Thunder 147-106 Wizards, two wins in 24 hours after All-Star.
Generally, the verification of whether a strong team has reached the standard of a high-quality strong team is whether it can still be physically fit the next day after a strong match.
After the Thunder slaughtered the Clippers by 22 points yesterday, they faced the same young Wizards, winning by 41 points, scoring 63 points in two games, and the Thunder, who appeared in full force after the trade deadline, won by 63 points in two games.
Before this season, if you want to say a word about the Thunder vs Wizards, I would say that this may be a battle for talented guards between Lubpool and Alexander, but fantasy can only be fantasy, and now Poole has become a substitute, and the only advantage of the Wizards playing back-to-back is youth, but the key is that the Thunder are younger than you. (Thunder ranked 2nd in league average age).
The Wizards actually performed well in the first half, don't look like they lost by 23 points, but most of the time, the two sides were in a standoff.
In the first half of the second quarter, the team still bit 48-54 and only trailed by six points, but then the Thunder suddenly blew a whirlwind and stretched the score to 57-80.
Super accurate offense (over 60% three-point in the first half) + super suffocating defense, the game spent.
The best of the half was undoubtedly Holmger's best defense, scoring 19 points, 8 rebounds and 2 blocks on 8-of-11 shooting.
He scored 25 points on 11-of-14 shooting from the field. The young man is still physically good and can still make this kind of quality defense in back-to-back situations.
You can't say the Wizards don't work hard, but with balls like these, even though the defenders have done their best to defend, Jalen Williams can still score the ball.
And this kind of goal, he can score an average of 2 goals per game.
This season's NBA guard shooting percentage list (including small forwards under 2 meters), Jalen is 544% came in second place. And in first place is his teammate, Alexander 547%。
How can a civilian team be able to include the NBA's top two shooting percentage and quasi-guards on the same team at the same time? Deliberately huddling together won't achieve this effect, right?
Alexander had 30 points, 7 rebounds and 9 assists today, and he didn't play garbage time in the fourth quarter and didn't average points per game.
To be honest, compared to yesterday's summit battle with his old club Clippers, SHAI's performance today has been significantly "sluggish".
But the slump wasn't because he was sluggish, it was because he felt that his opponent was too bad to be excited, but he still scored 20 points on 8-of-10 shooting in the half, and he shot below the 50 percent average in the third quarter, probably due to back-to-back physical strength.
How good he is this season, you know? Below 50% is bad by his standards, and when he makes free throws, fans chant MVP.
In fact, before the halfway point of the season, the whole world knew that Alexander was the strongest scoring guard in the current roster, and he was also a strong contender for MVP, but because of his low profile and non-response, he was rarely named MVP directly, and the MVP list has only fluctuated 4-6 in the last few times.
Previously, Alexander refused to discuss the topic of the MVP controversy in the post-game interview, and it was Jalen who coaxed him in the back and said that he was the MVP.
Of course, the reason why Alexander's MVP competition is a little thin is also because the Thunder's collective performance this season is too bright, and we never seem to have seen this kind of youth storm.
Although their single-core capability is not as strong as the Thunder in 2012, they are all soldiers.
They don't like to shoot threes (17th in the league), but they're the most accurate three-point team in the league (39%).
We always thought Chet Holmgren would be his offense and expected him to be Durant, but he was modified into a defensive core in his first year as a rookie and played well.
The Thunder had so many surprises that they almost forgot that they got Hayward with little to no chips after the trade deadline.
Maybe Hayward doesn't have what it takes to be the Thunder's starter, but if he comes off the bench, he will be the league's most expensive backup.
And today he faced the Wizards and got the first score of his Thunder career, and finally cut 8 points and 6 boards. (Pictured below, Hayward Thunder's first career point).
In fact, at the trade deadline, the Jazz tabloid broke the news that the Thunder considered smashing draft picks at the same time to get the most luxurious active bench in the Markkanen + Clarkson group, from a trade perspective and chips, they still have 15 first-round picks and 22 second-round picks in the next six years, they still have plenty of salary space, and they are fully capable of closing the deal.
However, considering the future personnel development and ball distribution, in the end, they only took Hayward and Biyombo, two veterans who are not in the long-term plan.
There are too many personnel and there are troubles, the team just laid off Pokushewski, who is known as the former potential stock, today The talent of this big brother used to be comparable to Jokic, even if it is now placed in some other teams still consider training, and there is no place in the Thunder.
Yesterday, after winning the Clippers game, Jalen Williams yelled at the crowd, "All stand and watch our balls, we stand up." ”
Yes, the Thunder completed the reconstruction with the most dignified method and stood up.