Luckily, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s fourth summer league game was only 40 minutes, not 48 like the 152-95 loss to the Indiana Pacers last season.
But the Thunder wer similarly dispatched by the same team on Saturday night, albeit the summer league version, in a 95-61 loss.
Oklahoma City lost its third straight game and is now 1-3 in summer league with a final matchup against the San Antonio Spurs on deck for Monday.
There were two particular bright spots for Oklahoma City on Saturday: Jaylen Hoard and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl.
Hoard scored 16 points on 7-for-9 shooting and made both 3-pointers he attempted. One of the Thunder holdovers from last year’s team, he comes in with multiple years of NBA/G League experience.
Until Saturday, he hadn’t broken out, but Hoard played the best game of any Thunder player against the Pacers.
On the counter side, Robinson-Earl has had a consistently good summer league. He had 13 points and 10 rebounds on Saturday for a double-double and made a 3-pointer. The big has now made at least one shot from behind the arc in every game and is 6-for-16 (37.5%) from deep over the four games.
Those two and Aaron Wiggins were the only Thunder players with double-digit points.
Theo Maledon could not get the ball in the hoop. He went 0-for-7 from the field, four of which were 3-point attempts, and finished the game without a point. He had six assists and four rebounds.
Maledon wasn’t the only player who struggled, though he was the most prominent. Overall, the Thunder shot 30.9% from the field on just 21 made field goals, and went just 4-for-30 from behind the arc.
Despite this, the Thunder stuck close for the first half. They trailed by four points with 2:30 to play in the second quarter before Indiana finished on a 9-2 run and coasted in the second half.
Oklahoma City’s final game of summer league will be against the Spurs on Monday at 4 p.m.
