By the end of the second overtime, the story of the Milwaukee-Oklahoma City game no longer centered on how awesome Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is or how Jevon Carter suddenly looked like one of the best players in the world. Instead, it centered on the OKC home crowd expressing its anger by ruthlessly booing the officiating.
A hot Thunder crowd’s flair slowly sizzled out with multiple referee stoppages and culminated at the end of the game when the fans booed the officiating.
The Thunder eventually lost to the Bucks in double overtime, 136-132.
With the Bucks missing its star trio of Giannis Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Jrue Holiday, they could not simply rely on elite talent to coast through a win.
Instead, as was shown early on in the game, the Bucks relied on a physical brand of basketball. The message was sent when a Gilgeous-Alexander drive to the basket resulted in him on the ground and wincing in pain with Grayson Allen. Eventually, both players resumed playing without any problems, but the message was delivered.
Despite the Bucks missing their best players, they were not going to let a hot and young Thunder squad hand them their second loss of the season without a fight.
The ensuing result was a 58-minute long thriller between a championship contender and a rebuilding team. While it was not the result the Thunder was looking for, there were definitely encouraging signs throughout the three-plus hour long game.
The Bucks were led by Carter, who scored a career-high 36 points and 12 assists. Allen contributed with 18 points. Rookie MarJon Beauchamp scored a career-high 19 points in the win. Brook Lopez collected a 24-point and 13-rebound double-double and hit the game-tying free-throw in the first overtime on a questionable foul call.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: A-plus
It’s become expected, but Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to put up stat lines that make it hard to leave him out of the MVP discussion — regardless of the Thunder’s record.
After struggling against the Bucks in the first go-around, scoring a season-low 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting, Gilgeous-Alexander responded with 39 points on 13-of-25 shooting and an 11-of-13 effort from the free-throw line.
It looked like Gilgeous-Alexander added an MVP moment to his resume this season when he hit a stepback three to give the Thunder a one-point lead with 1.2 seconds left, but alas, a costly foul spoiled that highlight. Which leads to the next player grade…
SGA applying the defensive pressure 😤 pic.twitter.com/K3clBNazp9
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
One dribble and the guys are off to the races 💨 pic.twitter.com/Ht1EE4bekt
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Shai drops off a pretty dime to JRE 🔥 pic.twitter.com/GP9JrXlHSD
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Shai making things even late in the third. pic.twitter.com/dHWg1sGSTz
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Lu Dort: B
Despite the costly and questionable shooting foul on Lopez at the end of the first overtime, Dort played one of his better games in recent memory.
With 0.6 seconds left, the only legit inbound pass the Bucks could run was a lob pass to Lopez in the hopes that he either made a shot or drew a foul in the process. Covered in controversy, that’s exactly what happened with Dort being called for a foul after Lopez fell.
After the game, Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault was not pleased with the officiating — but not for the reasons one might think.
Daigneault was more upset about the referee’s messing up administrative stuff — like not knowing whether or not a team was in the bonus. In terms of the Dort foul on Lopez, Daigneault was more understanding of the referees, saying judgement calls are hard to make and criticize.
In 40 exhausting minutes, Dort finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and three assists. On the defensive side, Dort stole the ball four times.
After struggling with his offense the previous string of games, Dort looked much better tonight and hopefully is a sign of things to come.
Lu Dort fouled Brook Lopez with 0.06 on clock and FTs to tie or win pic.twitter.com/gUhBeMzYjp
— Alex 👋 (@Dubs408) November 10, 2022
It was a hard-fought, double overtime thriller tonight as the Thunder fall to the Milwaukee Bucks at home.
🎥 Watch full highlights | https://t.co/GXHKC8MsRs pic.twitter.com/co86uJG1w9
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Josh Giddey: A-minus
After laying several eggs in a row, Josh Giddey turned in his first respectable performance in recent games.
In 44 minutes, Giddey finished with 18 points on 9-of-19 shooting, 15 rebounds and six assists.
This is Giddey’s third career 15-plus rebound game. Among Thunder guards, Giddey is already ranked second all-time in this category behind Russell Westbrook’s 39 games.
The most impressive string of possessions with Giddey involved him underneath the rim, where he collected two consecutive offensive rebounds that resulted in the Thunder tying the game with 54.5 seconds left off a Dort dunk. Overall, Giddey grabbed five offensive boards.
The Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey backcourt is a funky experiment that’ll take a while to figure out, but in this game, it turned out as well as one could hope.
Giddey notches things up in OT pic.twitter.com/FyLVcLqVqX
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Tre Mann: A-minus
It appears this was the get right game for several struggling Thunder players as Tre Mann also turned in a fantastic performance.
Mann finished with 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting and went 5-of-9 from three. Before this game, Mann was struggling with his shot, being one of the worst high-volume three-point shooters in the league.
Mann’s 3-point percentage should definitely jump up after a performance like this.
Tre Mann crossover to sink the floater @OGandE Power Play of the Game pic.twitter.com/nPYCurbMFl
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
Aleksej Pokusevski: B
Despite taking an ill-advised shot at the end of regulation, it’s really hard to criticize Aleksej Pokusevski’s night.
After missing the last two games with a shoulder injury, Pokusevski got the starting nod and finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds in 39 minutes.
The only reason he’s at a B instead of an A is the bad 3-point shot he took seven seconds into the final regulation possession for the Thunder.
With the game tied and 25.1 seconds left on the clock, the Thunder had a shot to drain the clock down to one second and make it nearly impossible to lose if they hit a go-ahead shot.
Instead, a Pokusevski rushed a 3-point attempt, air-balled it and gave the Bucks a chance to walk it off. Thankfully for the Thunder, that wasn’t the case. But a golden opportunity to win this in regulation slipped through their fingers.
Connecting early from downtown 👌 pic.twitter.com/oSKh7H9VkX
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) November 10, 2022
