While the end of the NBA season sees some teams jockey for playoff positioning in the standings, teams that have been eliminated from playoff contention begin to shift their focus to the future—in more ways than one.
On Tuesday, April 5, the Thunder, who were eliminated from playoff contention on March 22, hosted the Trail Blazers, who last won a game on March 21.
As neither team has a shot of qualifying for this year's NBA Playoffs, they tend to go deep into their rotation, focusing on the process of developing young players while the results of games are mostly inconsequential. While you play to win, each loss increases your chances of earning the top pick in the NBA Draft Lottery.
The Thunder, who closed the game on a 26-4 run to emerge with a 98-94 victory over the Blazers, did so while relying on a number of lesser-known players.
Here's how the roster took shape.
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Why did the Thunder play seven players vs. Blazers?
According to the NBA's official injury report on Tuesday, the Thunder would be without nine players due to injury, including Darius Bazley, Luguentz Dort, Josh Giddey and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, each of whom started over 50 games this season.
Due to the Thunder's injury woes, they have been allowed to make hardship signings, which were used to sign Jaylen Hoard, Georgios Kalaitzakis and Zavier Simpson to 10-day hardship contracts.
Despite being on hardship contracts, Hoard, Kalaitzakis and Simpson started on Tuesday alongside rookie Vit Krejci and third-year forward Isaiah Roby.
Last one in Loud City ⚡️
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) April 5, 2022
Presented by @EnergyTransfer pic.twitter.com/cB56BJk7hn
Prior to Tuesday, the Thunder's starting unit had combined to make 63 starts in the NBA, Roby accounted for 58 of them.
Thunder vs. Trail Blazers box score
In the win, the Thunder used a seven-man rotation, though Lindy Waters III was held to just four minutes of action. Waters put forth an efficient four minutes as he scored eight points on 2-of-3 shooting from the field.
Here are some other figures of note from the game:
- Tuesday was Simpson's first-ever NBA game. At 25, he was OKC's oldest player to play against Portland
- All seven players that played for the Thunder have seen NBA G League action this season
- Hoard (24 points, 21 rebounds) became the seventh player in Thunder history with a 20-20 game
- Hoard becomes the seventh NBA player with multiple 20-rebound games this season
- Sarr (10 points, 12 rebounds) is the second Thunder player with a double-double off the bench this season
- In addition to playing with the OKC Blue G League team this season, Hoard and Sarr were college teammates at Wake Forest
- Theo Maledon, Aleksej Pokusevski, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl and Aaron Wiggins each earned the distinction of DNP – Coach's Decision
Take in the box score in all of its glory:
