Casually jogging to the corner, Isaiah Joe found just enough space to let off a quick 3-pointer. The sharpshooter’s seventh make of the night pushed OKC’s lead to 21 points with a little under six minutes left.
It included a bit of drama, but the Oklahoma City Thunder ultimately relished in a 128-109 win over the Golden State Warriors.
“I thought we had great focus to start the game,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said about the win. “I talked about that before the game from our last road trip. I thought we came out and really executed on both ends of the floor and threw the first punch.”
The Thunder got off to a hot start as they quickly built a 39-24 lead over the Warriors following the first quarter. Golden State managed to cut its deficit as it entered halftime trailing by just seven points. It carried that momentum in the second half as it got close to one point.
After that though, the Thunder finished the third quarter on a 15-5 run that bled over into the early minutes of the fourth quarter. OKC quickly rebuilt its lead to 20 points and made the final four minutes laissez-faire after flirting with disaster for most of the middle quarters.
“I just thought we were at 80% effort and I thought we kicked it into gear there,” Daigneault said on the Warriors’ comeback attempt. “That group at the end of the third (quarter) to start the fourth really ignited us.”
A barrage of 3-pointers helped the Thunder dominate the Warriors. OKC shot an eye-popping 19-of-32 (59.4%) from 3 — a season-high in makes. Joe led the way with a season-high seven 3-pointers. Four other Thunder players made multiple 3-pointers in this win.
Overall, the Thunder continue to be a well-oiled machine on offense. OKC dished out 31 assists on its 44 made baskets. It also went 21-of-23 (91.3%) from the free-throw line. Six players scored double-digit points and the Thunder had 51 bench points.
The same couldn’t be said for the Warriors without Stephen Curry and Draymond Green — the former was out with knee soreness while the latter was out due to a five-game suspension.
Golden State shot 41% from the field and went an icy 14-of-41 (34.1%) from outside. The Warriors were led by Chris Paul, who had the spot start and finished with 15 points and eight assists. Jonathan Kuminga — another spot starter — also contributed with a team-high 21 points. Off the bench, Kevon Looney secured 13 points and 11 rebounds.
It was a no-show type of night for Klay Thompson — who notoriously is an OKC killer. He was limited to five points on 1-of-10 shooting including going 1-of-6 from 3.
“We didn’t want to let them come in and beat us doing what they wanted to do,” Chet Holmgren said on the defense. “I feel like we did a really good job of making them look towards the second option, the third option.”
Overall, this was an impressive road win for the Thunder — even if the Warriors were shorthanded. It was one of OKC’s better offensive showings and did an excellent job at staying resilient and overcoming their Warriors boogeyman.
The fact the Thunder dominated like this with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander being limited to 24 points on 21 shots shows off the depth this team possesses.
“We did a great job at playing together and playing for each other,” Holmgren said. “Shoutout to our team we made some really big shots… Overall, a great team effort.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.