get ourselves back on track. We kinda fell into a bit of a losing streak so this was a good one to snap out of it.

Giddey last month became the youngest player ever to record a triple-double, surpassing LaMelo Ball, who accomplished the feat last season. He had his second triple-double on Saturday with 11 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists in a loss to the Chicago Bulls.

“He, obviously, can get that done because he has done it before,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “The style he is playing with is contagious. I think he has a domino effect on the team with how he plays when he is in that mindset. I thought he was in last game against Chicago and I thought he was in it tonight.”

The sixth pick has stuffed the stat sheet all season long for the Thunder.

He has already surpassed Russell Westbrook for the most double-doubles by a Thunder rookie. He also recently joined LeBron James, Doncic and LaMelo Ball as the only teenagers with 500 points, 200 rebounds and 200 assists over the first 45 games of their career.

Giddey has often put the team’s success ahead of his own personal accomplishments but it is clear that Giddey is having a productive rookie campaign. He is putting up some rare numbers and has his name up there with some elite company, as a result.

This post originally appeared on Rookie Wire! Follow us on Facebook!

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OKC Thunder player grades: Giddey, Mann shine in MSG win over the Knicks, 127-123

The rookie guards had their best games of the season with the lights shining the brightest at MSG

Wow! What a great game for the Oklahoma City Thunder. You know, the entire point of this season is to lose as many games as possible to have as high of lottery odds they can possibly get. But when the Thunder win games like this — off the backs of their young players — it’s really hard to complain about the win and how it makes the team’s lottery odds a little bit worse.

The Thunder were able to enter the Mecca of Basketball and leave with a win over the New York Knicks, 127-123, in overtime as they shatter the hearts of the home crowd. The trio of Josh Giddey, Tre Mann and Darius Bazley combined for 81 of the Thunder’s 127 points. The rookie guards were phenomenal this game as Giddey and Mann each had their best games of the season by far with Giddey getting a 28-point triple-double and Mann scoring his first 30 piece of his career.

In terms of the Knicks, Julius Randle also finished with a 30 point, 13 rebound and 10 assist triple double and Evan Fournier added 29 points.

This was a very fun win for the Thunder as its top two rookies had their best games of the season while another one of its young pieces also had a great game as he turns the other corner of his season. Let’s take a look at player grades.

Rookie Power Rankings: Franz Wagner returns to No. 1, ahead of Evan Mobley

Rookie Wire takes a look at the top first-year players over the last two weeks of the 2021-22 season.

The NBA is nearing the All-Star break next week as the season has offered a great look at the current crop of first-year players to this point of the schedule.

The rookie class will be well-represented at All-Star Weekend with 12 players set to compete in the NBA Rising Stars game. Additionally, Cade Cunningham, Scottie Barnes and Josh Giddey will play in the Skills Challenge while Jalen Green will be in the Slam Dunk Contest.

The group has turned in some tremendous performances as of late, while others have taken a leap after earning some recent playing time.

To make sense of it all, we took a look at the best recent performances of these first-year players and ranked them in the latest edition of the Rookie Wire Power Rankings. The rankings are not for Rookie of the Year purposes but, rather, to illustrate the best players week to week.

OKC Thunder player grades: Giddey, Dort lead Thunder to competitive loss against the Warriors, 110-98

Steph & Klay going nuclear and hitting timely threes against OKC, just like the good ole days

The Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Golden State Warriors, 110-98. But make no mistake about it — the final score does not do the Thunder’s effort justice in terms of how close and competitive they kept it for the first 46 minutes of the game.

With 2:36 left to go, a Josh Giddey layup capped off a personal six-point run for the rookie guard that cut the Warriors lead to just five points. Then the Warriors duo of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson went nuclear from three and went on a 9-2 run to finish the game. Just like old times.

But even with the loss, the Thunder deserve a ton of credit for making this game interesting for the full four quarters. The Warriors are a title contender and the Thunder are a rebuilding team missing four of its top six rotation players — which includes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. So the fact that they were able to make the Warriors sweat this one out goes to show just how resilient this team is. Let’s take a look at player grades.