With rebounding, bench play and a little bit of Lu Dort magic, the Oklahoma City Thunder held on to defeat the Houston Rockets 114-112 even without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Al Horford.
It was the Rockets’ 20th loss in a row.
Oklahoma City led by as many as 13 points, but the Rockets’ starting unit that includes John Wall (24 points), Christian Wood (27 points) and Victor Oladipo (23 points) pulled the Rockets back in.
The score was tied with two minutes remaining in the game when Lu Dort assisted a Theo Maledon layup. Dort was taking the bulk of ball handling duties even with guards Maledon and Ty Jerome on the court at closing time.
“In that part of the game, you end up in a lot of rotations a lot of the time, especially when you drive in, and I was pretty confident that Lu was going to be able to touch the paint, so then it was about getting guys around him that could make secondary plays,” head coach Mark Daigneault said.
While Dort ran the offense for OKC, Wall took on the brunt of the load for Houston. After the Thunder re-took the lead, the former All-Star got fouled on the other end of the court and made one of two free throws.
This set up a finish in which Dort saved the game by blocking Wall’s layup attempt with nine seconds to play.
“It was a good play by Wall, attacking me and getting to the rim,” Dort said. “He kind of beat me, so I had to try to be clever and not give up on the play.”
Here are three takeaways from the game: