Playing on the second night of a home-and-road back-to-back, the Oklahoma City Thunder were not able to steal a road game against a well-rested Orlando Magic, 126-115.
With the Thunder getting smaller after every injury, the gigantic Magic were able to take advantage of their significant size. This was evident in the boards and paint points department. The Magic outrebounded the Thunder, 49-36. The Magic also outscored the Thunder in the paint, 48-30.
The Thunder could not overcome their size difference with hot outside shooting because the Magic were equally on fire from 3. The Thunder shot 15-of-37 (40.5%) from 3, but the Magic shot 13-of-33 (39.4%) from 3.
The Thunder made a run in the third quarter as they outscored the Magic, 35-23, and cut their lead to as little as seven points. The Magic counterpunched and squashed any hope of a comeback attempt with a 31-27 advantage in the fourth quarter.
For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander headlined the game, scoring 33 points a day after battling sickness.
Gilgeous-Alexander did most of his scoring at the free-throw line with a 17-of-18 night. This highlighted huge free-throw numbers for both teams as the Thunder went 28-of-31 (90.3%) and the Magic went 29-of-36 (80.6%) from the charity stripe.
For the Magic, Paolo Banchero continues to improve his rookie of the year odds with 25 points, eight rebounds and seven assists. Banchero used his massive 6-foot-10, 250-pound frame to bully the Thunder inside. Wendell Carter Jr. continues to own the Thunder with 13 points and 13 rebounds.
A day after turning in their most impressive performance of the season, it’s only normal the Thunder would lay an egg in Orlando. While it will not publicly be said, you have to wonder how much travel fatigue factored into this lackadaisical performance.
Playing back-to-back’s are rough as it is, but that was especially the case for the Thunder this time around.
The Thunder played a 7 p.m. CT game on Tuesday night and immediately after the game flew to Florida, where they didn’t arrive until after 2 a.m. CT. Then the Thunder had a quick turnaround a played an earlier-than-usual game for them at 6 p.m. CT.
Just reading all that exhausted me. I can only imagine what experiencing it must’ve felt like.
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.