In a must-lose game, the Oklahoma City Thunder fall to the Detroit Pistons, 110-101. And just like that, the Thunder are now just half a game back from top-three lottery odds with five games remaining in the regular season.
Losing this game basically gave the Thunder life once again after its top-three lottery odds chances were put on life support following the team’s win over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday. But due to the Pistons’ upset win over the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday, new life was breathed into the Thunder.
The importance of this game was clearly understood by both sides as the Thunder ruled out Aleksej Pokusevski and Tre Mann while the Pistons played Cade Cunningham, Isaiah Stewart and Saddiq Bey for just six to eight minutes each.
Ultimately, the Thunder were finally able to out-tank a team in the caliber of the Pistons and it paid dividends. Any hope on staying in the race for top-three lottery odds required this game to be a loss and the franchise was able to do that by only having seven players active by the end of the game.
