Thunder Fall to Wizards in Las Vegas Summer League Matchup
The Oklahoma City Thunder were defeated by the Washington Wizards 105-89 on Friday evening in their fourth game of the Las Vegas Summer League.
Jared Butler led the way for OKC with 22 points, four assists and three rebounds while shooting 8-for-14 from the floor and 4-of-8 from beyond the arc.
The Thunder jumped out to a 5-0 lead to start the game before the Wizards countered with an 8-0 run of their own. After a 3-pointer from Butler, Washington and Oklahoma City were tied at 10 midway through the first quarter.
Coming out of a timeout, rookie guard Cason Wallace knocked down a triple to give the Thunder the lead once again. Washington answered back, going on a 9-0 run while holding OKC to 0-of-5 from the field during that stretch.
Undrafted free agent rookie Hunter Maldonado stopped the run with a layup, followed by a triple from Jaden Shackelford to bring the score to 19-18 in favor of the Wizards.
Washington closed out the opening frame on a 9-2 run to head into the second quarter with a 28-20 advantage.
Butler knocked down his second triple of the game to start the second quarter, cutting the Wizard's lead to five. After another basket by Butler and Shackelford's second 3-pointer of the contest, the Thunder trailed by just two.
A few moments later, Butler connected on a short jump shot to give Oklahoma City a 34-33 lead. Both teams battled back and forth for the next few minutes, tying and trading leads until Washington began to pull away at the end of the half.
Heading into halfrine, the Wizards held a 48-42 advantage over OKC.
Washington maintained its lead in the early moments of the second half before the Thunder began to claw back, with TyTy Washington cutting the Wizards lead to one with three minutes and 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
Ahead 64-63, however, Washington began to pull away yet again, taking a 78-70 lead over Oklahoma City heading into the fourth quarter.
Both teams started the final frame slowly, going a combined 0-of-5 from the field. Following two made shots from Wizard's guard Dejan Vasiljevic, however, Washington led by 13, resulting in a timeout from OKC.
Wallace knocked down another shot from beyond the arc to get the Thunder back within 10, but Washington nailed a triple of its own to extend its lead back to 13. Trailing by 15, Wallace drove to the rim for a dunk, drawing a timeout from Washington's bench with four minutes remaining in the contest.
Shortly after, Wizard's rookie Bilal Coulibaly scored to put Washington ahead 96-79. This deficit would prove to be too much to overcome for Oklahoma City, who ended up falling 105-89.
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