Gilgeous-Alexander orchestrates Thunder's dominant win, dissecting Denver's defense and igniting their offense. Clutch threes and offensive grit seal a statement victory.
The Oklahoma City Thunder got a much-needed win over the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night after falling short in some big games recently. This was one of the most impressive wins this team has had in the past couple of weeks and despite Denver being shorthanded, missing players like Cameron Johnson and Aaron Gordon, the Thunder was equally shorthanded without Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso and Ajay Mitchell.
And so these two beat-up teams, who are currently first and second in the Western Conference, came into tonight’s game as the marquee matchup, all eyes on these two squads on NBC Sunday Night Basketball, and the Thunder took care of business.
The 121-111 victory was impressive wire-to-wire. The defense wasn’t as good for the Thunder in totality as it has been at times this season, but the three-point shot was falling, and that’s something the Thunder has not had in quite some time. Not only is the Thunder a bad three-point shooting team of late, but there haven’t been many games in which the Thunder has just flat-out caught fire, but tonight the Thunder did just that.
Oklahoma City knocked down 19 of its 48 three-point shots, shooting 39.6% from beyond the arc. Now, Denver did shoot a better percentage at 45.7% on 16 of 35, but the volume was much lower. The Thunder also shot a worse percentage from the floor overall, but took six more shots, and that was largely a function of winning the battle on the offensive glass and winning the turnover battle.
And so rebounding has been an issue for the Thunder. Tonight, it was not, and it made all the difference. Oklahoma City’s second-chance points were only five to Denver’s 12, but most nights that discrepancy has been much larger of late. The Thunder did not trail the entire game. The game was tied early, but from there it turned into an end-to-end victory for Oklahoma City.
It was a battle between two of the top MVP candidates. Nikola Jokic is still getting back in the swing of things, while Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 34 points, 13 assists and five rebounds on the night, along with a game-high plus-22. Just a phenomenal night for him. He was dissecting the defense. He was orchestrating the offense. He was finding teammates. A lot of the open threes Oklahoma City knocked down came because Shai drew in the defense and kicked it out due to the gravity he demands.
Just an overall incredibly impressive win for the Thunder. From here, OKC heads back home for a matchup against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday.