Season Opener: Thunder in Utah

The Golden Boy

Shai has many traits similar to Westbrook. He exploded to the rim for many of his buckets, and he also has a decent mid range game. Shai was doing everything, he got buckets at the rim and even dropped a few bombs from deep.

Who knows, maybe if Shai keeps thriving like this he could legitimately be the next Westbrook.

Overlooked Treasure

Danilo Gallinari is the often-overlooked piece for the Thunder in the Paul George trade. The media hardly pays any attention to Gallinari, but that should change now.

Gallinari came out and scored and 21 points while grabbing 7 rebounds. He too dropped a few bombs from behind the arc and caused havoc in the paint while the significantly shorter Royce O’Neal tried to hang on to him.

Flying Wings

OKC’s pair of wings, Terrance Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo displayed their astonishing athleticism yesterday with plenty of high speed transition up and down the court.

With the eyes all on Shai Gildeous Alexander and Chris Paul, Diallo managed to get himself in the spotlight with some stupendous plays. Diallo was there throughout the game attempting to jump out of the arena to get a few rebounds while also making some insane drives to the rim. He managed to make multiple contested layups while bursting down the court to get back in defense when a turnover occurs.

Washed up? More like wake up

There are many speculations surrounding Chris Paul’s ability to play competitive basketball at a high level. But this game showed that Chris Paul is still able to play at a high level even at 34 years old.

Chris Paul led the Thunders offense in the first half when the others looked for their rhythm. He made multiple threes to start the game and even sent someone on a merry go round before knocking down the shot.

While Chris Paul might be severely overpaid, his veteran experience and mentorship to Shai is worth every penny. He showed this when he took a backseat on offense during the second half as Shai found his rhythm.

Takeaway

Even though OKC lost 95-100, this game showed that this team is capable of competing with contenders and even be in contention for an 8th seed in the stacked Western Conference.

This game also gave Thunder fans a vague forecast of how amazing the future would be in the near future and just imagine what would happen when OKC cashes in the first round picks.