Oklahoma City Thunder: Takeaways From First Preseason Game

ByAndrew Kennedy|

Sep 28, 2015; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder forward Kevin Durant (35), Oklahoma City Thunder forward Serge Ibaka (9) and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) pose for photos during media day at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The Billy Donovan era got off to a pretty good start Wednesday night in Minnesota with the Oklahoma City Thunder beating the Timberwolves 122-99 in their first preseason game of the year.

And by start, I’m referring to the first quarter when the Thunder scored 42 points on 15 of 19 shooting. To be fair, and other than the fact that it is preseason, the Thunder also lit up Minny in their final regular season game last year scoring 47 points in that first quarter and had 76 by the half. Maybe the Timberwolves are going to be really bad on defense.

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But either way, it was a pretty great start for Donovan coaching his first NBA game. You don’t want to overreact to a preseason game but there were still some things to gather from last night.

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Rotation
Let’s start with the starting lineup. Steven Adams was out so Enes Kanter started at center. The other starting spot of intrigue is shooting guard and Andre Roberson got the nod. Kanter actually played with the second unit to start the second quarter, possibly a sign that Adams may be slotted to start when he recovers from his back injury.

That second unit was Kanter, D.J. Augustin, Kyle Singler, Anthony Morrow and Nick Collison. Dion Waiters and Steve Novak were the first players in off the bench in the first quarter. One of Singler-Morrow-Waiters-Roberson will be the odd man out in a 10-man rotation. It will be interesting to see who it is and if the preseason reveals anything.

Donovan said before the game that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook would only play 18-20 minutes. They each played 22.

KD’s return
Durant was an efficient 5-for-8 with 15 points and four assists in his return. He looked good moving out there and did some KD things including a nice pull-up over Andrew Wiggins. He made the only 3-pointer that he attempted, too, from the top of the key.

People may forget that while Durant never looked 100 percent healthy last season, he was still one of the most efficient players in the NBA with the fourth-best PER. Being efficient has been an emphasis for KD over the past few years and don’t expect that to change this year.

Westbrook
Westbrook seriously has no chill. It’s just preseason. He played just 22 minutes. But he nearly messed around and got a triple-double, finishing with 14 points (5-of-10 shooting), 13 assists and eight rebounds. Westbrook walked around like he owned the league last year, like an alpha dog every game.

There were negatives that came with that as is always the case with Westbrook, but sometimes it’s just good and that was the case last night. He can be even better with some of the burden he had to carry last season off his back.

The Thunder had 34 assists tonight. Season-high last season was 31.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) October 8, 2015

Ball movement
We all want to see how different Donovan’s offense is than Scott Brooks’ was and if last night was any indication, it may be a big step in the right direction. Again, it’s only preseason but the Thunder had 34 assists. Last year, their high for assists in a game was 31. Westbrook had 11 of his 13 assists in the third quarter. That’s Steve Nash territory even in a preseason game.

The ball movement helped the Thunder shoot 55.6 percent from the field and make 11 of 22 threes. Hell, even Dion Waiters was efficient.

The Thunder’s next game is Friday at home vs. Fenerbahce Ulker, a Turkish club that Kanter actually played for at various levels from 2006-09.

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