The OKC Thunder were coming into tonight’s game against the Miami Heat following a loss against Toronto Wednesday. After getting hurt in action against the Raptors Steven Adams wasn’t available tonight. The Thunder would be missing Steven Adams in the paint tonight as the Miami Heat had 44 points in the paint. One player that was very impressive tonight for the Miami Heat was Bam Adebayo who was bringing the ball up the court as a playmaker. Bam has a lot of different aspects to his game that he’s yet to showcase and he did just that tonight. The Thunder had a little trouble adjusting to Bam bringing the ball up as a point guard. With Bam bringing the ball up it opened up the lane for him to attack and also he found a lot of his teammates for better basketball plays. This Miami Heat team has playmakers and they were able to get the ball in the spots they needed to execute. Bam finished the game with 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists while continuing to improve his game on a nightly basis. Bam’s a tough guard for any big because he can score and defend with the best of the bigs in the NBA. Tonight he made it tough on the Thunder bigs Muscala and Noel. The Miami Heat play scrappy and they defend throughout all 48 minutes of the game. This team is built to mold around the playing style of Jimmy Butler and they have done an amazing job of that. Jimmy Butler made it tough on any Thunder defender who guarded him as he finished with 14 points but added 10 rebounds with 7 assists. Even if Butler isn’t scoring he’s so much of a threat that the Thunder had to double him sometimes which left players like Kendrick Nunn wide open. Jimmy Butler’s one of the best two-way players in the NBA and showed that tonight against the Thunder. Having a player of Jimmy Butler’s caliber on the team gives a young player like Kendrick Nunn a chance to showcase some confidence. Nunn was able to take advantage of the open opportunities that he was given by the Thunder tonight. Nunn showed a lot of confidence in his jumper and going to the rim with ease as he had a team-high 22 points for the Miami Heat. Kendrick Nunn’s game is like a seasoned veteran and he was able to showcase his skills against the Thunder tonight. The Miami Heat had a 22 point lead on the Thunder and they almost blew it as OKC was able to claw back and get back down by three points. The Miami Heat let the Thunder back in this game with poor play down the stretch and letting Danilo Gallinari go off from three-point land.
All month of January it seems as though the Oklahoma City Thunder has been playing catch up in games. Something about the drama and the adrenaline of trying to come back down from a large margin excites them. The Thunder trailed by 22 points tonight against the Heat and were able to get within three points but just didn’t get it done down the stretch. Tonight the Thunder had a very balanced attack against the Heat as they had six players in double figures. When Danilo Gallinari has it going from the three-point line as he did tonight going 7-12 it makes this team tough to beat. Gallinari had his game going all night and the Heat couldn’t do anything to stop him as Gallinari kept the Thunder in a position to win. The Heat tried putting multiple players on Gallinari while defending the three-point line but it didn’t work out too well. The Thunder guards were given a chance to flourish in this one as Dragic and Nunn couldn’t defend Shai, CP3, and Dennis. Those three combined for 50 points on the night and each had their moment. A lot of the teams that OKC has played recently have players with the height that are trying to stop them from getting to their spots on the court. Tonight wasn’t the case because all three of the guards were able to do what they wanted scoring and playmaking. If the three guards play with aggression and are constantly attacking it helps the Thunder a lot as they put the defense on their heels. Tonight the guards weren’t able to set the tone as they usually do against other teams. The thing that hurt the Thunder in this game was the fact that they allowed 15-second chance points to the Miami Heat. The rebounding was an issue without Steven Adams but you still have to play the game. The Thunder played a great game once they settled in on the defensive end. If OKC can get out the hole from the start of games they can have the momentum and set the tone. On this stretch of games, the Thunder have been down early instead of having the lead early. The Thunder defense was able to slow down Jimmy Butler as they tried to make sure that someone else beat them instead. Kendrick Nunn was the player that hit some big shots for the Heat and a lot of his shots came on loose ball kick-outs that the Thunder missed out on. Defensively the Thunder has to come together and take it personally to make sure they can get chances to lead to points. Oklahoma City plays great when they let their defense create offensive opportunities and they didn’t do that tonight.
The Thunder will be playing tomorrow night against the Portland Trailblazers in a back to back as they look to get their 24th win of the season against Carmelo, Dame, and CJ.
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