Thunder cruise past the Bulls on the road

OKC 114 CHI 95

Oklahoma City (2-0) continued their season warmup, casually blowing out the Bulls (1-2) in Chicago. The game was competitive until an emphatic 22-3 run from OKC, from the 6:10 mark of the second quarter to close the first half, delivered several more highlights on the young, dominant season. The Thunder opened the second half up 59-39, and toyed with the Bulls the rest of the way to the 19-point win.

There's not much to actually analyze about the team right now. OKC is playing such suffocating defense that they simply don't need to shoot. Their defensive rating is 85.0, and they're shooting 21.1% from three. The individual brilliance of Chet Holmgren [21 points, 16(!) boards, 3 stocks], Shai Gilgeous-Alexander [23/8/4], and Jalen Williams (29 pts/9 rbs/8 ast) carried them to another easy win. And continued to overshadow how inefficient the offense has been. But who cares. The Thunder are much better than most of the NBA and it's fun to watch.

We're in a well-shaken snowglobe watching a young, athletically imposing team blitz the competition before it can even think to adapt. Who knows how the meaningful numbers will settle if/when OKC comes back down to earth. Until then we're getting snowflake stats we'll forget about later.

Notes

• Chet has been scary good.
• Ajay Mitchell scored his first NBA point.
• Mitchell plays the way we're watching. what do we do with our hands energy.
• Josh Giddey was there, half-stuffing the stat sheet (14 pts, 7 rbs, 4 ast) like old times.
• The collegiate locker room thing is good. It's also good when former players like Giddey and Tre Mann become voluntary brand ambassadors for Thunder culture while being paid by other teams.
• Alex Caruso got a nice ovation in his first visit back to the United Center.

• I don't know if Mark Daigneault's rotation dice rolls matter before Isaiah Hartenstein has ramped up to his full-time role. Cason Wallace started tonight, for what it's worth.
• Zach Lavine was miserable when it mattered, racking up 5 turnovers and just 6 points in the first half. I'd credit the perimeter guards, but he was throwing it away plenty all on his own.
• Coby White worked hard for his 9 points on 12 shots. He went 0-9 from three and 3-6 from the line.
• Don't count Talen Horton-Tucker out just yet. For a second I thought I spotted a young Clarence Weatherspoon checking in for garbage time.
• There was a time when each of Patrick Williams, Jalen Smith, and probably even Chris Duarte were coveted by Thunder fans earlier in the rebuild. You may confess your past idolatries in the comments for absolution.

Post roll