Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

[studbucket]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

It seems to mostly be about seeding in the playoffs now, right? Two more wins to finish the year could get you home court advantage in the first round?

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

It seems to mostly be about seeding in the playoffs now, right? Two more wins to finish the year could get you home court advantage in the first round?

Correct. We are definitely in the playoffs but sitting at the 6 seed we have teams right behind us that have more than 2 games remaining. Winning out against the Celtics and at the Kings could push up to the 4 seed with help but I think we end up splitting and staying at the 6 seed.


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[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

Tatum Rises Up in OT as Celtics Survive Scare in OKC





Early on, Chet Holmgren (31 pts, 24 reb, 4 blk) showed he wasn’t afraid of attacking the Celtics’ defensive anchor in Robert Williams (4 pts, 10 reb, 1 ast, 3 stl, 2 blk) as he got a quick dunk over the big man.



Holmgren also showed that he wasn’t going to be pushed around in the paint on the defensive end as well as he recorded one of his game-high four blocked shots against Marcus Smart (18 pts, 3 reb, 5 ast, 1 stl).



With the Thunder guards struggling to get loose against the terrific Celtic perimeter defense, OKC tried to get Max Christie (14 pts, 3 reb) going as he was coming off a career game in his last outing. The rookie sniper came off the bench and buried a quick triple, but quickly cooled off soon after.



While rarely able to get loose from the defensive pressure of Marcus Smart, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (17 pts, 3 reb, 9 ast, 2 stl) took advantage of the chances he did get and made them count like with this two-handed slam.



Connecting on just two buckets on the game, Rob Williams made them both counts as they were loud, emphatic dunks including this one over Mikal Bridges (12 pts, 2 reb, 8 ast, 1 stl).



While Jayson Tatum (33 pts, 11 reb, 7 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) will rightfully get most of the credit for this win, Jaylen Brown (23 pts, 7 reb, 4 ast, 1 stl) was the one who kept them afloat while Tatum struggled to find his rhythm.



Bridges could not find his stroke from deep, connecting on just one of nine triples. Instead of settling late in the game, he got a step on Tatum and took him to the wrack for the old-fashioned three point play.



Looking to go back up for a quick deuce after an offensive rebound, SGA was rejected by Williams as the Thunder looked to make a furious comeback in the 4th quarter.



A physical battle all night long, SGA and Smart were exhausted when this game ended. On a 4th quarter drive, the battle raged on as they were bumping and grinding the whole way down the floor. The refs let them play and SGA eventually duck down the baseline, shrugged Smart off of him and elevated for another dunk.



Taking advantage of the smaller Derrick White (9 pts, 2 reb, 1 ast), Josh Gidde (9 pts, 7 reb, 6 ast, 3 stl) was able to post him up in the mid-range, spin off of him and elevate for a dunk of his own.



A Chet triple over the outstretched arm of Al Horford (6 pts, 11 reb, 1 blk) brought the Thunder within one point of the Celtics with just over five minutes remaining.



In the waning minutes of the game, SGA was able to fire and connect on his only three of the game as well, bringing the Thunder even with the Celtics with just over a minute remaining.



After a Jayson Tatum drive, pull-up and finish just outside the lane, the Thunder came down and were able to get Holmgren loose. Giddey lobbed it up and watched the towering rookie elevate and finish the dunk with 24 seconds remaining.

On the Celtics’ final possession of regulation, Marcus Smart missed an open three and Rob Williams couldn’t finish a putback layup after an offensive rebound, sending this game into overtime!



After the Thunder raced out to a 6-point lead in overtime, Marcus Smart calmly drained a three from the left wing as the Thunder were seemingly daring him to shoot. The Thunder were now clinging on to a 3-point lead.



After a miss by the Thunder on their next offensive possession, Jayson Tatum came down and was being hounded by Giddey. As he sprinted left tangent to the three-point line, Taturm set his feet, squared up and faded away as Giddey contested the shot. A seemingly impossible attempt, Tatum drained the three to tie it up.

The Thunder immediately looked deflated. A steal down the other end by Rob Williams led to a fast break pull-up three by Tatum for the dagger. The Celtics took a 3-point lead and never looked back as Boston rallied to score 21 points in the overtime period to stun the Thunder in OKC.

[studbucket]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

What a great game. Cool to watch and I love the screenshots (as always).

How did Holmgren still dominate the boards? Too much for Time Lord? Did it when he was off the court?

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

What a great game. Cool to watch and I love the screenshots (as always).

How did Holmgren still dominate the boards? Too much for Time Lord? Did it when he was off the court?

Much appreciated SB!

Chet pretty much grabbed every defensive rebound for us and corralled a few of our many long misses on the offensive end as well. His height was too much for Rob at times so he was able to keep us alive throughout this game.


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[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

As it stands, we are tied with both the Warriors and the Spurs with 15 wins. They are both playing against the Grizzlies and Pelicans, respectively. Those teams happen to be two of the top teams in the West. If we can beat the Kings and both of them lose, we should we avoid being in the play-in tournament.

Going to be interesting to see how this all unfolds! Regardless, I’m pumped to be playing playoff basketball!


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[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

Giddey’s Personal 11-0 Run in 3rd Quarter Blows Game Open





A great matchup to utilize his speed against Sacramento’s slow-footed bigs, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (26 pts, 6 reb, 7 ast, 1 blk) was relentless in attacking the paint in the pick-and-roll as he slides past Domantas Sabonis (11 pts, 16 reb, 2 stl, 1 blk) for a smooth finish.



Sure he can lock down the paint, but Chet Holmgren (22 pts, 17 reb, 1 stl, 2 blk) is still a pest on the perimeter against guards. Just ask Donte DiVincenzo (17 pts, 6 reb, 8 ast, 1 blk) as he gets peeled by the towering center that leads to an easy run out and dunk for SGA.



The Thunder did not respect the jump shots of the King perimeter players as evident by this De’Aaron Fox (23 pts, 5 reb, 7 ast, 2 stl) three-point attempt where SGA was sagged way off without a contest. Sure, Fox’s speed scares any guard and you need to give him a step but a jumper from Fox is considered a win for the D.



Like a pogo stick, Holmgren elevated for an offensive rebound, pivoted and went back up choosing violence against Richaun Holmes (7 pts, 2 reb) and flushes two hands all over him.



The disrespect continued as Davion Mitchell (17 pts, 1 reb, 1 ast) was left wide open in the corner the possession after already hitting a three. He drained this one and one more en route to connecting on three of seven triples.



The rookie sniper Max Christie (19 pts, 3 reb, 2 ast) is making sure to not limit himself to just threes as he has begun attacking close outs to try to get to the rim.



Sabonis showing off some soft hands as he slips through a weak box out by Josh Giddey (11 pts, 6 reb, 12 ast, 1 blk) and tips in the offensive rebound.



After a defensive rebound, Fox sprints out ahead and beats the entire defense down the floor for the outlet and dunk in transition.



With the left Jumpman dunk (pictured in header) for his first bucket of the game, Giddey would go on to rattle off all 11 of his points in the game consecutively to give the Thunder a 12 point lead. After grabbing a defensive rebound, Giddey would fire an outlet pass up the left sideline to RJ Hampton (5 pts, 1 ast, 2 blk) for a pull-up three in transition to cap off a beautiful 14-0 run for OKC, effectively ending the game late in the 3rd quarter.



Trying to claw back into this one, Sabonis shows some great footwork and touch with this turnaround one-legged fadeaway over Holmgren. The bucket dropped the Thunder lead to just ten, but a flurry of Christie threes down the stretch saw the lead balloon back up to 19 for the Thunder win.

[studbucket]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

That's very Chris Paul of Giddey. Orchestrate for everyone all game, then take over the scoring when it's needed most, then get the ball to others again. Nice win!

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

[studbucket]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

What was the situation that resulted in Ben Simmons getting 6th man of the Year? That's wild.

Who were the MVP runner ups? Was it close?

And huge for Holmgren to get 1st team All-NBA. wow.

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

That's very Chris Paul of Giddey. Orchestrate for everyone all game, then take over the scoring when it's needed most, then get the ball to others again. Nice win!

That stretch by Giddey was done if the most dominant ball I’ve seen from him over the course of 4-5 game minutes. He’s fun to play with when he’s out there running with 4 bench players.

What was the situation that resulted in Ben Simmons getting 6th man of the Year? That's wild.

Who were the MVP runner ups? Was it close?

And huge for Holmgren to get 1st team All-NBA. wow.

This has two years in a rite that Simmons has won 6th Man of the Year. Since he’s listed as a PG he comes off the bench behind Kyrie Irving. I’m going to have to go in and make sure he’s starting next year to maximize their talent.

While Luka is taking home the MVP award, he wasn’t who the game selected. The original award winner was none other than Chet Holmgren, but there was no way I was giving him the award as a rookie. In my voting, he finished 3rd behind Luka and Jayson Tatum.

So when I saw Holmgren named MVP, there was no doubt he was going to be banned 1st Team All-NBA. I have to imagine he’s going to make immense improvement this offseason and come back even more dominant.

On top of that, having SGA on the 2nd Team is great for this pair going forward as well!


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[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

[R1zzo23]

Re: Thunder Up! Rebuild in OKC [NBA 2k22]

Too Much Morant for the Thunder to Handle, Grizz Take Game 1





While all the focus of the Thunder’s defense coming into this game was on Ja Morant (39 pts, 2 reb, 6 ast, 1 stl), it was Desmon Bane (14 pts, 4 reb, 4 ast, 2 stl) getting the scoring going with the first basket of the game being a thunderous two-handed slam that seemingly set the tone early. The tone was that Memphis was going to attack the paint relentlessly all…game…long!



There were plenty of highlights for Ja Morant on this night as he paced the Grizzlies in scoring with 39 points including this blow by from the top of the key and then slithered around the recently crowned Rookie of the Year Chet Holmgren (27 pts, 19 reb, 3 ast, 1 stl, 1 blk) for a slick one-handed dunk of his own.



While known for more of his offense than defense, Max Christie (6 pts) shows what playoff basketball is all about and making “winning plays” by stepping in front of Caleb Love (13 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast, 3 stl) to take a charge.



As the Grizzlies began to pull away, they started to show a little flare for the theatrics as Desmond Bane hammered hom a reverse dunk that put the crowd into a frenzy and the Thunder into a lull that would last the rest of the game.



While hot throughout the night, Mikal Bridges (27 pts, 2 reb, 3 ast) didn’t quite get off one of his 15 three-point attempts as Jaren Jackson Jr. (13 pts, 8 reb, 2 ast, 1 stl, 3 blk) flew out of nowhere to swat the long-range jumper.



A rare off-night for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (18 pts, 2 reb, 7 ast) as he shot under 50% for one of the few times on the season. Ja made his life difficult, forcing him into a lot of tough mid-range jumpers like this one from about 16 feet away off the bounce.



Trying to keep the Thunder alive, Bridges got open in the corner and got this three off just in time to beat Triple-J for the trifecta. This would bring the Grizzlies’ lead down to 12 with just over five minutes remaining, giving OKC a little bit of hope to complete the comeback.



But Ja would slam the door shut with a triple of his own to dash any hopes of a comeback.