Thunder bench struggles in first half
Alex Abrines drove, and Jordan Bell awaited. Abrines, the Thunder’s 6-foot-6 sharpshooter and Bell, a springy Warriors reserve at 6-9, appeared to be on a collision course, and the result was, it’s fair to say, unexpected.
Abrines rose up and dunked with both hands as Bell watched.
It was a spectacular moment for Abrines in the Thunder’s 111-107 loss to the Warriors on Tuesday at Chesapeake Energy Arena. But those were few and far between for the Oklahoma City bench.
Abrines scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting, and that was more than the rest of the OKC reserves combined. Jerami Grant added five points on 1-of-2 shooting. Raymond Felton,
Patrick Patterson and Josh Huestis combined for one point and missed all eight of their shots.
“It was one of those things where we didn’t score enough coming off the bench,” Thunder coach
Billy Donovan said. “There’s gonna be nights where we don’t maybe shoot the ball particularly well, but we’ve got to defend. I thought the second-unit defense, we probably could have been a little bit better there.”
That’s relatively harsh public criticism by Donovan standards, but it’s a bit of an understatement.
The Warriors’ bench, though depleted by injury, dominated the Thunder’s.
Golden State’s reserves scored 38 points and shot 18 for 26 from the floor. Four Warriors — Nick Young, JaVale McGee, David West and Damian Jones — scored eight points each off the bench. Bell added six.
And maybe that should come as no great surprise.
The Warriors entered Tuesday’s game averaging 33.1 points off the bench to the Thunder’s 26.3. Only the Minnesota Timberwolves average fewer points from reserves than Oklahoma City, and just barely at 26.2.
But the Golden State bench was depleted.
The Warriors were playing without starting
guard Stephen Curry, who’s sitting with a sprained MCL in his left knee, moving Quinn Cook into the starting lineup.
They also played without reserve perimeter players Omri Casspi, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston
and Patrick McCaw, plus center Kevon Looney.
So Golden State got help from deep down its bench.
Jones had scored 10 points in 22 games this season, making 4 of 6 shots. He matched those four field goals in a season-high 14 minutes against the Thunder, making all four of his attempts. The Warriors outscored OKC by nine points with him on the floor.
Three different Warriors reserves — McGee, West and Jones — matched the OKC bench’s total of four made field goals.
Beyond Abrines, the Thunder reserves couldn’t get started.
“I thought Raymond did a really good job trying to orchestrate things (offensively),” Donovan said. “We had our chances and our opportunities. We just didn’t shoot the ball particularly well with our bench guys.”
Mo’s moment
During a first-quarter timeout, the Thunder recognized assistant coach Maurice Cheeks, who over the weekend was elected to the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. The crowd gave Cheeks a standing ovation, and OKC fans weren’t the only ones applauding.
From in front of the Warriors bench, Iguodala clapped and smiled. Iguodala played three-plus seasons in Philadelphia when Cheeks was the 76ers’ head coach.
Kevin Durant, who played for the Thunder while Cheeks was an assistant coach, applauded near the scorer’s table.