The Thunder has its annual Blue and White Scrimmage at its practice facility in Edmond on Sunday. Here are five takeaways:



SGA stands out



Unlike other Blue and White Scrimmages, the Thunder never had players swap teams on Sunday. So when Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was put on the Blue team opposite Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder, he was in for a heavy work load.



Gilgeous-Alexander couldn’t have handled it better, finishing with a game-high 21 points. He controlled the Blue offense with hesitation dribbles and on-balance drives despite his slender frame and some tough defense, while also drawing fouls and getting to the free throw line at will against any defender.



"He played really well," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. "One of the things that we've done in practice is we've kind of alternated those three point guards, we've had two of the three playing together, we've had all three playing together different combinations. We’d had some time with Chris and Shai playing together some, so letting Shay kind of play the point with that blue team was good.



"I thought he got in the lane, he got guys shots, I thought it was really efficient. Certainly offensively he played really well."



Gilgeous-Alexander scored the first eight points for the Blue team, which looked rudderless without him on the court against the lopsided White squad. Until 2:05 left in the first quarter, no one on the Blue team scored but Gilgeous-Alexander. Terrance Ferguson missed his first three shots before hitting a corner 3-pointer.



The scrimmage was set up in three 10-minute quarters. When Gilgeous-Alexander went out toward the end of the third quarter, the White team was able to seize control and push the lead back to double digits for a 76-60 win.



New offensive wrinkles?



More dribble handoffs. More passes from the big men above the free throw line. A different array of players leading the fast break. More communication.



Much of what happened in front of a select few at the Oklahoma City Blue’s practice facility won’t happen in real games. The Thunder’s offense looked in preseason form, and had its share of speed bumps, but the biggest takeaway was how the shots developed.



Steven Adams had a series of nice passes which led to a game-high three assists, particularly with Adams handling the ball out of the high post above the free throw line instead of closer to the basket in the low post. But it wasn’t limited to Adams, as Darius Bazley moved the ball well playing multiple positions. The 6-foot-9 Bazley even lined up in a super-big lineup as a small forward with Danilo Gallinari at power forward and Mike Muscala at center.

Maddie Lee wrote more about Bazley's debut here.



Sometimes the ball movement backfired. There was so much unselfishness that each team had a couple of shot-clock violations based on overpassing.



Donovan said it was a mixture of players running offense and learning each other on the fly.



"You’ve got to put them in some structure and some alignments and things that are going to take advantage of all those guys skill sets," Donovan said. "Then, they need to learn how to play inside of that. So, it's probably a combination of both."



Blue blunders pile up



As comfortable as Gilgeous-Alexander looked, Ferguson and Hamidou Diallo weren’t quite right for the Blue team.



Ferguson’s shot was off as he tried to create off the dribble, but he was also saddled with at least one late-shot clock opportunity for an offense which struggled to create shots outside of Gilgeous-Alexander. Diallo shot 4-of-9 but also missed two dunks. Ferguson and Diallo combined to shoot just 1-of-5 from 3-point range.



More alarming was the Blue team's wings getting beaten to loose balls by older, smaller players like Paul and Schroder. The Blue team was severely undersized, getting dominated 50-25 in rebounds, but there were defensive rebound opportunities where the Blue team was burned by bad positioning or step-too-late reactions.



Thunder being careful with Roberson



Andre Roberson warmed up with the team Sunday, but after a week of preseason practice, the Thunder decided to rest him in the scrimmage.



Donovan was noncommittal when asked if Roberson would play in the Thunder’s first preseason game Tuesday in Tulsa against the Mavericks. Roberson has scrimmaged and practiced without restrictions this preseason, but hasn’t played in a real game since rupturing the patellar tendon in his left knee Jan. 27, 2018.



"We're not going to push him into situations where we're going to set him back," Donovan said. "We want to do what's best for him. He's had a long road coming back. He's made really significant strides."



Finishing needs work



Where have we heard this before: The Thunder’s finishing could improve.



While the scrimmage was physical and players didn’t allow many easy baskets, the Thunder had issues finishing even the simplest of looks at the rim. From the perimeter, the teams unofficially combined to shoot 10-of-34 from 3-point range.



Muscala showed an immediate ability to hit catch-and-shoot 3’s, knocking down 3-of-7 attempts. Nader struggled to finish inside, but made 3-of-5 from deep.