Strong Start Leads to Thunder Win

By Nick Gallo and Paris Lawson | okcthunder.com

Box Score: OKC 129, UTA 119

All season long the Thunder has been working to get off to better starts and not have to come from behind in games, and this weekend OKC led wire-to-wire for all 96 minutes of action against the Northwest Division rival Utah Jazz, scoring 259 points in two games. 

Bursting out to an 18-6 start, the Thunder eventually built a 24-point lead behind a focused defensive effort that set up free flowing offensive attacks where guys just played off of one another. After halftime the Thunder had a chance to experience something it hasn’t in recent games - an opponent trying to chase them down and chop into their lead. 

After a 16-4 third quarter run by Utah to make it a 10-point game, the Thunder got a play from its leader Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who returned to the floor tonight after missing five-straight games due to health and safety protocols and an abdominal strain. After a teammate got his shot blocked, Gilgeous-Alexander dove on the floor for the loose ball and quickly flipped the ball to Isaiah Joe who buried a three just as the shot clock expired. That hustle play changed the tenor of the game, and in the fourth quarter the Thunder continued pushing the pedal down by getting defensive stops and moving the ball on offense to generate easy offense. By sharing it and playing the right way on both ends, the Thunder ran away with a 129-119 victory.  

Paris: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander missed the last five games with a combination of both an abdominal strain and health and safety protocols. The Thunder’s All-Star returned to the lineup on Sunday and immediately got on the scoreboard on the opening possession. Gilgeous-Alexander received a behind the back pass from Josh Giddey with the clock winding down on the shot clock. He quickly turned, faded and released the ball high above the hand of the defender and sank the jumper as the shot clock expired. Gilgeous-Alexander drained another stepback jumper that sent Jordan Clarkson flying, a stop and pop 3-pointer in transition and by the end of the first quarter, SGA registered a game-high 13 points on 5-of-7 from the field.

Nick: Once again the Thunder’s defense connected to its offense, so while it held Utah to just eight points through the first six minutes of action, the ball movement on the other end met the moment. OKC got assists on three of its first four-made baskets and got a pair of catch-and-shoot threes from Jalen Williams and Josh Giddey on excellent extra passing. In the first half alone the Thunder racked up 35 points to once again deliver the first punch against Utah, but also to continue a recent trend as OKC has scored at least 30 in 18 of the last 28 first quarters. 

Paris: Ousmane Dieng sized up his defender, a much shorter Juan Toscano-Anderson attempted to contain the 6-foot-10 rookie. Dieng recognized the mismatch and immediately went into attack mode toward the rim. He took on a lot of contact from Toscano-Anderson but it didn’t deter Dieng from his drive or his finish. The young Frenchman has had the homework assignment both in his time with the OKC Blue and with the Thunder of playing with force and a punch on both ends of the floor and the play against Toscano-Anderson is exactly what the Thunder coaching staff has been looking for. Dieng posted nine points in the first half and finished with 12 total. 

Nick: With his eyes always up the floor, Josh Giddey picked out a streaking big man, a player who the team has immediately gained trust in after joining the team a couple weeks ago - Dario Šarić. The full-court pass set Šarić up with two Jazz players trying to track him down. Staying patient under the rim against the converging defenders, which included the shot-blocking specialist Walker Kessler, Šarić got his footwork right and let Kessler fly past him to leave the rim wide open for a layup. Alongside Dieng, Šarić scored eight points in eight first half minutes and helped lead the Thunder’s bench to 29 points overall in the game. 

Paris: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander already racked up 30 points by the midway point of the third quarter. Rather than rest on his high-scoring statline, Gilgeous-Alexander brought it big time on the defensive end as well. SGA dove on the floor for a loose ball which led to a 3-pointer for Isaiah Joe. It wasn’t the flashiest play for Gilgeous-Alexander against Utah, but it was the biggest play of the game for OKC who used the momentum to fend off the 13-5 run by Utah midway through the frame. In addition to his 38 points, seven rebounds, three steals, and one block, OKC’s scoring leader committed to the critical, invisible elements of the game such as hustling for loose balls and making the extra pass. 

Nick: One of the Thunder players who is best at getting the offensive blender going is Giddey and on Sunday he was completely in tune with his teammates coming out of the locker room at halftime. On the Thunder’s first possession he kicked and dished to Jalen Williams for a catch-and-shoot 3, then a few possessions later he found JDub again for a corner jumper. With the defense geared up for him to pass it, Giddey froze the defense with a pump fake up top, then blew by his man on a drive to finish a runner in the lane. Giddey’s offensive assistance helped the Thunder reach 100 points by the end of the third quarter for the 13th time this season. For the game, Giddey racked up 24 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, giving him 33 games this season with at least 10-5-5, the sixth most in the NBA this season. 

Paris: Jalen Williams attacked the left side of the floor after a series of crossovers on Fontecchio. The rookie took on continuous contact as he drove to the basket, but continued his line and finished the layup instead. On the next possession, Williams stepped into a 3-pointer in transition – his third of the night which marked a new career high. With his career-high 32 points for the night, J-Dub demonstrated his ability and comfort to score at all three levels offensively while also getting things done defensively with a pair of blocks and steals to go with five rebounds and five assists. 

Nick: With the Thunder’s lead cut down to 12 again with just over two minutes to go, the Thunder could have caved to some game pressure and tried to squeeze the proverbial steering wheel too tight. Instead, the Thunder trusted its ball movement as Gilgeous-Alexander swung the ball to Giddey who fired to Jaylin Williams in the corner for an in-rhythm long two-pointer. The bucket helped push the lead out a bit further, ensuring the Thunder finished off the wire-to-wire victory. The Thunder scored 129 points and finished this home-home mini-series with Utah by scoring at least 28 points in all eight quarters by staying disciplined to its offensive style. 

“We knew they were going to come out and play tonight. I just thought our guys started the game really well, especially defensively. We were up 18-6 and were in our spots and making them earn everything. We made some shots early, they missed some, but we forced them to go to jump shots early and took away the easy stuff, and it set the tone for the game.” –Coach Daigneault 

“Coach (Daigneault) said before the game it was going to be a zero and zero mentality game. And I think if we focus on that going in, everybody put the last game behind us and try to just focus on winning games and doing what it takes, that we're going to be alright. I think we did that for the most part today.”–Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

“All year we've been talking about coming out fast and kind of imposing our will and I thought we did a good job of that. Obviously a lot of that is Shai coming back and we're all kind of playing our normal spots too. So it was a lot more comfortable of a feel. Just kind of imposing our will from the start kind of carried us on so even when they made a run later in the game we still had that cushion.” –Jalen Williams

To close out the Thunder’s six-game homestand, OKC hosts the Golden State Warriors on the front end of a home-road back to back as the team heads to Phoenix to take on the Suns. 

By Zach Beeker | OKC Thunder