Player grades for the Thunder’s 124-108 win over the Nets.
OKLAHOMA CITY — Missing a ferocious dunk, Lu Dort sent the crowd into a different frenzy with a second-chance 3-pointer to hit the exclamation mark in OKC’s double-digit win.
On New Year’s Eve, the Oklahoma City Thunder collected a 124-108 win over the Brooklyn Nets. The win extends OKC’s winning streak to four games.
“I thought there were a couple of moments where we — I wouldn’t call it sticky — but I just thought we didn’t make the early play in transition,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought we had a lot of opportunities tonight to do that. But when we did, we got really, really good stuff.
“The game was fun when we did that. We did it enough obviously to have a really good offensive night but definitely had to course-correct a couple of things during the course of the game.”
After quickly trailing the Nets 8-0 in the opening minutes, the Thunder ended the first quarter by closing the gap and only trailing by three points. A 26-point second quarter helped OKC enter halftime with a 59-56 lead.
Coming out of the break, the Thunder continued to throw their best punch in the third quarter with a 30-point period that saw OKC enter the final frame with a double-digit lead.
The fourth quarter was much of the same story as OKC grew its lead to as high as 21 points before Brooklyn eventually waved the white flag in the later portions of the final frame.
It was another excellent offensive outing for the Thunder. They shot 54% from the field and went 18-of-33 (54.5%) from 3. They also dished out 31 assists on their 45 buckets.
“A lot of it is just creating advantages,” Daigneault said on their ball movement. “It’s hard to move the ball if you can’t move an advantage… Our guys have done a great job at working together to get those.”
All five Thunder starters scored 17-plus points. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 24 points and Josh Giddey had 20 points. Chet Holmgren collected an 18-point double-double.
Meanwhile, the Nets — who’ve lost eight of their last 10 games — shot a lowly 38% from the field and went an even worse 12-of-46 (26.1%) from 3. The jump-shooting-happy team shot 46 of their 100 attempts from outside.
“We were a little flat early and then amped it up pretty good,” Daigneault said on their defense. “A lot of switching. We downsized and were able to switch them and it stopped their drive and kick.”
Despite a significant advantage in volume, Brooklyn only went 20-of-31 (64.5%) from the free-throw line. OKC was 16-of-20 (80%) from the charity stripe.
The duo of Mikal Bridges and Cam Thomas led the Nets as their sole 20-point scores. Bridges had 22 points on 8-of-20 shooting and Thomas had 20 points on 7-of-18 shooting.
The duo got off to a hot start, combining for 25 points in the first quarter. After that though, OKC did an excellent job at limiting both scorers the rest of the way with 17 total points.
As mentioned, this win also marks OKC’s 16th consecutive New Year’s Eve home game. The Thunder continues to add chapters to its Dec. 31 contests.
It was a mundane win outside of an early scare, but the Thunder continue to take care of business against the bottom of the barrel in the league. Wins continue to pile up for OKC as it enters the 2024 calendar year with a 22-9 record.
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.
