Injuries sidelined stars, yet the Thunder pulled off two improbable comeback wins. Discover how Wallace and Joe defied the odds.
Here's a fun challenge: guess which recent Oklahoma City Thunder game is being described in the paragraph below.
The Thunder were missing their three primary shot creators in Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell. The opponent they were playing is a Top 5 seed in the Eastern Conference. Mark Daigneault's squad is a rare underdog. OKC gets up by over 20 points. OKC ends up losing that huge lead. Yet the squad somehow pushes back after losing all the momentum and wins in the clutch. Cason Wallace and Isaiah Joe were the standout players that led Oklahoma City to victory.
If you answered the 116-107 road win over the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night, you'd be correct.
If you answered the 121-113 home win over the Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday afternoon, you'd also be correct.
One last common trait that both of OKC's two most previous games shares is that each must be mentioned as one of the Thunder's top five or so best victories of the season. Considering the injury and opponent circumstances, walking away from those two games with a 2-0 record is a bit surprising and more than a bit impressive. The Thunder are now 3-0 coming out of the All-Star Break with Gilgeous-Alexander and Mitchell set to be re-evaluated any day now.
Thunder fans can thank the bench guard duo of Wallace and Joe for surviving this two game gauntlet without their first, second and fourth leading scorers. While both wins certainly were aided by team-wide contributions up and down the deep and talented roster, no two players stood taller than two of the smallest players on the roster.
Wallace tied a career high with 27 points on 11-16 shooting including 4-5 from deep against the Raptors. The NBA's steals leader flirted with a triple double as he added 8 rebounds, 7 assists and 1 steal.
Wallace set a career high with 10 assists and notched his first career double double against the Cavs. He scored 20 points on 4-8 shooting from long range and added 3 steals.
Joe scored 22 points, shot 6-11 from 3 point range, came down with 2 rebounds and dished out 3 assists... against the Raptors and the Cavs. That's not a typo. The only difference in the sharpshooter's box score in the two wins is that he had 5 steals versus the Cavaliers and "only" 2 steals versus the Raptors.
OKC plays the Detroit Pistons on the second night of a road back to back on Wednesday night. The Thunder are an underdog against a Top 5 seed in the East. Gilgeous-Alexander, Williams and Mitchell will all likely still be out.
That script sounds awfully familiar.