Oklahoma City Blue falter on opening weekend
By Josh Poteet
OKLAHOMA CITY, Oklahoma – The Oklahoma City Blue (0-2) opened their season with two losses over the weekend as the Thunder affiliate fell to Austin and Texas.
On both days, the Blue were victims to slow starts as the team was outscored a combined 56-34 in the first quarter of their weekend slate — far too much for the defensive-minded team to overcome.
When asked what he should take away from this weekend Blue coach, Mark Daigneault, said “You get a starting point for the team. There is now proof in the pudding that you need to improve.”
Improvement is the name of the game in the NBADL, which means that the Blue staff haven’t lost sight of the most important aspect of what they’re doing.
On Saturday night in their home opener, the Blue, at times, seemed outmatched by an Austin Spurs team that featured four NBA-caliber players in Bryce Cotton, Jarell Eddie, Edy Tavares and Lamar Patterson. The four players combined for 76 of Austin’s 110 points in the Spurs’ victory over the Blue.
Edy Tavares, who has now been recalled by the Hawks, was phenomenal against the Blue as the 7-3 Cape Verdean product logged 18 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks. He dominated Oklahoma City’s big men all night long on both ends of the floor.
Oklahoma City was led by Pittsburgh product, Talib Zanna, who is once again on the Blue roster after spending the summer with the Thunder. The forward had 21 points, eight rebounds and a pair of steals.
Despite Zanna’s strong night, the most explosive player of the night for the Blue was Dez Wells who lit the Spurs up for 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting and paired that with five rebounds in the losing effort. Wells would hurt his hamstring the next day during the Blue’s game against Texas.
But the most exciting play of the night was a dunk from the recently acquired J.P. Tokoto, who put Orlando Johnson on a poster.
That may the best dunk I have seen in Blue history. The North Carolina product said later that the dunk felt good and he was just glad it went in. The explosive guard is going to be a fun player to watch this year once he gets into the rhythm of things.
On Sunday afternoon, another slow start plagued Oklahoma City as they quickly found themselves down 11 at the end of the first. Oklahoma City stormed back in the second quarter to cut the Texas lead down to just five but the wheels would come off just minutes later.
Down 58-56 with 5:44 left in the third frame, Mark Daigneault was forced to keep his best guys on the bench with foul trouble and the Legends closed the quarter on 24-4 run to extend their lead to 22 points. Daigneault was asked about that quarter after the game.
“I made a decision to sit the guys that had four fouls and that’s just a personal philosophy. I put my second unit in and I trust those guys and you try and have all your guys available in the fourth,” Daigneault said.
Unfortunately for the Blue, the Legends were able to wipe the floor with the Blue’s second unit, which would be too much for Oklahoma City to overcome.
Oklahoma City would fight to get back into the game but it was too little too late — the Oklahoma City Blue fell to 0-2 after a 105-96 loss.
After resting on opening night, Dane Miller set a career-high in points as the former Rutgers standout scored 16 points in the loss. Afterward Miller said that he was aggressive and has been working on his shot but he was upset that the Blue couldn’t get the win.
Josh Huestis, who was assigned to the Blue for the opening weekend, struggled mightily in both games. The Thunder forward scored a combined 14 points on 6-of-21 (29 percent) shooting from the field including a 13 percent success rate from beyond the arc. He showed the same struggles as last year on offense but continued to prove that he is a solid defender on the perimeter and had five blocks in the two games.
The Blue will continue their journey on Thursday when they travel to Rio Grande Valley to face off the with Vipers in their first meeting of the year.