Dennis Schröder did not win in his first game for the OKC Thunder, but his performance was still appealing. Enes Kanter meanwhile dominated the New York city duel and No.1-Pick Deandre Ayton indicated his massive potential for the second time.
Enes Kanter is obviously looking forward to the new season. The Turk in the service of the Knicks really cleaned up the city duel – 22 points (7/14 FG) and 20 rebounds recorded Kanter in only 26:37 minutes, a real anomaly in the preseason. However, he was not the only player of the Knickerbocker who convinced in this game.
Also the undrafted rookie Allonzo Trier could attract attention in 26:20 minutes from the bench with 25 points, Trier was the most conspicuous rookie in this game, while No.9-Pick Kevin Knox struggled with his throw (7 points, 0/3 3FG). Kanter and Trier were the only players in Double Figures, but Tim Hardaway Jr., Trey Burke and Frank Ntilikina all scored 9 points.
Six players scored double digits in the Nets, with Caris LeVert top scorer with 15 points and Rookie Dzanan Musa not playing. Brooklyn had dominated the game at the beginning, but from the second quarter onwards the Knicks took control and did not give it up in the further course of the game.
That was a clear affair in Milwaukee. The Bulls didn’t get defensive access at all, especially in the first half, when Milwaukee primarily let the starters play and scored 63 points. At the same time, the offense did not work either, which was mainly due to the threesome: a miserable seven out of 41 attempted threes fell through the cage, the total field casting rate was 32.4 percent, with Bobby Portis still topscorer with 17 points.
The Bucks looked completely different, which was again mainly due to Giannis Antetokounmpo (19 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists), who among other things sunk a pullup-three. Eric Bledsoe (16), Khris Middleton (15), Pat Connaughton (12) and John Henson (10) also showed appealing performances.
Striking: Also the Bucks took 45 threes in this game and scored 15 of them. Especially newcomer Connaughton (4/6 3FG) showed his value here, while rookie Donte DiVincenzo (0/5) had not yet found his range.
For the first time in his NBA career Dennis Schröder did not run for the Atlanta Hawks but for his new team from Oklahoma City. And his performance was quite appealing: Although Schröder only scored five of his 16 throws, he still led OKC in both the points (21) and the assists (9) and collected 5 rebounds.
The Thunder lost the game, but the 27 minutes with Schröder were positive (+4) – so you could be satisfied with the debut, especially since neither Russell Westbrook (knee) nor Paul George (personal reasons) were not in the game. Besides the German, Steven Adams was the most conspicuous man with 17 points and 12 rebounds.
But also the New Zealander could not control Andre Drummond in this match. Detroits Center showed a monster performance (31 points, 14/21 FG, 16 rebounds) and acted as solo entertainer at times, especially as Blake Griffin and Reggie Jackson were both absent. In Detroit, however, other players also liked the game, especially Stanley Johnson (14 points), Glenn Robinson III (11), Reggie Bullock and Zaza Pachulia (both 10).
Page 1: NBA Preseason: Dennis Schröder loses despite good debut with OKC Thunder
Page 2: Deandre Ayton also dominates in the second game