The <a href="https://www.archysport.com/2022/01/kawhi-george-and-the-crossroads-of-the-clippers/" title="Kawhi, George and the Crossroads of the Clippers“>Oklahoma City Thunder are to the West what the Cleveland Cavaliers are to the East. Two impeccable records. Both undefeated. And the only reason the Cavs have one more win is because they have one more game. Or not, we will check it tonight, in their back-to-back against the Clippers to see if they are able to also make it 6-0.
But some reflections can be drawn from what we saw last night. The first thing is that it is not worth limiting yourself to a “it was the Blazers“because although the Oregon franchise is actually called this year for the lottery pick and has a team in formation, with very irregular stretches on the field, in these first weeks of the course it is going out to compete, and has already scored a couple of wins against NOLA and Clippers.
A tremendous wall
Let’s go, yes, with the reflections. The first is that what a great experience it is to have Shai-Gilgeous Alexander on your team, a strong candidate to win the MVP this season, and yet what your team stands out for most is not for having a good attack, which also, but for be the best defense in the NBAat least for the moment.
Last year they took important steps forward in this section, with Mark Daigneault demonstrating his skills as a staff leader, managing to involve all his players in the marking work, starting with the SGA itself. But this year is another level: 98.6 points per game they have allowed so far. Assuming this number will rise (obviously), the narrative on both sides of the rectangle that the Thunder aspire to build this year could be scary.
¿DPOY?
But it is no less true that this incredible improvement is closely linked, perhaps excessively so, to the presence of a single player, who yesterday was left in 18 minutes due to foul problems and, causality or correlation, the Blazers scored 114 points against them. , the top so far. But that did not make Chet Holmgren, their huge anchor man, go unnoticed, quite the opposite: he only needed 18 minutes to nail a total of five blocks.
Rudy Gobert is going to have a very difficult time this year to reissue the DPOY, and Wemby to be his only major rival to take it away from him.
Shai dominant and Henderson substitute
Returning to the offensive, SGA was the most outstanding man on the floor with 30 points and 6 assists, well supported by Jalen Williams with 22 points. Although there was a piece of cake for everyone, since the Thunder showed off a rotation of 12 players, where eleven played a minimum of twelve minutes and demonstrating that there are alternatives to rest throughout the RS.
For the Blazers, who strangely continue to opt for Scott Henderson from the second unit, none of their players stood out in particular, with Jerami Grant, with 17 points, being their highest scorer.
After a sensational second quarter (44-31), and as we said before, in their tendency to give one piece of lime for every two pieces of sand, the Blazers were moving away from the victory based on turnovers (a total of 19) and the lack of rebound control, two cracks that the Thunder took advantage of to score extra baskets and open space on the scoreboard until the final 137-114.
Cover photo by Soobum Im/Getty Images)
