Thunder Overwhelm Israel’s Maccabi Ra’anana in Fourth Preseason Outing

The Thunder continued their 2022-23 preseason marketing campaign, operating over the Israeli Nationwide League’s Maccabi Ra’anan to win by 47. This win marks their third victory in 4 video games.

Maccabi Ra’anan opened up the primary quarter robust, taking pictures the ball nicely, bothering Oklahoma Metropolis defensively, and shifting the ball. However they shot themselves within the foot as they despatched Thunder gamers to the free throw line 11 occasions.

Luguentz Dort was in a position to present a gradual hand for Oklahoma Metropolis early, scoring eight of the workforce’s first 12 factors and discovering his technique to the free-throw line 5 occasions.

After trailing for many of the first quarter, the Thunder’s offense began catching on and the workforce was in a position to retake the lead 27-25 following Dort and Aleksej Pokusevski every making a pair of threes.

The Thunder had been in a position to construct on the lead by a few factors to spherical out the primary quarter on prime 33-29.

Lindy Waters III and Jaylin Williams had been in a position to begin the second quarter off robust, hitting a pair of threes for the Thunder and rapidly growing the result in 39-29.

However Ra’anan guard Jason Siggers stored the Israeli squad within the combat for some time behind his 13 consecutive factors and at one level, shortened the Thunder’s result in three. The Thunder actually turned issues up within the second quarter, pouncing on a ton of errors, profitable free balls, and turning them into factors.

Oklahoma Metropolis’s protection allowed simply three factors within the first 4 minutes of the second quarter.

Because the protection changed into offense, Dort was in a position to maintain the workforce’s offensive efforts and construct his scoring whole to 23 factors through three-pointers and robust slashing.  With the Thunder each tightening their protection and posting a 38-point second quarter, the Thunder constructed a 71-54 lead earlier than heading to halftime.

Popping out of halftime, Ousmane Dieng acquired the Thunder off to a robust begin, scoring 5 fast factors after Dort had completed his debut.

Jalen Williams was then in a position to attract two taking pictures fouls, changing all 4 free throws and including one other 4 factors. The Thunder’s spacing and ball motion gave the impression to be top-notch, even with Dort being completed for the night time. Gamers had been exhibiting nice effort shifting with out the ball and discovering open teammates, a constant theme all through the night time.

The Thunder’s offense hummed its means alongside to an enormous 48-point quarter because of some scorching 3-point taking pictures, ballooning the result in 119-77. At this level, the sport was all however over. Extra of the identical would come within the closing quarter of the Thunder’s fourth preseason recreation.

Ra’anan began off sluggish, failing to attain a lot within the first couple of minutes whereas the Thunder’s kids had been having their means with the protection, hitting threes and getting downhill at will.

Oklahoma Metropolis’s protection did a fantastic job smothering Ra’anan’s offense, forcing poor jumpers and contested pictures on the rim. The Thunder had been in a position to maintain the opposition to simply

The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder would keep their sizeable result in hand Maccabi Ra’anan a loss and win their fourth preseason recreation, 144-97.

Sport Notes

The Thunder seemingly placed on a ball motion clinic as they completed the night time with 42 assists on 51 made area objectives. Additionally they did a superb job caring for the ball, turning the ball over simply 15 occasions – a low quantity for such a younger workforce.

The Thunder had been additionally extremely environment friendly taking pictures the ball tonight. They had been in a position to convert 84% of their 25 free throw makes an attempt and knock down virtually 60% of all pictures. Three-point taking pictures was the intense spot as they poured in 21 threes on 44 makes an attempt.

Tonight’s recreation marked Luguentz Dort’s 2022-23 debut after sustaining a concussion throughout observe simply previous to the beginning of preseason video games. The robust 6-foot-4 guard began for the Thunder and proved to be a minimize above the remaining, scoring 23 factors, together with 4 threes, within the first half earlier than sitting out the remainder of the sport.

After Thunder rookie Ousmane Dieng discovered himself inserted into the workforce’s beginning lineup for the primary time, he performed extraordinarily nicely, making a number of defensive performs and scoring 18 factors on 12 pictures, grabbing 4 boards, and ending the sport with 4 assists.

Pokusevski had arguably one of the best recreation of his profession after recording 15 factors, 10 assists, and 5 boards in simply 26 minutes of motion. The seven-footer additionally hit three of six threes earlier than sitting.

Eugene Omoruyi, who’s on a two-way contract with the Thunder, made a robust case for himself shifting ahead after dropping in 25 factors, hitting 4 of six 3-pointers, and grabbing 12 rebounds.

Jason Siggers had an enormous recreation tonight, pouring in an environment friendly 40 factors, on 15 out of 26 taking pictures, together with 5 threes and at one level had scored 17 straight factors for a Maccabi Ra’anan that couldn’t appear to seek out offense elsewhere.

A number of Thunder gamers didn’t play tonight after it was introduced that Josh Giddey, Tre Mann, Kenrich Williams, Darius Bazley, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Mike Muscala would relaxation. The Thunder’s star level guard, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander remains to be out rehabbing a knee harm suffered final month.

The Oklahoma Metropolis Thunder will play the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday at 6:00 p.m. CST for his or her fifth preseson recreation.

Need to be part of the dialogue? Like SI Thunder on Fb and follow us on Twitter to remain updated on all the most recent Thunder information. It’s also possible to meet the workforce behind the protection.