Only leading by six points, Tyler Herro’s missed sideway 3-pointer helped spark a game-sealing transition bucket as Josh Giddey passed out of a double team to find a wide-open Chet Holmgren for the easy dunk.
The transition score ended a three-plus minute scoring drought for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their 128-120 win over the Miami Heat. A strong second half by OKC sealed the road victory.
“I just didn’t think, physically, we were very good (in the first half),” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win. “Especially at the rim — they were just kinda slicing through us getting wherever they wanted to go. They were very comfortable there. In the second half, we really tightened the screws there.”
It was a tight, high-scoring contest in the first half that saw the Heat enter the break with a 69-65 lead. Miami couldn’t miss from outside as it shot 9-of-19 from 3 in the first two quarters.
After allowing nearly 70 points to a short-handed Heat, it looked like OKC’s defensive woes on the road continued. Coming out of halftime though, the Thunder locked down and held Miami to 33% shooting for the final two frames.
The Thunder started the third quarter on an 11-0 run to take a nine-point lead. OKC turned in a 34-point period to enter the final frame with a 99-96 lead. In the opening five minutes of the final frame, OKC capped off a 20-2 run to open a 16-point lead.
In the final three-and-a-half minutes, the Heat rattled off 10 consecutive points to apply pressure to the Thunder. After leading by 16 points with a little under four minutes left, it suddenly was a six-point contest.
The aforementioned Holmgren bucket released any stress of a potential Miami comeback.
The Thunder continue to be an offensive machine. OKC shot 59% from the field and went 14-of-33 (42.4%) from 3. It dished out 36 assists on 51 baskets.
In OKC’s win, it broke a franchise record for most 30-plus assists games in a season with 12. A wildly impressive stat considering the Thunder have played just 36 games this season. Last season and 2018-19 had the second-most 30-plus assists games at 11.
The Thunder’s trio headlined this win. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 28 points, Jalen Williams finished a rebound shy of his first career triple-double with 19-12-9 and Chet Holmgren totaled 23 points and three blocks.
“We’re sharing the ball, it’s impressive,” Daigneault said on their offensive outing. “They trust one another and trust what we’re doing… I thought we had great movement tonight. Both floor movement with our off-ball stuff and movement with the ball.”
Meanwhile, the Heat turned in a valiant effort considering their health situation. Jimmy Butler missed his fifth consecutive contest and Kyle Lowry was ruled out.
The Heat shot 46% from the field and went 15-of-36 (41.7%) from 3. Miami shot 23-of-28 from the free-throw line. Overall, the Heat had six players score double-digit points.
Bam Adebayo led the Heat with 25 points on 9-of-16 shooting, 11 rebounds and six assists. Jaime Jaquez Jr. contributed with 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting and five rebounds.
Haywood Highsmith’s 19 points and Nikola Jovic’s 15 points also were surprising performances for the Heat in a game where they needed those types of outings without two of their best players.
Overall, it was a solid win to wrap up OKC’s four-game road trip. Even without Butler, the Heat prove to be a viable opponent. The Thunder will need to quickly enjoy this win as they’re set to conclude a road-and-home back-to-back.
“It was the end of the trip, we have not had our fastball physically the last couple games I think,” Daigneault said. “I didn’t think we had it tonight. But we drummed up the energy. We had the mental toughness to stay in it and drum up the energy…
“I thought we got stronger as the game went on and I thought some of that was just the contagiousness of the group. We see that time and time again.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.