The Oklahoma City Thunder finished the Salt Lake City Summer League series against the Philadelphia 76ers. The game went down the wire as both teams fought hard but the Sixers pulled off the win 80-79. It was a surprising move by the Thunder who decided to play Aleksej Pokusevski and Josh Giddey after the two played the last two nights.
Chet Holmgren did not play in this game but Giddey and Pokusevski made up for it in a big way. Giddey ran the show as the point guard and had many opportunities to show off his excellent vision and touch with the basketball.
He finished with 10 points and dropped 7 assists. A big question coming into Summer League though was whether he could improve as a scorer. Giddey struggled shooting as he shot 3-for-11 from the field and 0-for-2 from three. He did fill up the stat sheet though getting 5 rebounds 2 steals and a block. Overall he played well and the Thunder looked very composed when he was in the game.
The big question mark coming into this game was whether Pokusevski could get it going after being so quiet his first two games. He seemed very stagnant at times but found his rhythm in this game scoring a team-high 14 points and added 5 rebounds as well. Pokusevski also impacted the game in a lot of different ways gathering 2 blocks and hitting 2 threes. The all-around versatility and ability to shoot for this Thunder team is going to be scary.
The game went down to the wire with both teams overtaking each other in the final few minutes. The execution from the Thunder wasn’t quite enough and the Sixers pulled off the win. The Thunder start the Las Vegas Summer League July ninth against the Houston Rockets.
