PHOTO/Getty Images-Glenn James
Chris Paul and Steven Adams were given the night off against the Dallas Mavericks and the rest of the team seemed not quite to know what to do without them in a 107-70 blowout loss.
The Thunder had looked pretty good in their first two preseason games but game one was against a Mavs team playing without its two biggest stars, Kristaps Porzingis and Luka Doncic, and game two was against an out manned squad from New Zealand. Monday night the Mavs played at full strength and easily pushed past OKC.
Danilo Gallinari and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 16 points each but as a team OKC shot about as bad as any team could from darn near anywhere on the floor hitting just 32.6% of their shots overall, 14.7% of their threes and 56.2% of their free throws.
The good news is it's just the preseason and the Thunder got another chance to give young guys some extra playing time. Center Justin Patton is making Nerlens Noel work very hard to keep his backup center position and was outstanding on defense with seven steals and three blocks. Noel, filling in as a starter for Adams, had eight points, four blocks and four rebounds.
The Thunder will finish their preseason schedule at home Wednesday night against the Memphis Grizzlies and head coach Billy Donovan has said he plans to treat that game as a kind of dress rehearsal for the regular season. He'll play the regular rotation guys more normal minutes and will use what would be more normal substitutions.
More about last night's game in today's Thunder Game Report.....