The Thunder played the home court team today in the Orlando Magic. The Magic have been sorely disappointing in this Summer League, but they have some notable talent on their team. A quick recap on how the game went down is below.
The first quarter of this game, as with the last game, was terribly ugly to watch. But it picked up as the quarter went on, and some good things were seen from Ryan Reid, who drew a couple fouls and hit a jumper, and Kyle Weaver, who weaved through three guys to get to the bucket. A particularly hilarious moment came from the Magic's Yaroslav Korolev, who got a block, rebounded the block, had a really amateurish looking coast to coast drive, and got rejected by the rim when attempting to lay it in. The Magic played a pretty terrible game, making some ill-advised drives and shooting some heavily contested shots.
The second quarter had the ante upped a bit, but it was mostly more of the same until the end, when the Thunder hit a couple shots in succession to widen the gap to around 10 again. Ryan Reid looked absolutely horrible as he missed at least three jumpers, while at one point getting it stolen from him in the post. Taylor of the Magic was looking pretty good, as he ran the offense really well and made a few shots of his own. Kyle Weaver fell a bit cold.
Below: Who hit the game winning shot? What have we learned about certain players from this game?
The story of the third quarter for the Thunder had to be Robert Vaden. He started off extremely cold, missing shots left and right. Then, he randomly heated up, and hit 2 or 3 in a row. And such is Robert Vaden, an extremely streaky shooter. Davis and Korolev were on the floor at the same time for the Magic, and they were an alright big man tandem. But Davis contributed a lot more offensively, while Korolev just looked awkward when trying to throw up a shot.
The fourth quarter was much more watchable than the rest of the game. The teams were setting up more reasonable plays, and the total scrubs from each team avoided the floor. Ryan Davis had a really good game for the Magic, as he grabbed several key rebounds. The guards for the Magic (Crawford and Taylor) each hit their share of key shots as the Thunder's offense stagnated, and Kyle Weaver couldn't buy a bucket. By far the best moment had to be when Mustafa Shakur hit a game winning three with only 5 or 6 seconds to go.
A lot of people might be wondering how well Daniel Orton did in this game. He was alright defensively, but he seemed to try too hard, resulting in unnecessary fouls. On offense, he really didn't show anything impressive. All in all, the Magic's main showcase of players (Orton, Robinson, and Ewing Jr.) all put in horrible games, while surprise players like Taylor and Davis put in great games.
There's some things to take from this game. Robert Vaden finally showed he could shoot. Kyle Weaver showed why his offense is sufficient on a D-League level, but horrible on an NBA level. B.J. Mullens learned how to rebound. Ryan Reid could be useful, if he doesn't shoot too many times from mid-range. And Mustafa Shakur was clearly the best looking prospect on the team.
Awards:
Thunder Wonder: Mustafa Shakur, for hitting the game-winning three.
Thunder Down Under: B.J. Mullens, for learning to rebound.
Thunder Blunder: Marcus Lewis, for not even firing a shot.
Thunder Plunderer: Paul Davis, for his key fourth quarter rebounds.
Next Game: At the Indiana Pacers, Friday, July 9th, 2010, 7AM Central Standard Time.
If you're up in time for this game, you're truly a hardcore Thunder fan. I'll be watching it on my DVR.
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