Grant ‘really saved us’ in slow start against Cavs, Donovan says
Against the last-place Cavaliers on Wednesday, the Thunder dug itself into an 11-point hole in the first half due to missed shots at the rim.
Some were via quality defense from Cleveland, but much was just poor finishing. At one point in the second quarter, the Thunder was just 6-of-15 from within five feet of the rim.
Jerami Grant was at the center of curing the Thunder’s interior miscues in a 100-83 win.
Grant finished with 21 points, many coming on patient crawls and cuts along Cleveland’s baseline behind a defense the Thunder was eager to exploit.
“We have so many players on offense that require so much attention,” Grant said. “My guys were typically looking at them, so I just cut and read the defense.”
Grant finished 8-of-12 from the field, all but one of those made shots coming from outside of five feet. Just as big, according to Thunder coach Billy Donovan, was Grant’s defense. Grant had four of the Thunder’s season-high 11 blocks.
“I thought his defense in the first quarter really saved us,” Donovan said.
Burton’s best
Donovan was secretive with his starting lineup yet again.
“Why? Because I can,” Donovan said about withholding his starters. “There’s a time and place to do that.” Donovan went with Alex
Abrines as the starting shooting guard — the Thunder’s fourth different starter at shooting guard in four games — but two-way player Deonte Burton was the impact player at the position Wednesday night.
While Abrines was off on several open 3-point attempts, Burton scored eight points and played solid defense to close the second quarter and start the fourth. Donovan rode with Burton to finish the final six minutes of the second quarter.
“Deonte gave us a little bit of juice, a little bit of life in that first half,” Donovan said.
George’s fouls
Just 15 seconds into the third quarter, George threw his hands up again. It was his fourth foul, three coming on offense. He’d finish with five fouls in 25 minutes.
“I thought a couple of the fouls, to be quite honest, didn’t need to be called,” Donovan said. “It was a hard-rhythm game for him, a choppy game for him.”
George’s offensive game can suffer on tough foul nights, but the All-Star was efficient in his limited court time with 18 points to go with his typically strong defense.
George can at least joke about his foul-plagued night after a Thunder win.
“I was fine once I was out there,” George said. “I was comfortable on the bench. I was comfortable on the court.”
Tip-ins
The Thunder owns the best third-quarter points differential in the NBA at plus-84. It kept the Cavs to 7-of-27 from the field for 15 points in the third. … Every active Thunder player played, including Abdel Nader, who played his most minutes of the season (seven).