The Drive and Dish | Dec. 7, 2023

By Nick Gallo | Broadcast Reporter and Digital Editor | okcthunder.com

Recapping the Houston trip, OKC’s Wild Fourth in Dallas, Texas Homecomings and Hustle vs. LA!

The Drive and Dish is here to answer the questions that might be going through your head during a Thunder game by providing experienced insight, highlighting aspects of the game you might have missed and pulling you behind the curtain with anecdotes, analysis, and stats.   

Here’s what you need to know as the Thunder returns home for a two-game home stand against Western Conference foes.

NBA teams who have come to Houston so far this season have been met with a rude welcome – a physical Rockets defense that walls off the paint night after night, allowing under 100 points per game at home. As a result, the Thunder got off to a slow start on Wednesday night, battling through some tough shooting while still managing to stick around. Despite falling behind by double-figures multiple times in the game, the Thunder’s defense hung tough, registering double-digit steals and blocks. 

Late in the third quarter the Thunder cut Houston’s lead to just one after a Tre Mann 3-pointer, but Houston responded with a 7-0 spurt to keep OKC at bay. Houston got hot from 3-point range in the fourth quarter, and the Thunder fell 110-101.

Mann was a nice jolt off the bench for the Thunder, scoring 10 points including a pair of threes to go with three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 24 minutes. It was just the second stint of double-digit minutes for Mann this season, with the other coming in Portland on Nov. 19. After stringing together some good practices, Mann scored 26 points to go with eight rebounds, five assists and three steals for the OKC Blue on Tuesday just hours before hopping on the Thunder’s flight to Houston. On Wednesday, the coaching staff rewarded Mann with more playing time and he took advantage of the opportunity. 

The Thunder had already called three fourth-quarter timeouts when head coach Mark Daigneault signaled for his final timeout of the game with 4:18 left in regulation. Reeling from an unprecedented 30-0 run by the Dallas Mavericks, Daigneault stood outside the huddle with his assistant coaches for a moment like they normally do to give the players a moment to catch their breath. 

During that small window, veteran Kenrich Williams just kept repeating the same phrase: “stick together”. So as the Thunder left the huddle with an after-timeout play drawn up by Daigneault, “stick together” was the mantra that was on repeat in Jalen Williams’ head. He brought the ball up floor, passed it to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and then cut backdoor past Isaiah Joe, who was rushing up the left wing. Gilgeous-Alexander had been double-teamed so he quickly sent the ball to Holmgren, who found Williams on the backdoor cut for an easy dunk. Just like that, the pressure was released, and the Thunder could just play. 

That’s exactly what OKC did over the final 16 possessions remaining in the game, as it shook off that massive Dallas haymaker to go on a 15-3 run to close the game. Joe hit a sidestep 3. Holmgren blocked a couple of shots, grabbed a couple of rebounds and tipped in a couple of misses. Williams attacked and scored, then Gilgeous-Alexander anticipated a weak inbounds pass and stole it for a pick-six layup, leaving the road crowd stunned as the Thunder snuck out of Dallas with a 126-120 victory. 

“When you build a lead, and you kind of have control of a game, teams are gonna throw the kitchen sink at you, and we've got to be able to handle that,” said Daigneault, whose team held Dallas to 1-of-10 shooting and 2 turnovers while shooting 6-of-11 itself in the final four minutes. “We did a great job of getting back to the present moment.”

You’ve got to have a big lead already in order to give up a 30-0 run and still have a chance to win, and the Thunder spent the first 36 minutes of last Saturday’s game building up a big advantage. One of the players who was instrumental to building that lead was Dāvis Bertāns, who had one of the most efficient stat lines you’ll ever see in a game: 15 points on 3-for-3 shooting from the field (all 3-pointers) and 6-for-6 shooting from the free throw line in 11 minutes. 

In just 57 minutes played this season, Bertāns has now been fouled on a three-point attempt five times, and for good reason, because he’s a 40-percent shooter from 3 in his career. After getting a rhythm with a pair of threes already, Bertāns had one of the most shocking plays of the night when he caught the ball at the elbow on a cut, then just extended his cut by dribbling the ball all the way to the corner, turning around and quickly hoisting a 3, which he swished. 

The Thunder flew right over top of I-35 going from Oklahoma City to Dallas on Friday afternoon, but after the team arrived at the hotel, a bus was waiting to go a little further south down that same highway. Along with a big group of teammates, coaches and staff, Kenrich Williams took a ride down to his hometown of Waco to his alma mater, University High School. Williams hosted a camp there this summer to give back to kids who are trying to live out an NBA dream just like he did and on Friday night the school showed him the same type of love by retiring his jersey. 

The next night, it was rookie Cason Wallace’s turn to connect with his high school, but he didn’t have to travel as far – his school came to him. Over 130 people from Richardson High School, Wallace’s alma mater in the Dallas area, came to the Thunder’s game against the Mavericks, including the Richardson boys basketball team. Wallace delivered for his team and his family and friends during his first game back in his hometown, scoring a career-high 15 points to go with a career-best six rebounds. 

Even against a huge Los Angeles Lakers team, the Thunder went to a small lineup with Gilgeous-Alexander, Joe, Wallace, Aaron Wiggins and Kenrich Williams on the floor all at the same time. Those types of lineups, with the speed, length and switch-ability wreaked havoc on the Lakers’ offense and the Thunder came up with the hustle plays to prove it. 

Gilgeous-Alexander ripped the ball out of Lakers guard Max Christie’s hands and went coast to coast for a layup. Josh Giddey chased down an offensive rebound into the corner and then alertly fired to Wallace for a 3. Holmgren got a stop and then saved the ball inbounds in the third quarter, then Joe made the back-breaking play of the night, creating a five-point swing that forced the Lakers to call timeout and take out their starters. 

Helping on the back side of the defense, Joe crashed over as Lakers’ big man Anthony Davis lined up a sure-thing dunk. Instead of conceding the play, which would have cut OKC’s lead to just 13 with 4:09 to go, Joe rose up and made one of his three blocks in the game, wiping the ball right out of Davis’ hands just a split second before the ball would have been flushed through the hoop. On the ensuing run out, Kenrich found Lu Dort for 3 on the right wing and the Thunder was able to ride out the final minutes for a 133-110 victory. 

This is a light week for the Thunder, in addition to another 23 NBA teams during the league’s first-ever In-Season Tournament, which moves to Las Vegas for Thursday night’s semifinals between the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers in the Eastern Conference and the New Orleans Pelicans and ___ in the Western Conference. 

The Thunder is trying to take advantage of some extra rest, the quick trip to Houston and some time at home to build in some more practices, heal up bumps and bruises and give back to the community during the organization’s Holiday Assist program. On Friday, the Thunder will host the Golden State Warriors for what is already the fourth time this season. In just the first week of December, the Thunder and Warriors season series (which OKC leads 2-1) will be complete. 

Next week, the Thunder hosts the Utah Jazz in the division rivals’ first meeting of the year before heading out west to take on the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets on a brief two-game road trip. 

Friday’s game against the Warriors tips off at 7 p.m. CT, then the Thunder will host the Utah Jazz on Monday at Paycom Center. Be sure to tune in on Bally Sports Oklahoma, follow along on our @okcthunder social accounts and stay here on the Thunder App or okcthunder.com.