Playing without Jalen Williams, the Thunder fell 110-93 to the Milwaukee Bucks at Paycom Center on Thursday night. <\/p>\n
The Oklahoma City struggled to find offensive rhythm for long stretches and could not overcome a balanced Milwaukee attack that featured seven players in double figures.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust trying to find some continuity and flow on offense,\u201d Chet Holmgren said. \u201cI feel like parts of the game were clunky and we weren\u2019t quite able to execute on that end as well as we wanted to. \u2026 It was a bad cycle.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Thunder missing key pieces<\/p>\n
The Thunder are still without Gilgeous-Alexander (abdominal strain) and Jalen Williams (right hamstring strain). The team said both players will be re-evaluated following the All-Star break. Williams left the game early on Wednesday night in Phoenix after missing multiple games in a row.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee was also short-handed, missing Giannis Antetokounmpo (right calf strain) and head coach Doc Rivers, who was away attending a funeral. Assistant Darvin Ham served as acting head coach.<\/p>\n
Even so, Oklahoma City had trouble keeping pace.<\/p>\n
Isaiah Joe led OKC with 17 points, while Holmgren added 16 points and 13 rebounds. Alex Caruso helped spark a brief rally with multiple three-pointers, including one that capped an 8-0 run to tie the game at 40 early in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
But the Bucks quickly responded with a decisive 20-4 surge and never fully relinquished control.<\/p>\n
\n Dieng hurts former team<\/p>\n
Former Thunder forward Ousmane Dieng, traded by Oklahoma City just before the deadline, led Milwaukee with 19 points, 11 rebounds, six assists and four blocks in a strong two-way showing.<\/p>\n
AJ Green added 17 points for the Bucks, and Bobby Portis chipped in 15 points and 12 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Milwaukee led 67-55 at halftime and blew the game open in the third quarter, holding Oklahoma City to just 16 points to build an 89-73 advantage entering the fourth.<\/p>\n
\n Topi\u0107\u2019s moment provides bright spot<\/p>\n
The biggest positive for Oklahoma City came in the form of rookie Nikola Topi\u0107\u2019s long-awaited NBA debut.<\/p>\n
The No. 12 pick in the 2024 draft who missed last season with a torn ACL and later battled testicular cancer, checked in late in the first quarter to a loud ovation from the Paycom Center crowd.<\/p>\n
Topi\u0107 knocked down his first NBA basket on a mid-range jumper early in the second quarter and finished with two points, one rebound and one assist in 12 minutes.<\/p>\n
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault stressed the team\u2019s measured approach.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just like a unique pocket to get him in with our team with very little expectations from a performance standpoint,\u201d Daigneault said. \u201cHe\u2019s in the infant stages of returning to full game shape. What chemotherapy does to your body is really remarkable.\u201dHolmgren emphasized the bigger picture.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who\u2019s battling cancer is fighting for their life\u2026 it just speaks to the strength of Topi\u0107 and who he is as a person,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cFirst of all, we\u2019re just happy that he\u2019s back to good health and that he\u2019s out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Looking ahead<\/p>\n
The loss sends Oklahoma City into the All-Star break searching for improved health and consistency at 42-13.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou hate to have to take that into the break and sit on it,\u201d Holmgren said. \u201cBut that\u2019s what happened and we\u2019ve got to come out and be better out of the break.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the Thunder, getting stars back and continuing to build Topi\u0107\u2019s minutes will be key storylines when the schedule resumes Friday the 20th against the Nets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Playing without Jalen Williams, the Thunder fell 110-93 to the Milwaukee Bucks at Paycom Center on Thursday night.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4,450,451,3,452,453],"class_list":["post-465684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}