OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder didn’t let their collective foot off the gas pedal in their home game on Wednesday.
In the opening minutes, it was clear the Thunder meant business in a 126-106 win against the Indiana Pacers.
With the Thunder collecting confidence in recent weeks, they avoided a lackadaisical loss against the Pacers. This matchup had trap game written all over it, but to OKC’s credit, it opened with a 17-1 run and never looked back. The Thunder led by as many as 29.
“The team is growing in confidence and it’s a collective confidence,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said.
A historic night in the assist department helped the Thunder. They dished out a franchise-record 41 assists on 47-of-93 (50.5%) shooting. The 41 assists on 47 made shots is an absurd number. From outside, the Thunder shot 16-of-38 (42.1%) from 3.
A 42-point third quarter pushed the Thunder to triple digits and grew their lead to 27 points, essentially turning the fourth quarter into garbage time.
It was a team effort. Nobody took more than 17 shots and seven of the 11 Thunder players who played scored at least 10 points. The Thunder are developing their chemistry and continuing to play in sync.
Meanwhile, the Pacers with a similar record of 23-23, are heading the opposite direction. They have lost five consecutive games.
The Pacers never really got anything going without Tyrese Haliburton. Rookie Andrew Nembhard had the most notable performance. He finished with 18 points on 7-of-16 shooting, seven assists and five rebounds.
Outside of that though, not much. Prolific high-volume 3-point sniper Buddy Hield scored three points on 1-of-4 shooting from 3 in 19 minutes.
The Pacers were held to 44 points on 39% shooting in the first half. Overall, the Pacers shot 39-of-94 (41.5%) from the field and committed an eye-popping 23 turnovers, which led to 36 Thunder points.
After the first quarter, it was clear where this game was heading: The Thunder built a 16-point lead.
With the win, the Thunder stay in the playoff race. The Thunder sit in ninth place and are just 1.5 games behind fifth-place Dallas. Only 2.5 games separate eight teams in the Western Conference standings.
If the Thunder continue to stay within playoff range, expect the fifth- to 12th-place teams to continuously shift.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.