The Oklahoma City Thunder’s quest for a perfect summer league record sadly came to an end on Wednesday.
After an impressive win against the Utah Jazz, the Thunder fell to the Memphis Grizzlies, 94-86, in their second summer league game in Salt Lake City.
The Grizzlies won this game from outside, as they shot 17-of-38 from 3 (44.7%) — the 17 made 3s are an SLC summer league record. The Grizzlies were in cruise control for most of the game, as they opened up a 39-31 lead following the first quarter. The Grizzlies led by as many as 16 points and were never seriously threatened by OKC for the entirety of the game.
“They started off pretty good and I thought like we were a little bit sluggish,” Thunder summer league coach David Akinyooye said.
The Grizzlies enjoyed a team-friendly performance that saw six of the 10 players that checked in score at least 10 points. Jake LaRavia led the way with 25 points on 9-of-18 shooting and also went 4-of-9 from 3. Vince Williams Jr. also contributed with 18 points on 5-of-10 shooting and nine rebounds. Kenneth Lofton Jr. had 12 points and four rebounds.
Ball security was a big problem for the Thunder this game, as they were without Jalen Williams due to a left glut contusion. The Thunder committed 18 turnovers, which was dead even with their 18 assists. Chet Holmgren and Tre Mann combined for 11 turnovers. Grizzlies’ Jacob Gylard collected a savvy seven steals.
The turnover disparity led to the Grizzlies outshooting the Thunder by 13 attempts. But considering OKC shot a poor 10-of-34 (29.4%) from 3, who knows how big of a difference extra shots would’ve made for a team that struggled to get their offense going sans Mann.
As mentioned before, the results of summer league games are irrelevant. What matters is how highly-touted players perform against inferior competition. Despite the loss, Mann and Holmgren were excellent for OKC. Both are positive signs that make it easy to forget about the result.
Holmgren continues to show his defensive impact will be immediate, as his rim protection helped him collect three blocks. Considering how the Thunder played all of last season without a traditional big, Holmgren’s summer league has provided a nice preview as to what fans can expect from him with his elite defensive talents.
The Thunder will get a chance to quickly move on from this mundane loss as they play their final Utah summer league game against the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday. After that, they’ll be on their way to Las Vegas to play their remaining five-plus games.
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.
Tre Mann: A+
The lone offensive bright spot, Tre Mann continues to be OKC’s most impressive player in summer league so far.
Mann finished with a game-high 28 points on 10-of-14 shooting and four rebounds in 31 minutes. This is off the heels of his 20-point night against the Jazz.
The ball security was a bit sloppy with five turnovers, but the good news is that Mann didn’t let them discourage him from continuing to play his style. Mann’s a self-admitted rhythm player and with two notable ball-handlers in Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace out, he was afforded more room for error tonight.
“I was just trying to attack,” Mann said on his mindset. “That’s what my mindset was for the camp for summer league was just trying to play faster, play with pace and then attack. But with that comes turnovers, and I had five turnovers tonight.”
Hopefully, Mann continues to impress in the remainder of summer league as he builds positive momentum.
“When he’s out there playing confident, I don’t think there’s a lot of guys that can stop him,” Jaylin Williams said about Mann.
Tre creates space and an opportunity to nail this 3 pic.twitter.com/GGzYw8J1Cj
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 5, 2023
Chet Holmgren: B-
It was an overall quiet scoring night for Chet Holmgren. After looking for his shot right out of the gates on Monday, the 2022 No. 2 pick played much more within the flow of the offense.
In 31 minutes, Holmgren finished with 10 points on 3-of-8 shooting, 11 rebounds and three blocks. Like Mann, turnovers were a bit of an issue for the seven-footer with six committed — an alarming rate for a center, but considering summer league is the breeding grounds of experimentation along with the fact that the 10-foul rule lets players be more aggressive than they usually would, I wouldn’t be too concerned about it.
Still though, many of his turnovers came in transition due to his light handle. Once the games start to matter, Holmgren will need to tighten his handle if he will have frequent ball-handling responsibilities — especially if he’ll bring the ball up the court.
On the defensive side, Holmgren continues to prove his worth with another multi-block game. In two games, he’s collected seven blocks. He collected most of his blocks tonight due to opposing players trying to posterize him. So far, it hasn’t been successful.
In two summer league games, Holmgren has played a high usage of minutes — in fact, he’s played in 60 of a possible 80 minutes. While the in-game reps are certainly valuable, I expect those numbers to slowly decline over however many more summer league games he will appear in.
The effort to stick with this play pic.twitter.com/8JqILhCg5R
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 6, 2023
Ousmane Dieng: B
It started to feel like deja vu for Ousmane Dieng in the first half. After struggling against the Jazz, Dieng couldn’t get any positive momentum going once again.
Dieng was limited to seven points on 2-of-5 shooting that included some ugly misses and a poor turnover in the first half. Following the quick intermission though, he turned his night around.
In 32 minutes, Dieng finished with 13 points on 5-of-10 shooting, six rebounds, two assists and two blocks. The finishing inside of the paint was much better tonight, as he shot 4-of-6 in that area — including a perfect 4-of-4 within the restricted area.
“Once we got through the first quarter, I thought he did a great job of playing hard,” Akinyooye said. “… With Ous, it’s just a matter of playing hard on both ends of the floor.”
Overall, this was a much better performance. The 20-year-old was able to salvage the night after another slow start that looked eerily similar to Monday.
Fluid movement through the paint for the finish pic.twitter.com/zgUHrmEYCp
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 6, 2023
Jay Will denial at the rim ➡️ Ous throws it down pic.twitter.com/4ySvq2DCJ7
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 6, 2023
Jay Will ↔️ Ous
The timing on this high-low action pic.twitter.com/SE7LP6I0Dy
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 5, 2023
Jared Butler: B
With Williams out, Jared Butler was given the starting nod for the Thunder. The third-year guard is fighting to reclaim his two-way spot.
In his first summer league start, Butler showed out. In 28 minutes, he finished with 16 points on 5-of-11 shooting, which included going 3-of-7 from 3, six assists and four rebounds.
As summer league progresses, Butler’s playing time will likely increase as more and more proven Thunder players tap out for the two-week event. This could be vital for him when it comes to determining if he starts training camp as a training camp invite or on a two-way slot.
Defensive stops fueling the offensive charge ⚡ pic.twitter.com/tNecYvRhfZ
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 5, 2023
Extra pass to Butler in the corner pic.twitter.com/NF3MUZ3c48
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) July 5, 2023
