Game Recap: Thunder vs. Pistons

By Paris Lawson | Broadcast and Digital Reporter | okcthunder.com

As the Thunder organization celebrated its inaugural Legacy Network Weekend, the team tipped off against its final Eastern Conference opponent of the season, the Detroit Pistons, on Friday. It was a single-digit ball game through the first half, but the Pistons built up their largest lead of the night in the third frame as the Thunder’s offense hit a dry spell. OKC bounced back in the fourth quarter, but not enough to mount a full comeback. Thunder 10-day signee Jaylen Hoard set a Thunder rookie rebounding record with 20 as he logged his first career NBA start. Meanwhile, fellow Frenchman Théo Maledon led the Thunder in scoring with 28 points – his fourth game scoring 20 or more points out of his last five. 

The Difference in the Third

The Thunder went into halftime trailing by just three points. It had been a back and forth battle up to that point with nine lead changes and six ties throughout the first two frames. However, it was a lopsided third quarter in favor of the Pistons that proved the most detrimental to the Thunder on Friday night. 

Detroit outscored the Thunder 28-14 in the third frame, holding OKC to just 25 percent from the field and 18 percent from deep. The effort helped to build up the Pistons largest lead of the night with 22 points – enough to hold off the Thunder who made a run in the final frame and outscored Detroit 35-27.

“It was a combination of things like usual when there’s a run a game,” said Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault referring to the Pistons’ run in the third. “Obviously, we didn’t get very good traction and didn’t have great energy there. But there were stints in the game where we had that and played pretty well, but that stretch of the game obviously was the difference.”

The Thunder announced before the game on Friday night that the team signed 6-foot-9 forward Jaylen Hoard to a 10-day contract. Not long after, Hoard stepped into his first career NBA start, scored the first two points of the game and even carved his name in the Thunder history books.

Hoard had familiarity with the Thunder organization having already signed a previous 10-day contract back in December while also playing in 39 games with the OKC Blue this season and was even on a two-way contract with the team last season. Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault referred to Hoard as a “program guy” for the knowledge Hoard has accumulated throughout his proximity to the team. 

For the night, Hoard finished with a double-double of 11 points and set a Thunder rookie record with a career-high 20 rebounds. Hoard is now just the sixth player in OKC history to log a 20-rebound game.

“Big time,” said Daigneault on Hoard’s minutes. “He comes ready to play every night. He comes ready to work every day. High level of professionalism and when you have that kind of habit it’s not surprising that you put him in a tough situation where it’s just walking in the door and playing those types of minutes, not surprising that he performed the way did.”

“I didn’t even know I had so many rebounds,” said Hoard. “It would kind of just fall in my hand a couple of times. A couple of times, I was tracking them down and I just feel like I’ve got a pretty good nose for the ball so that helped me out today.”

Thunder guard Théo Maledon led the Thunder with 28 points in his 35 minutes of action. In the process, the second-year player surpassed 1,000 points for his career. The 28-point effort marked four out of his last five games for Maledon scoring 20 or more points.

“Confidence, aggressiveness,” said Daigneault. “You’ve got to uncover some upside in your game and for him, that’s speed in transition, it’s taking open shots when he’s out there and I think the extended minutes and the role that he’s playing right now is kind of giving them the breathing room to do that and hopefully give him some good momentum as we head into the summer.”

For the fourth consecutive game, Thunder rookie Lindy Waters III lit it up from behind the arc. The Norman, Oklahoma native cashed in five 3-pointers against the Pistons and has now logged the fourth-most games with four or more made 3-pointers among rookies as he has logged seven so far. 

“He’s really good at getting open,” said Thunder forward Olivier Sarr. “He finds the window, he’s always open, ready to of and he lets it fly. He’s confident about it.”

When Jaylen Hoard walked into the Thunder locker room on Friday night, he was greeted by a host of familiar faces. Hoard is one of three French players on the Thunder roster including Théo Maledon and Olivier Sarr. All three Frenchmen played together in at INSEP, an elite sports academy right outside of Paris while also crossing paths in various stints with the French junior national team.

Even before meeting at INSEP, Hoard and Maledon went further back as both of their moms were teammates playing for the French junior national team. 

The connection even crossed oceans as Hoard and Sarr met up as teammates at Wake Forest in the 2018-19 season. If that wasn’t enough, Hoard spent his American high school career at Wesleyan Christian Academy in High Point, North Carolina where he was teammates with current Thunder rookie Aaron Wiggins. 

“Knowing so many guys on the team just made me really comfortable,” said Hoard. “As far as the plays, sets and everything and just being a part of the team, they made everything pretty easy for me. Having all those guys here has been fun.”

Only two more home games remain on the Thunder schedule. As the Thunder’s Legacy Weekend continues, the team will host the Phoenix Suns on Sunday before its home finale against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday.