With their 111-96 win over the Houston Rockets Saturday night, the OKC Thunder were able to secure a spot in the Emirates NBA Cup Championship against the Milwaukee Bucks.
Despite what their near-20-point win may suggest, this Semifinal bout was far from a lopsided affair, as Oklahoma City actually found themselves trailing at the end of the first half.
Fortunately, they would kick things into second, third, and even fourth gear as the game continued on, even dropping 70 points on 75.0 percent shooting from distance in the second half.
While the championship round-clinching win ultimately took an entire team effort, throughout their 48 minutes of play there were many individual performances that managed to stand out as difference-makers.
Studs and duds from NBA Cup Final-clinching win for Thunder
Stud: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a constant name on these studs and duds pieces, and rightfully so! The superstar guard was one of two players who were the reason OKC advanced to the Championship game Saturday evening.
In the tight defensive battle, Gilgeous-Alexander would have a career night, dropping 32 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists, and an impressive 5 steals in the win.
In short, he was doing everything for the Thunder on offense, while showing up for several key stops on the less glamorous side of the ball throughout the matchup.
Without him leading this young team, Oklahoma City would not be at the point they are now.
Dud: Aaron Wiggins
The lack of Aaron Wiggins during these past few games has been quite concerning, especially after signing such a lucrative contract extension this past summer.
During his 10 minutes of play, the only metric the wing managed to register was his 2 personal fouls committed.
He is still averaging 9.2 points in 20.4 minutes per game, it is just concerning to see such a key player last season do so little during these tournament outings.
Hopefully this lack of production will change against the Bucks when they face off Tuesday night
Stud: Isaiah Hartenstein
As predicted, Isaiah Hartenstein has proven himself to be a major reason for why the Thunder find themselves heading to the NBA Cup Finals.
In Saturday’s game, the veteran center would come away with a season-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting while notching 8 rebounds and a block in his 33 minutes of play.
His impact was on full display and was the reason OKC has been playing so well with Chet Holmgren sidelined.
Dud: Isaiah Joe
Even though Isaiah Joe did hit some clutch free throws in the game, his production was very lackluster throughout the entire night.
Defensively he looked somewhat reliable, but, in truth, he is not looked toward as being a defensive specialist for the Thunder and needs to focus his attention on making more three-pointers as the sharpshooting commodity off the bench.
This game could have been declared over sooner had Joe shot the ball more frequently. He will need to fix this if the Thunder want to win the NBA Cup Championship Tuesday night.
This post was originally published on this site be sure to check out more of their content.
