Darius Bazley has been one of the most impressive players for the Thunder since walking in the bubble. Tonight he was able to showcase his whole bag today against the Washington Wizards. Bazley has been a sponge when it comes to trying to continue striving for greatness and his growth has been on full display. Darius Bazley has given the Thunder a consistent scorer to be able to depend on from the second unit. With Dennis out its Bazley that has been able to get in the game and score inside or outside it doesn’t matter. The Wizards were 0-5 coming into this game against the Thunder and Bazley took advantage of his mismatches all day. After Bazley’s 23 point explosion today against the Wizards he’s averaging 10.4 ppg in Orlando. The confidence that Darius Bazley has been playing with was a thing of beauty. He was able to hit the 3 point shot and he was able to slash to the lane with ease. The Wizards didn’t have a traditional big center in the paint and Bazley took what the defense gave him today. CP3 and Shai were looking for Bazley and it was great to see the scoring from Bazley coming in the flow of the offense. Today nothing that the Thunder did was forced and they were able to put their foot on the gas and never looked back.
Mike Muscala was back in the lineup after missing time with a concussion and looked like he didn’t miss a beat. He started the efficient shooting from OKC as he started out 3/3 from 3 point land. Mike was playing center as Noel and Adams were out today. When Mike Muscala is shooting with this confidence it helps big time because he’s a big that can space the floor to help out. It was beautiful to see the other players from the Thunder that play a role come into this contest and make the best of all the minutes in different situations. Another player that was able to make the most of the minutes was Hamidou Diallo who finished with 13 points but was able to make some great reads. Hami had been hustling and has grown in his offensive game too. Hami had some acrobatic finishes today that made the fans go crazy as well. You can tell he used the time off to polish his game and Donovan has rewarded him.
Right now for the Thunder, they’ve been playing off the great play of Shai, Gallinari, and CP3 as they’ve picked up the load while Schröder has been with his family. Gallinari had 20 points today and was able to get his jumper to go down no matter the hands in his face. Gallinari was able to score inside and out against the Wizards with ease. Shai has struggled according to a lot of people but his numbers are still up there as he finished with 18 points. If he’s scoring 18 points “struggling” then just wait until he’s back in a groove playing at the elite level we expect him at. Chris Paul finished with 13 points today against the Wizards as he’s been focused on getting his teammates involved with 9 assists tonight. OKC knows what they will get out of Chris Paul when it comes to playoff time so the way OKC’s been playing he hasn’t needed to do too much. The Thunder overall has looked really good and they will look to continue this momentum against the Suns at 1:30 PM tomorrow.
The Washington Wizards were short-handed and weren’t really in the game from the tip. The Wizards are a very young team and they will be a team to look out for when Wall and Beal come back. Today against OKC Jerome Robinson was able to lead them in scoring as he finished with 19 points today. Washington didn’t make the playoffs and will be playing for pride at this point. Look for them to continue to get their young core some reps as they look to spoil our team’s playoff pushes.
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