Oklahoma City, OK – The Thunder welcome the Toronto Raptors to town as the winners of two straight and looked to make it three in a row before they head back out on the road then get a few days off to rest a little.
To give the game a little more juice, the if the Thunder won, and the Wolves lost, head coach Mark Daigneault and his staff would be heading to Indianapolis for the Allstar break with Mark as the head coach of the Western Conference Allstars.
They did not come out like a team that wanted their coach in Indianapolis at the Allstar break.
Offensively, it was a little tough for them to get to their bread and butter by establishing themselves in the paint. The Raptors doubled Shai Gilgeous-Alexander higher than teams normally do and that disrupted the whole Thunder offense. The Thunder shot 7-25 from three in the first half and most of those misses were open looks. However, they could have gotten better looks.
When Shai would pass out of the double team, he’d pass to an open guy but the Thunder hadn’t really worked for that open look so it wasn’t really the best shot they could get. Plus they doubled off of the “worst” shooter on the floor. They were playing into everything the Raptors wanted them to do which is keep them out of the paint.
Defensively wasn’t much better. Simply put, on that end of the floor they are very soft. Every drive was easy with the Raptors getting to their spots at will and them creating an imbalance on the floor was really easy leading to them taking a 16 point lead into halftime.
If the Thunder wanted to wanted to get back into this game they’d need to make some major adjustments.
This adjustment did not come when they came out in the third quarter. Defense continued to be soft and the Thunder still couldn’t hit any shots. They got down by as much as 23 and it looked like it was going to be a night the starters got some rest in the fourth due to being down by a lot.
Then they woke up.
They finally started to hit the threes they had been missing for most of the game but more importantly, their defense had improved. Thunder finally started to look like the Thunder. Using a 19-2 run to get back into the game, Thunder beat the raptors 34-24 in the third and we had a game going into the fourth.
With no Jalen Williams for the Thunder, Mark Daigneault elected to start Shai at the beginning of the fourth quarter to keep the momentum going and it paid off. The Thunder grabbed the lead at the beginning of the quarter and from that point on it was a back and forth game.
What looked like a blowout loss for the Thunder turned into one of the best games of the season for any team. Neither team could get any separation and we saw two overtimes with both teams running on nothing but adrenaline and it was the Thunder who outlasted the Raptors. It didn’t look like the Raptors didn’t have any legs in the second OT while the Thunder took it to another gear and ended up winning 135-127.
Here are the reasons for the win
Everyone Wanting To Score 20
For the third time in Thunder history, the Thunder had five guys score 20 or more points in a game. It was especially needed on a night like tonight against the Raptors.
With the way they Raptors were defending Shai (doubling him higher than normal) and packing the paint, it was tougher than normal for him to get going and it was imperative for other guys to step up. Especially with Jalen Williams out. In the first half shots weren’t really falling but the Thunder didn’t lose confidence and kept at it starting to hit shots.
They really showed their depth tonight. Nights like this where they can have multiple guys step up in a much needed time shows the growth of this team and how far they’ve come in such a short time.
In the time since the Thunder have been in Oklahoma City (2008-09), a team has had five guys score 20 or more points in a game five times now. The Thunder now have three of those instances.
Franchise Tying 3 Point Shooting
It was another night where the Thunder shot more threes (63) than shots taken in the paint (39). A lot more.
Once again, on most nights, when the Thunder take more threes than they do shots in the paint I’d be saying how that can’t happen because that isn’t how the Thunder play. But again, if they can keep hitting so many then it won’t really matter.
In the first half, it looked like it was going to be a night where taking more threes than shots in the paint hurt them but they figured out how to start hitting shots. It was particularly important for them to do so because the Raptors did a great job of taking the paint away from the Thunder.
They took what the Raptors were giving them and it backfired on them because the Thunder tied a franchise record for threes (23) in game.
Playing Hot Potato with the Ball
The ball movement all night for the Thunder was pretty good and became excellent in the second half.
In the first half, they were making the right reads and if they made more open shots they would have ended up with more assists. In the second half, it wasn’t just making one or two passes out of the Shai double teams. They really worked the ball around and got better looks. They also got a little bit going in the paint which led to even better looks
The decision making is the main thing that led to the excellent ball movement and creating 40 assists for the Thunder.
The Thunder had a very balanced night with no one really going off like you’d assume. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 23 points, 14 assists, 9 rebounds, 3 blocks, and 2 steals with Josh Giddey leading in scoring with 24 points, 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 2 blocks. Chet Holmgren added 22 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 blocks, and 2 steals with Lu Dort adding 22 points, 7 rebounds, and 4 assists. Aaron Wiggins led the way off the bench with 20 points and 6 rebounds.
The Thunder get hit the road again and will travel to Utah Tuesday to take on the Jazz before a few days off.
