Andre Roberson sits out the Thunder loss in Memphis with the flu

Kevin Durant, the star attraction, missed Monday’s night’s game in Memphis as expected. But he wasn’t the only Thunder starter who sat out.

Shooting guard Andre Roberson woke up with the flu on Monday morning and never felt well enough to play.

“We were gonna wait to see how he responded throughout the day and he got a little bit better, but not in a condition to play,” coach Billy Donovan said pregame. “He (didn’t) eat all day. Unfortunate.”

In his place, Donovan started Kyle Singler, saying he wanted length on the floor to combat with Grizzlies starting small forward Jeff Green.

Roberson is considered day to day.

With just a short one game trip up the road, Durant joined the Thunder in Memphis on Monday night. Cheap Jerseys free shipping KD went through a light but long pregame workout. OKC’s trainers took him through a series of stretching and balancing exercises. Then he did some dribbling for about five minutes followed by stand still shooting.

Durant strained his left hamstring last Tuesday. His MRI came the following day with an announcement from the team he’d be reevaluated in 7 10 days. That seventh day comes on Wednesday.

“He’ll probably go back to the doctors and they’ll take another look at him, probably do an MRI,” Donovan said. “He can move around and do things (right now), pain tolerable. So he’s fine shooting the basketball.”

For the first time in his rookie season, Cameron Payne was given meaningful rotation minutes. Augustin, OKC’s other backup point guard, late in the first quarter.

Playing some point and some off the ball, Payne looked a bit jittery in his seven first half minutes, giving up an and 1 and committing a silly late clock foul.

But he rebounded in the second half, nailing a huge buzzer beater at the end of the third quarter to give the Thunder the lead heading to the fourth. Payne was mobbed by a fired up Russell Westbrook after the shot.

The rookie’s minutes likely came as a result of Roberson’s absence and the need for another perimeter option.

In the first four minutes of Sunday night’s loss to the Celtics, Westbrook nailed his first two 3s. With growing confidence, he fired up eight more throughout the night. He missed all eight.

It was the eighth time in his career Westbrook has taken 10 or more 3s. The Thunder has lost all eight games.

Donovan didn’t seem to mind the shot selection against the Celtics, though.

“The 3 point shots that I struggle with Russell are the ones where he’s really off balance,” Donovan said. “I can’t sit here and say, the 3s where they went under the screen, he had his legs under him. He went straight up and down.http://www.cheapjerseysshow.com I thought he had good rhythm shooting the basketball. Didn’t look like he was laboring, didn’t see any hands in his face.

“So the threes that he took, for the most part, his man kinda went under. Those are the shots that he has to shoot comfortable with his legs under him. And I talked to him before the year started, looking at film, he’s a really good shooter when he’s squared up and going up and down. Then he’s not as good as he can be when he’s off balance. I didn’t notice him taking a lot of off balance 3s.”

On Monday night, Westbrook came up firing again from deep. And he got hot, nailing five of his eight 3 point attempts.

In honor of the Memphis Sounds, a former ABA team, the Grizzlies rocked red “Hardwood Classic” Sounds jerseys on Monday night.

It was a bit of a strange on court look, considering what Thunder fans have gotten used to when seeing this version of the Grizzlies on the court. But the red threads seemed to go over well with spectators.

From here, the Thunder returns home in desperate need of a win to get back on track. Awaiting them is Anthony Davis and the injury riddled, struggling New Orleans Pelicans. Entering Monday, the Pelicans had a 1 9 record, worst in the Western Conference. They’ll be on the second night of a back to back, after facing the Nuggets at home on Tuesday night.