PHOTO/Randy Renner
Here's the thing about preseason games. You can't always trust what you see, especially on the scoreboard.
But here's another thing about preseason games...it's always better to win 'em than lose 'em and the Thunder did what they needed to do and more in a 119-104 win over the Dallas Mavericks Tuesday night in Tulsa.
The Mavs left their two best players on the bench last night (so don't get too carried away by the win) neither Kristap Porzingus nor Luka Doncic played. The Thunder kept Andre Roberson on the bench too but he could hit the court Thursday night at home against the New Zealand Breakers.
As head coach Billy Donovan has talked about in practice the Thunder opened the game with three point guards in the starting lineup Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. That trio combined for 43 points on 14-for-22 shooting (63.6%) and 7-for-12 on threes (58.3%). As a team the Thunder hit 53.2% of all their shots and 50% of their threes plus they dished out 24 assists.
Head coach Billy Donovan liked what he saw from the three point guards.
“All of those guys are really important in the drivers of our offense, because they’re all smart, they got a really good feel of how to play, they’re unselfish, and they’ve got to be the catalyst of moving the basketball. I think putting them out there, my feeling was to get them comfortable with each other and playing with a good pace, tempo and speed, and I thought we came out to start the game playing like that. I thought they did a good job moving and sharing the basketball and generating some pretty good looks."
The Thunder started the game by getting Steven Adams an open look from the corner and he dropped the 3-ball in to get OKC off to a 3-0 start and the Thunder led most of the way. Adams finished with 17 points.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 24 points, including four 3s. Rookie Darius Bazley was impressive again with nine points, six rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes.
You can hear more about last night's game in today's Thunder Game Report...