Maybe Steven Adams’ scoring is the Thunder’s offensive solution

And seven more things from Tuesday night.

Dec 6, 2017, 12:00 PM UTC

Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

The Oklahoma City Thunder have taken a lot of heat for their 8-12 start to the season, but a 100-94 win over the Jazz on Tuesday night capped off a three-game winning streak. The wins haven’t come comfortably, but a win’s a win for a team desperate to crack the top-eight in the Western Conference.

OKC isn’t solved, but there’s been one real difference-maker across the streak, and his name isn’t Russ, Paul, or Carmelo. Steven Adams has scored 66 points across the three wins on 28-of-34 shooting. That includes a perfect 11 of 11 and a career-high 27 points. He seems to be benefitting most from the spacing of OKC’s new shooters.

“Steven’s not doing anything different than maybe what he’s done in the past,” head coach Billy Donovan said, according to Fred Katz.

“I think a lot of people don’t see, they look at Carmelo, ‘Oh, he’s only taking seven or eight shots in two game,’ and they miss the big picture for what the guy’s done for Steven Adams. It should be one point for Steven and one point for Carmelo. One point for Steven, one point for Paul. It’s a team.”

Donovan has a point, and even though the Big 3 didn’t shoot well, they beat one of the best defensive teams in the league, including maybe the best defensive player, Rudy Gobert. Meanwhile, Adams scored another 20 points 9-of-10 shooting.

Russ triple-doubling of course helped, too:

Bradley Beal was FIRE

Beal went off for a career-high 51 points, the third-most in Wizards history, to give Washington a 106-92 win over the Trail Blazers — without John Wall.

The Wizards put up just 69 points the game before, and Beal almost outdid that himself on 21-of-37 shooting the following night. He was unreal, connecting from everywhere. He hit 5 of 12 from three-point range and outdueled Damian Lillard AND C.J. McCollum alone.