Oklahoma City turned in three ultra-entertaining video games final week leading to three straight wins.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is having a superb begin to the 2022-23 season and the supporting forged is filling in properly. As a crew, the Thunder actually wrestle to shoot from lengthy distance, however they make up for it in effort on the defensive finish. Oklahoma City appears like a legitimately good defensive crew.
Once Chet Holmgren is added into the equation subsequent season, the Thunder’s potential on the defensive finish has no limits. The roster is well-constructed with rangy size at each place. But within the meantime, Oklahoma City nonetheless has questions to work out within the entrance courtroom.
Saturday evening in opposition to Dallas, Oklahoma City was considerably out-rebounded till the ultimate couple of minutes when the Thunder made its miraculous comeback run. Darius Bazley was a part of that run, and he’s quietly placing collectively a couple of video games of constant effectivity. Even although he makes a couple of irritating errors, he appears to be Oklahoma City’s greatest rebounder and shot blocker. He provides the Thunder measurement and power down low, and appears to be adjusting to his position.
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In the previous, the principle wrestle for the younger ahead was taking good care of the ball and eliminating erratic drives to the basket. Next to creators like Gilgeous-Alexander and Tre Mann, although, Bazley is beginning to thrive as a play finisher. There are nonetheless a couple of head scratchers right here and there, nevertheless it’s fairly clear Bazley is begging to perceive what he brings to the desk.
In addition to his play ending, he’s proven critical promise on the defensive finish. Not solely does he go head to head with the NBA’s greatest facilities, however Bazley has proven added confidence stepping out and guarding on the perimeter too. In Dallas, he had a number of spectacular sequences on protection in opposition to probably the greatest isolation scorers within the NBA, Luka Doncic.
His benching might have been for a lot of totally different causes. For the time being, although, Bazley has executed sufficient to earn heavy taking part in time transferring ahead. He’s clearly certainly one of Oklahoma City’s greatest massive man choices and will present stable minutes in an energized position.
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