The Thunder just sent a SERIOUS message…

The Thunder just sent a SERIOUS message…

The Thunder just sent a serious message that everyone has to pay attention to. There’s no doubt this team has been rolling to start this young season. But what do the Thunder look like without the MVP Shay Gildas Alexander along with a contingent of important players on the injury report? Well, we got our first glimpse into that on a late wacky Sunday night up in Salt Lake City. And we’re going to talk about that here in this late night upload here on Thunder Digest. Welcome into the channel. I’m Ryan Breeden. I appreciate you all for joining me. Hope you’ve had a great weekend and we’ve got to break down this Thunder route of the Utah Jazz. 131 to 101. A great game for us to get a good look at what this team can do without its most important piece offensively without the best scorer on the planet, which is SGA. Before we get into that though, we’re at 6,700 subscribers. If you want to help us out reaching our subscriber goal of 8K subscribers by the All-Star break, I would appreciate it if you guys could smash that subscribe button down below. It is completely free. going to try to put up numbers on this channel just like what the Thunder did tonight against Utah. It was a complete route from start to finish. But there’s so much more that we need to talk about here in this game. The Thunder really sent a statement to the NBA tonight with this injury report and what the Thunder did not have available along with the players that have been out all season long with Thomas Sorber, Nicole Topic. Isaiah Joe did not play tonight. Some left knee soreness. Isaiah Hartenstein continues to be out. He’ll miss at least another week. Lou Dort still going through some pain with his shoulder that he injured earlier in the season. Alex Caruso had a right quad contusion, so he did not play. And most notably, SGA had left elbow berscitis. Just basically giving a designation to him being able to sit out for a game. He’s played every single game this season. He’s been able to limit his minutes because of the Thunder so many games by the time he gets to the fourth quarter by at least 20 points. He’d played in only 11 of the 22 fourth quarters this season, but he got the night off up against the Utah Jazz tonight. So, we got to see what the Thunder would look like essentially split in half. He would get SGA out of the game. So, we got to see what this dynamic duo could do together without Shay. Obviously, Jub came back for the first time a week ago. Chad, he’s been healthy for most of this season. So, it was going to be up to those two guys along with the other available role players to see what they could put together. and it was nothing short of spectacular. JDub, he’s had to kind of stray away from his typical perimeter shotmaking. He’s become a pure slasher so far this season and he did that in great numbers so far here tonight. He attacked the basket with authority. He knocked down some open shots as well. And then as for Chad Homegrren, it was a great night for Chad, obviously defensively the defensive player of the year. And then also getting back on offense. He even broke the broke the the smoke uh machine that they have behind the basket in the third quarter of the game. They had to go without a shot clock for a while. It was just a a wacky weird night up in Salt Lake City that the PA announcer had to literally announce out how much time was left on the shot clock and the game clock for a good portion of this game. Stuff that you see in like I guess Wreck Ball. stuff that you see in little little league kids games when you’re you’re watching your son play. Uh but that’s what the Thunder were doing tonight. And those two guys, they did their thing. 25 points, three rebounds, eight assists for JDub, over 58% from the field. His most efficient night so far this season. And Chad Homegrren was absolutely pivotal on both ends of the floor. Also had 25 points. He had nine rebounds. You saw one of his two blocks right there. And he was 80% from the floor. nothing, you know, just a casual little 50 points from your two guys that are your second and third option on the team. It’s just insane what the Thunder have here this year. They just have production in droves. They just have an an embarrassment of riches, a second and third option that are both all NBA caliber players. Ched has been really good this year other than his stretch of games he had offensively. uh really through the Phoenix Suns game. He had a four or five game stretch where he was struggling with to keep his footing. His shot looked kind of flat like he did in the playoffs last year and he wasn’t able to finish as well at the rim. But he’s really come back on strong and they needed that tonight against the Jazz. Chad provided that along with a contingent of other guys that you needed to come through when you were without basically half of your roster. It was the best offensive night of the season for the Thunder so far, believe it or not. 50% from three and that’s not in limited shooting either. You see it right there. 21 of 42. The Thunder made 58% of their shots overall. Still took care of the basketball without Sheay, who we’re going to have a video on this later on this week if you’re interested. But going to talk about how efficient Sheay has been, not only as a scorer, but also in terms of limiting turnovers as the primary ball handler with such a high usage percentage. He was out and the Thunder still took care of the basketball. They still outrebounded the Jazz even without Isaiah Hartinstein. They still played Thunder basketball without those guys that are so important to the brand. And I want to highlight a couple other guys here as well. Obviously, I talked about the the other the big two, JDub and Chad. They did their thing tonight. You could see that there right at the top. Usman Jiang had a great run, 26 minutes, and he was plus 19. He had one of the higher plus minuses on the team, 70% from the field. We saw 24 minutes from Kenrich Williams. He put up 11, seven, and six. Led the team in assists aside from JDub, who was the primary ball handler for a lot of tonight. He did his thing. Uh we obviously also got to see Aaron Wiggins go crazy. He was 67% from the field, 19 points. He’s going to be a primary perimeter shooter when Isaiah Joe is out. Aaron Wiggins stepped into that role tonight. And so did Brandon Carlson. He was absolutely phenomenal. If there was anyone that I was most impressed with tonight, it was big Brandon Carlson and what he was able to do. The Thunder scored 11 three-pointers in the first quarter, the most that they’ve had in a quarter in current Thunder basketball history in their era being in Oklahoma City. They were shooting the lights out and the smoke out of the arena tonight. And Brandon Carlson was a big reason for that. And after the game was over, Mark Dagenald even talked about, you know, he was a differencemaker tonight. It was really fun to see him do that back in his home state. And Brandon Carlson showed out. It was his best game of the year. I’d argue his best game in a Thunder uniform, at least in terms of the minutes that he was able to get. And I’ve got to admit this as well. I’ve been skeptical of Brandon Carlson minutes this season. We saw a good amount of them in the second quarter against the Trailblazers earlier this year in the game that ended up being a loss. I was critical of Brandon Carlson then, and I’ve got to take my words back. He he absolutely proved why he’s on this roster, why he deserves to be out there tonight. 13-6, 55% was a big difference maker. AJ Mitchell, he had a pretty quiet night in terms of scoring. Uh he was incredible defensively though, which just really had the Jazz in complete knots. And I’m not going to try to lie here either. The Jazz are not a great team. Now, the Jazz haven’t been as bad as what the Pacers have been this year or the Wizards or the Pelicans or the Clippers, but the Jazz are going to finish as a a bottom six team in the NBA this year if we’re all being real. and we saw them without Lorie Markin in. So, you’re seeing a crippled team that’s a bottom feeder anyway. But the Thunder did great tonight when you essentially split the roster in half. A lot of things that you wouldn’t do even if you were fully healthy if you were any other team in the NBA. I don’t care how short-handed a team is, how bad a Jazz team is. The Jazz have gotten some good wins this year, but nobody’s been up 26 at the half against the Jazz, let alone a team without Shay, without Isaiah Hartenstein, without Alice Caruso, without Ludor, and without Isaiah Joe. I mean, that’s good enough to be a starting five for almost every team in the NBA, let alone a couple teams that have several superstars around the league. That is a legitimate starting five in this league that did not play for the Thunder. And you’re up 26 and a half. The Thunder had a 42-point lead in the third quarter. That’s the biggest lead the Thunder have had at any point this entire season, which is just outrageous to think that it was without those main guys. So, the Thunder obviously are a better team with Shay out there. I mean, duh, right? He’s the best player on the planet. But, this team is capable, if you split it in half, of still winning games convincingly against lower level teams in the NBA. I’m interested to know what you guys think. Right. We’ve had this whole uh I don’t know what you want to call this whole hypothetical situation where people have said, “What would happen if you split the Thunder in two? Do you think that they’d both be able to make the playoffs?” Well, what do you think a roster comprised of these guys right here would do if it was just JDub Cadet, you had Aaron Wiggins, you had Case Wallace and AJ Mitchell, Jay Will, and then a couple other guys in there. This team, do you think it’s a playoff team? I mean, they showed tonight that they certainly can win some games with authority. So, let me know what you guys think down below on that. I’m really interested to see what you guys have to say. Also, the Thunder now through 24 games are 23 and one. This right here, we’ll find out on Wednesday if the Thunder can join some elite company. These are the five best teams in NBA history in terms of record through 25 games. Obviously, the Golden State Warriors, who went 73 and N, that’s the record you’re trying to chase. The Thunder, if they can win on Wednesday against the Suns in the NBA Cup, they would have a chance to tie the Golden State Warriors for the best start through 25 games, which is over a quarter of the way through the season in NBA history. At the very least, you’ll be right up there along with the 9596 Bulls. You’ll be up there with the 0809 Celtics team that ended up having a very disappointing end to their season. You’ll be up there with a couple of the best teams in NBA history. And you’re going to try to tie with the Golden State Warriors. would hope that Shay would be back. You think that it’s probably just a night where he can just kind of rest. They obviously have load management rules now, so you’ve got to find reasons and ways for guys to be out. Shay, I’m not too concerned about him not playing tonight. And obviously, the guys showed out in every single way. So, last thing, I mean, 131 to 101, the Thunder get it done tonight up in Utah. Appreciate you guys for watching here on the video, giving a little bit of a breakdown again. Brandon Carlson really shined through and then the other part of the big three with Shay being out, JDub and Chad, they really carried the load tonight. So, it was a fun one to watch. I hope you guys enjoyed this video here as well. Appreciate it if you guys are subscribed down below. Help us hit 8K subscribers by the All-Star break. But until next time, we’ll talk to you guys later here on Bunder Digest.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were without superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (SGA) against the Utah Jazz on Sunday night, and in this OKC Thunder news update, Ryan Breeden breaks down what the team did in his absence. OKC is dominating at historic levels, and we got to see what they could do without SGA, Isaiah Hartenstein, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso and Isaiah Joe. Led by Jalen Williams (JDub), Chet Holmgren, Ajay Mitchell, Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace and others, the Thunder dominated the Jazz, 131-101.

Thunder Digest covers the latest reports, news and rumors regarding the Oklahoma City Thunder. If you want to stay updated with every trade, move and tidbit on players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren, Jalen Williams, Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, Isaiah Hartenstein, Cason Wallace, Isaiah Joe, Aaron Wiggins, Mark Daigneault and Sam Presti.

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