Shorthanded Thunder lose another nail-biter as Quickley's big night propels the Raptors to victory in a defensive slugfest.
The Oklahoma City Thunder, for the second consecutive game, fell to an Eastern Conference opponent, largely due to being shorthanded. Oklahoma City remains without most of its top-12 rotation players and even lost Cason Wallace during Sunday night’s contest. This time, it came against the Toronto Raptors in another game that went down to the wire, just like Friday night’s loss to the Indiana Pacers, with the Thunder falling 103–101.
The game was back and forth for most of the night. Toronto jumped out early and built a small lead, but from there it turned into a rock fight. It was a defensive-oriented game, as neither team was able to score consistently. Both defenses were locked in, which made sense given that the Thunder and Raptors both rank among the top four defensive teams in the NBA.
Oklahoma City did a solid job containing Toronto’s primary options, keeping Scottie Barnes, Brandon Ingram, and RJ Barrett relatively quiet. However, it was Immanuel Quickley who made the difference, finishing with 23 points and 11 rebounds in a standout performance.
For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an efficient but relatively subdued night by his standards, scoring 24 points on 8-of-11 shooting. The low shot volume was largely a result of Toronto’s defensive game plan, which focused on taking the ball out of his hands and forcing other players to beat them.
Lu Dort chipped in 19 points, Kenrich Williams added 15, and Chet Holmgren finished with 11 points and 10 rebounds. Isaiah Joe scored 10, while Aaron Wiggins contributed 11. Oklahoma City had six players reach double figures, but only received 11 total points from the rest of the roster, which ultimately wasn’t enough in a tight, low-scoring game.
The familiar issues showed up again. The Thunder were out-rebounded, struggled badly from beyond the arc at just 25.6% from three, and failed to generate their usual edge in turnovers and points off turnovers, a key pillar of their success throughout the season.
On the surface, the Thunder appear to be in a bit of a rut when looking at recent box scores and results, but context matters. Oklahoma City is currently without a significant portion of its rotation, including Isaiah Hartenstein, Ajay Mitchell, Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso, and now Cason Wallace as well.
That’s effectively five of the team’s top nine playoff rotation players sidelined. While the Thunder probably could have, and maybe should have, found a way to win these last two games against inferior Eastern Conference opponents, there’s little reason for concern long term.
This simply isn’t the version of the Thunder that will be seen in the postseason. The losses are more a reflection of availability than any meaningful flaws in Oklahoma City’s overall trajectory.