The first half was the Moses Brown show.
The second half was all Memphis Grizzlies.
An 18-2 run by Memphis in the third quarter spelled the beginning of the end for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who had gone into halftime with a four-point lead behind Brown’s quick double-double but lost 116-107 to the Grizzlies.
Brown’s double-double, which came when he grabbed his 10th rebound at the 4:52 mark in the second quarter, was the third-fastest double-double in Thunder history, according to the FOX Sports Oklahoma broadcast. The craziest part is that this wasn’t even the first time Brown recorded a double-double in the first half this season. He did so on March 16, meaning he has done it twice in eight games since returning from the OKC Blue.
It was a very good start for the Thunder, who then went on an 8-0 run to open the third to go up by 12, but Memphis put on the gas. The Grizzlies made 18 of the next 20 points and outscored OKC 33-12 over the remainder of the third quarter.
Memphis cruised in the fourth quarter to hand the Thunder a loss.
In the first half and over the first few minutes of the third quarter, Oklahoma City created turnovers, which led to points. When the Grizzlies started creating fast break opportunities in the second half, the Thunder couldn’t keep up.
“They punished us the other way, and we gave up way too many points in transition,” said center Al Horford.
“They just started running and we couldn’t catch up,” said forward Aleksej Pokusevski. “When you miss a shot you have to get back on defense quick. We didn’t do that well. They’re a great team running the fast break, so that’s the main thing.
It wasn’t Ja Morant who did the Thunder in. Dillon Brooks kickstarted the Memphis run and scored nine of the 18 points during it, and finished the game with 25 points and eight free throws made.
Jonas Valanciunas had another great game. He’s been dominating the Thunder this season, averaging 18 points and 13.7 rebounds in the three contests.
Grayson Allen finished with 20 points in 26 minutes.
They outdueled the Thunder, and in particular Brown, who finished with 19 points, 12 rebounds, three blocks and two steals. Oklahoma City may have lost by nine, but in the 31 minutes Brown played, the team outscored Memphis by seven points.
He even played positive minutes alongside fellow centers Al Horford and Isaiah Roby.
“We were pretty good when that group was out there,” said head coach Mark Daigneault. “We had a lot of size at the basket, we kind of plugged it up down there, we dominated the glass during that stretch, and then offensively we really pounded it inside.”
Plugging the paint helped contain Morant, who finished with just 11 points on 5-for-14 shooting.
Yet the Grizzlies scored down low often, whether through a big like Valanciunas or through transition play. Memphis had 70 points in the paint while shooting 11-for-30 from 3. Oklahoma City went 10-for-35 from deep and had 58 points in the paint.
When there’s that much of a discrepancy between both stats, you can generally get a good idea of who won.
The Thunder struggled to produce consistent offense without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is out with a foot injury — an actual injury, not just maintenance.
They’ll need to find a go-to scorer to consistently compete without him. Seven of the nine players who appeared finished with double-digit points, but there isn’t necessarily a reliable creator, and obviously not one who can take Gilgeous-Alexander’s role of make looks for himself. As far as wings and guards go, Lu Dort’s 14 points led the way, but it took him 17 shots to get there.
Oklahoma City drops to 19-25 on the season. It sounds crazy to say, but a win would have pulled them to 1.5 games behind the 10th seed, a play-in spot. Instead, they’re three games behind the Golden State Warriors and 3.5 behind the Grizzlies, who bounced up into ninth place with the victory.
Now attention can turn to the trade deadline, which is in less than 24 hours. Which faces won’t be here next time Oklahoma City takes the court?
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