The Memphis Hustle were finally back home after their Western Conference road trip and looked to overcome their cold streak versus the Oklahoma City Blue. The Hustle, who are still being impacted by a lack of depth, were immediately pushed to their limits by OKC, who came out on fire out of the gate and jumped out to an early double-digit lead as fast as the game got started, and Memphis wasn’t able to recover from it.
Oklahoma City was led by the charge of two-way forward Ousmane Dieng, who erupted for 25 points, 11 rebounds, six assists, three blocks, and two steals en route to the Blue blowout. The Blue crashed the glass for 69 boards, outrebounding Memphis by 25 and holding them to 33% shooting from the floor on the evening, which completely boxed them out of gaining any sort of traction in this matchup.
Adonis Arms continued his streak of carrying the load for this Hustle team to the best of his ability, scoring 22 points in this one to go along with eight boards and four assists, leading the team in scoring, rebounding, and steals in the tough loss on Friday evening. As mentioned prior, the Hustle were outrebounded by 25 and held to a frigid 33% in an evening where nothing seemed to go right. Eric Williams Jr. also made his NBA G League debut in this one, notching his first bucket as well in the second quarter.
Depth and constant changes in the roster are continuing to be a major struggle for the team this season.
The Hustle will look to run it back Sunday afternoon for some payback versus this same Oklahoma City Blue team live at the Landers Center at 1:00 p.m. CDT.
For tickets, call (901) 888-HOOP, visit https://memphis.gleague.nba.com/ticket-central, or visit the Landers Center box office.
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(Picture via @MemphisHustle on Instagram)