Fourth-Quarter Burst Lifts Thunder

By Nick Gallo and Paris Lawson | okcthunder.com

Box Score: OKC 139, POR 129

The Thunder kept telling itself in the second half that whichever team was able to buckle down and string stops together would be the one to come away victorious in Friday night’s wild west shootout in Portland. It was a game of undulating runs between both teams: 10-2, then a 6-0 response, a five-point play and a four-point play thwarted by a 12-1 Thunder spurt, then in the third quarter three straight Portland Trail Blazers threes before a 7-0 Thunder response. 

But spanning the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth, the Blazers outscored the Thunder 13-0 and took a nine-point lead with 10:01 remaining. It looked like OKC might be on the ropes in the third game of a week-long west coast road trip against a hungry Portland team looking to avenge two December losses inside Paycom Center. 

Instead, the Thunder dug deep, dug in and ripped off one of the most overwhelming runs it has put together all season long. In the span of eight minutes, OKC ripped off a 33-9 burst, forcing seven Blazers turnovers and leaving the Moda Center crowd whiplashed by the stop-bucket-stop-bucket onslaught. Steals turned into runouts and rebounds became drives and dishes as the Thunder ran through the finish line of this road trip with a 138-129 victory. 

Nick: Josh Giddey was a whiz with the basketball throughout the first quarter, finding teammates on their way to the rim on three separate occasions in the opening six minutes of the game. Two of those passes went to Kenrich Williams, who wiggled his way to the middle of the paint and freed himself up for drop off passes for layups. A couple minutes later, the Thunder worked some nice action on the weakside, getting a pindown screen for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who bent around the screen and turned the corner to flash into the lane. Giddey found him with a perfectly timed bounce pass, and Shai did the rest. For the game, Giddey finished with seven assists to go with 19 points and six rebounds. He now has generated 1,500 points this year between his own scoring and points generated by his assists. 

Paris: The free throw line played a big factor for both teams in the first quarter. Both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Damian Lillard combined to shoot 14 freebies. Lillard and SGA both rank in the top 10 in the league in percentage of their total points that come from the free throw line. That trend held up in the first frame as Gilgeous-Alexander posted six of his 16 points came from the charity stripe and Lillard received six of his 20 first quarter points from the free throw line. By the end of the night, SGA finished with a career-high 18 made free throws on 19 attempts. 

Nick: Eugene Omoruyi cut baseline, playing with that constant energy and movement that he’s shown all season long. Making yourself available on the move when Giddey is on the floor is always a good decision if you’re a Thunder player, and suddenly the ball was in Omoruyi’s hands as he was sprinting underneath the rim. With only one option at his disposal, Omoruyi scored on a reverse layup, notching his first points as a full-time Thunder roster player. On Friday, his contract was converted from the two-way deal that he was on, making him the next in the line of Thunder players to earn that in-season upgrade. 

Paris: After missing the last six games with a right hamstring strain, Thunder defensive ace Lu Dort made his return to the lineup in the second quarter. It was Dort’s first action since January 25th against Atlanta. He drilled his very first shot that he took in the game and in the very next possession, drew one of his patented offensive fouls while fighting over a screen while guarding Damian Lillard. Dort played in limited minutes for the night but finished the game with 18 points on a perfect 6-of-6 shooting from the field and 3-for-3 from deep.  

Nick: Late in the third quarter, the Portland Trail Blazers decided to start trapping GIlgeous-Alexander out top with more alacrity, but it’s a defensive look that the All-Star has seen all year. Prepared for the pressure, Gilgeous-Alexander dragged the extra defender with him towards the elbow, then kicked back out to Isaiah Joe, who he knew would be settled in his spot on the left wing. Shai’s pass was on time and on target, and Joe buried the jumper. 

Paris: Jerami Grant worked on the block to try to post up the smaller Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. However, SGA ranks fifth in the league in STOCKS (steals plus blocks) per game and wouldn’t relent an easy entry into the post. The all-star reached sneakily around Grant and poked away the pass attempt which sent the Thunder off to the races in transition. Shai’s defense was on display all throughout the night as the guard finished with two steals and one block. 

Nick: Two Thunder wings who had some tough plays to shake off, but in Oklahoma City resiliency has always been the most prized attribute. After racking up five fouls in a starting role against Damian Lillard, second year guard Aaron Wiggins re-entered the game in a small-ball lineup that featured Gilgeous-Alexander, Dort, Kenrich Williams and Jalen Williams. After a missed jumper by Shai on the baseline, Wiggins crashed in with physicality, unafraid of fouling out, and battled his way to a second chance putback. The bucket was a catalyst during a 33-9 Thunder run in the middle stages of the quarter, a burst that helped erase a nine-point deficit and turn it into a 15-point lead. Later, Jalen Williams shook off a couple tough turnovers and helped spur a 12-0 run with a relentless driving attack around Anfernee Simons to finish at the cup. 

Paris: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander attacked hard to the middle of the floor. When he was approached by helpside defender Shaedon Sharpe, the fifth-year guard bounced the ball one last time and brought it high above both his head and the head of the defender before throwing down an uncontested dunk. It was a new move displayed from SGA’s bag of tricks and gave him his sixth 40-point game of his career and his second of the last four games. SGA finished the night with a game-high 44 points on 13-of-16 shooting from the field and 18-of-19 from the free throw line.  

“I thought we relied on each other on this road trip and really all season. When things get hard, we have to band together and this is a group that's done that.” –Mark Daigneault

“It speaks to our maturity. A lot of guys on this team have been on the team the past couple years and we're starting to figure it out and I think that's what the best teams do. They have a problem and they fix it in real time and make adjustments throughout the game and figure out how to win games. I think we're getting better and better at that.” –Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

With the Thunder’s three-game west coast road swing in the books, the team returns to OKC for a two-game homestand before the All-Star Break against the New Orleans Pelicans and Houston Rockets on Monday and Wednesday. 

by Zach Beeker | OKC Thunder