OKLAHOMA CITY — Desperately needing a win, the Oklahoma City Thunder snapped their five-game losing streak in a dominating 130-103 win over the Utah Jazz.
The Thunder led wire-to-wire with their lead growing as large as 29 points. A 33-19 fourth-quarter scoring advantage put to rest any outshot shot of a Jazz comeback attempt.
“The guys were ready to play,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “When you lose five in a row and when you lose the way that we’ve lost, confidence is always something I got my eye on watching and I didn’t think the guys — even amidst the losing streak — they still, offensively, were playing with aggressiveness and confidence and that carried over tonight.”
A massive difference in shot volume helped lead the Thunder to the 27-point win as they outshot the Jazz, 104-78.
The additional 26 shot attempts helped the Thunder increase their lead from outside as they went 17-of-43 (39.5%) from 3 — a significantly better outing than the Jazz’s 9-of-29 (31%) outside shooting night.
Overall, the Thunder shot 52-of-104 (50%) from the field while the Jazz shot 38-of-78 (48.7%) from the field.
A big help for the massive shot-taking advantage were the 26 turnovers the Thunder forced, which complimented OKC’s ball security as they only turned it over seven times.The 26 turnovers by the Jazz generated 32 points for the Thunder.
“At the end of the day, that’s why we won,” Daigneault said. “We’re a very help-oriented team that makes multiple efforts after the initial help because it forces teams to use multiple passes and to play deeper into the shot clock and it allows more time to make a mistake.”
Without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — who missed his fifth consecutive game as he continues to be under health and safety protocols — it was an evenly distribute scoring night for the Thunder.
Six of the 10 Thunder players who logged minutes scored at least 11 points. This included a pair of 20-point scorers in Jalen Williams and Aaron Wiggins. Giddey was close to joining Williams and Wiggins with 18 points, but will have to settle with dishing out 13 assists.
It was a quiet night for the Jazz in the first game of this mini-baseball series. All-Star Lauri Markkanen had 20 points and 10 rebounds while Walker Kessler had 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
After scoring a career-high 43 points last time against the Thunder, Markkanen was held relatively in check.
“It helps having a guy like Lu Dort guarding him,” Josh Giddey said about Markkanen. “That’s an All-Star… He’s one of the best players in the league… Those type of players are never a one-man job… For the most part, we forced him out of stuff he likes to get to.”
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.