Oklahoma City Thunder: 3 takeaways after throttling Utah Jazz

Takeaways from Oklahoma City Thunder’s dominate win over Utah

The Oklahoma City Thunder wasted no time putting the Utah Jazz away in their first official game in Orlando. Oklahoma City built a 29-15 lead after the first quarter, by intermission the lead had ballooned to 24. Utah struggled offensively in the first half, not a single player eclipsed double-digits.

On the other side, four Thunder players each notched at least 10 points before halftime.

Utah put up more of a fight in the second half, but the damage was already done as the Thunder ran away with the contest 110-94. It’s unclear how the Jazz can mend itself moving forward, they clearing are missing the offensive punch Bogdan Bogdanovic brought to the team.

With that said, Mike Conley Jr. laughing on the bench during the fourth quarter of the ugly blowout was not a good look and coach Quin Snyder needs to regroup his squad.

Too many turnovers

There is not a lot the Thunder did wrong during this match, but there is always room for improvement. The long layoff seemed to impact their ability to hold onto the ball as they committed 22 turnovers.

OKC’s high giveaway number translated to a worrisome 25 Jazz points. This was only the fourth time during the 2019-20 season where Oklahoma City committed 20 or more turnovers.

Young guns step up

The Thunder got a boost from their bench courtesy of two of their youngest players in rookie Darius Bazley and sophomore Hamidou Diallo. The duo performed well in the Thunder’s final scrimmage versus the Blazers and combined for 19 points on 58.3 percent shooting.

This is a big development for the Thunder, due to the fact their sixth man of the year candidate Dennis Schroder will be departing the bubble soon to be with his wife as the couple is expecting the birth of their second child together.

Elite offense and defense

This was the first match during the restart where one team shot over 50 percent while limiting their opponent to below 40 percent shooting. This was also only the third instance in Orlando where a team failed to reach 40 percent accuracy or better from the floor.

The Oklahoma City Thunder will be back in action tomorrow in a vital game versus their division rival the Denver Nuggets. The match will be a large factor in determining the West’s third seed. If the Thunder win there could potentially be a four-way tie in the loss column for the three seed.

Meanwhile, things do not get easier for the Jazz who will face the Lakers who are coming off their own blowout loss, courtesy of the defending NBA Champion Raptors.