Thunder Vs. FC Barcelona | Rapid Recap

The Thunder GuysOctober 5, 2016 No Comments

This afternoon, the  Thunder took on FC Barcelona in their second preseason game of the year.  After a loss on Monday that left fans feeling a bit worried, the Thunder managed to pull out a close one 92-89.  As we’ve stated before, there is no need to look too far into these preseason games, but a win was certainly nice today.

When looking at the struggle to get a win against an international team, it’s important to remember they were without big man Steven Adams, and the starters are on restricted minutes.  Preseason games are designed for teams to get back into the flow of the game again and for the young guys to get more experience. The Thunder has succeeded at both of those things thus far.

Defense Steps Up 

After giving up 126 points at the end of regulation to Real Madrid, the defense came up huge and only gave up 89 points against FC Barcelona. The Thunder finished the game with 11 steals and 5 blocked shots.  Alex Abrines had a huge block against Joey Dorsey early in the game adding to his arsenal of potential.

A major concern from the previous game was the amount of 3’s the defense allowed.  The Thunder still struggled defending the arc today as Barcelona shot 14-31 for 45%.  As a whole, the team allowed them to shoot 43% from the field.

 

Kanter Leads Offense to an Efficient Outing

The offense looked very efficient today and that was mainly because of big man Enes Kanter.  He was 9/12 from the floor for 24 points. The team shot 51% from the field and an outstanding 81% from the free throw line.

Russell Westbrook tallied up 12 points on 2-7 shooting, and he had a vicious dunk early in the game. Oladipo seemed a bit gun shy with 10 points, only shooting 3-8 for the game.  Neither of those statlines are going to get anyone excited.  However, you have to consider the amount of shots taken.  You can guarentee these two will be taking more than 15 combined shots during regular season games.

Article written by Craig Hofeld. Follow @TheThunderGuys on twitter. 

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