The Oklahoma City Thunder stepped onto the court Tuesday night with big sneakers to fill. Star forward Kevin Durant is expected to be out 6-8 weeks with a foot fracture, which undoubtedly worried Thunder fans.
However, this Thunder team hung tough and put on a very solid performance against the Memphis Grizzlies. They were outscored in the first quarter 32-23 by Memphis, but with the help of second-year center Steven Adams, who had 22 points, the Thunder came rumbling back in the second quarter to outscore Memphis 37-27.
Quincy Pondexter led Memphis with 16 points on 4-of-9 shooting, filling in for starting point guard Mike Conley who logged a DNP Coach's Decision for the game. The third quarter saw Oklahoma City score 32 points as opposed to Memphis' 24, giving them a slight lead over the Grizzlies. Anthony Morrow of OKC helped the Thunder lock up this game by scoring 19 off the bench on 3-of-4 shooting from three and a perfect 6-for-6 from the costless throw stripe.
Even though the Thunder won this contest 117-107, aside from Anthony Morrow's three-point shooting, the Thunder wound up shooting an abysmal 28.6 percent from behind the three point arc. It was ultimately Memphis' costless-throw shooting that doomed them, as the Grizzlies shot 68 percent from the charity stripe, while the Thunder shot 94 percent.
This game was a good way to test out the resilience of this Thunder squad, but there's still much work to be done with Kevin Durant out. Plus, aside from Conley, Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol did not play as well.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will travel to New Orleans to play the Pelicans on Thursday, October 16. The Memphis Grizzlies will take on Rio de Janeiro Flamengo on October 17.