Recap: Thunder vs. Suns

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

Box Score: OKC vs. PHX

The crowd inside Paycom Center was rocking and in the second to last home game of the regular season, the Thunder was leaving it all out there on the court. Despite going up against one of the most talented and experienced teams in all of the NBA who was at full strength, the Thunder hung in there throughout the night and gave the Phoenix Suns a scare in a 128-118 loss. 

While the teams played evenly in the first quarter thanks to physicality and hustle from the Thunder, the second quarter belonged to the Suns, who put up 42 points in the frame. As the Thunder has done all season, the response by OKC out of halftime was determined. Out-scoring the Suns by 5, the Thunder was able to get downhill to the rim more frequently, contest shots by the Suns better and battled on the glass. 

After chipping away and chipping away throughout the second half, Isaiah Joe made a catch-and-shoot three off of a post-up kick-out by Josh Giddey that suddenly cut Phoenix’s lead to just 3 at 109-106. As the teams went back and forth, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made a steal on the weak side and it led to a Lu Dort run out and a putback bucket by Jalen Williams. During those clutch time moments, however, Gilgeous-Alexander was blocked in transition on a sure-thing layup on a play that could have resulted in a foul call, and on the other end Chris Paul hit a tough three off the dribble that gave the Suns some breathing room in the final minutes. 

The Thunder tried to set a tone from the very outset of this game to throw off a regimented Suns team that relies on sharp execution offensively. Instead of having Jaylin Williams at the jump ball circle, the Thunder had the shorter Jalen Williams go up against DeAndre Ayton, then sprung a double-team on Phoenix’s Devin Booker in the backcourt that completely froze the scoring machine. More than a tactic, it was a message that OKC was going to compete from wire to wire. Throughout the first quarter the Thunder doubled Booker and forced him to give up the ball early in possessions, holding him to just six points in 12 first quarter minutes. 

Against a team that is as efficient as Phoenix, the Thunder had to rack up as many extra possessions as it could in this one and Lu Dort was a major catalyst to that effort. On two first quarter possessions, Dort tapped a loose offensive rebound into a better position for his team to snap up the ball, and the two opportunities led to five Thunder points. The first was a missed3that Dort tapped over to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for a runner that he banked in off the glass, plus the foul. A few plays later, it was Dort tipping a rebound to himself, then bullying his way to the ball to get the second chance for his team. Recognizing that Aaron Wiggins was wide open on the wing, Dort slipped the ball back out and it resulted in a catch-and-shoot 3. 

Despite the Suns scoring 42 points in the second quarter on some very hot shooting, the Thunder used a trio of hustle plays to stay within striking distance in this one. Two Fort Smith duo of Isaiah Joe and Jaylin Williams both took charges on future Hall-of-Fame players, as Joe stepped in front of Kevin Durant to snap his 18th charge of the season, which has him in the top 10 in the NBA this season. Williams, of course, is first in the league in that charge category, and he got into position to draw a charge on Chris Paul. It was Lindy Waters III, however, who was the most efficient with his hustle play - in just one minute of first half action, Waters smartly double-teamed Durant on a spin move at the right elbow, ambushing the Suns wing and ripping the ball right out of his hands. 

On another second chance opportunity for the Thunder, Oklahoma City executed like it was a fast break, which is exactly what the coaching staff is teaching. Jalen Williams swung the ball to the top of the key to Aaron Wiggins and without hesitation, Wiggins attacked a close out, slicing right through the lane and finishing with a layup right past the outstretched arms of the Suns’ rim protection. On the season, about half of Wiggins’ points come in the paint, as he’s shooting over 66 percent from the restricted area on the year. 

Josh Giddey didn’t have a great shooting night, but he made some timely ones in the third quarter when the Thunder went plus-five on the scoreboard. Attacking off a broken floor situation, Giddey caught a pass from Dort and went baseline to float a push shot over the top of the block attempt by Phoenix center DeAndre Ayton. Later in the quarter, Giddey took a pass from Gilgeous-Alexander and buried a catch-and-shoot 3 from the left wing as a part of a 16-point, nine-rebound, eight-assist night. That gives Josh 44 games this season and 63 in his career of at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists. 

Wiggins was bottled up on the baseline, looking for an outlet and offensively Gilgeous-Alexander has been one of the most effective and efficient options in the entire league all season. After catching the ball on the baseline, Shai put his head down and went right to the rim, scored at the bucket and got the foul too. All season long SGA has been a scoring machine in the third quarter and was once again on Sunday, racking up 17 of his 39 total points in the frame. On the year, Shai is averaging 10.2 points per third quarter, and 31.5 points per game total. 

Every team needs a sparkplug off the bench and for the Thunder one of its most reliable players has been Wiggins. Once again, he was in the mix in the opening stages of the fourth quarter, at one point scoring nine-straight Thunder points. First he cut backdoor and got fouled, hitting both free throws, then he defended Kevin Durant and helped generate two consecutive stops by deflecting entry passes and continuing to move. Wiggins spun and hit a shot in the middle of the lane, then he cut baseline and finished on the baseline by flipping in a short layup. For the game, Wiggins racked up 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting, including a pair of 3s. 

The Thunder tried to switch up defenses all night - going with a zone look, trapping in the back court and then double-teaming Phoenix’s stars, but in the fourth quarter OKC gained some traction by putting 6-foot-4 Lu Dort on 6-foot-10 Kevin Durant. The strategy worked over the first six minutes or so of the fourth quarter, as Phoenix kept sending the ball into Durant for post ups or isolations. While he’s one of the best in the league on those plays, Dort’s activity on Durant also bogged down the Suns’ offense enough for the Thunder to shave a 16-point lead down to six. Out of a timeout though, Phoenix put Durant in the corner where OKC couldn’t pressure him or take the ball out of his hands, and the Suns made him a standstill shooter while Chris Paul and Devin Booker were the playmakers. Durant hit two threes from the corner and then another on the wing that put this game out of reach.

“I told the team after the game, we’ve got a week left of the regular season and if we bring the same level of focus competitiveness, physicality, execution, game plan, if we bring the same level of that to all these games, we'll be able to lay our head on the pillow at night. I just thought we played at a really high level today and they were just the better team on this day.” –Coach Daigneault 

“We were together and we played hard for the whole game tonight. And usually when we do those two things at that level, we win the game. They’re a really good basketball team and they beat us tonight. But if we do that most nights, we’ll be good.” –Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

The Thunder hits the road once again, out to the west coast for the final trip of the season against Golden State and Utah before coming back home for the final game of the regular season against Memphis.

By Zach Beeker | OKC Thunder