OKLAHOMA CITY — Fouled on a 3-pointer, Isaiah Joe completed the 4-point play to push OKC’s lead to 11 points with under two minutes left.
The Oklahoma City Thunder scared off any threat of a potential 18-point blown lead with a 116-102 win over the Chicago Bulls. The win extends OKC’s winning streak to six games, the longest active streak in the league.
“We got gritty in the last 15 minutes of the game,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win. “We kinda opened up a little bit of a lead again after they came back and tied it and then we clamped down pretty good. I thought our focus was good. Everything they got was earned at that point for the most part.”
The Thunder built a 26-14 lead following the first quarter. By halftime, OKC had a 50-39 lead. A slow second-half opening by OKC allowed the Bulls to tie it at 67 apiece. After that, the Thunder managed to quickly rebuild their lead and entered the final frame leading 77-84.
In the fourth quarter, the Bulls teased a comeback but couldn’t get closer than three points. Following Joe’s 4-point play, it extinguished any chance of a Bulls upset win.
Overall, the Thunder shot 49% from the field and went 11-of-29 (37.9%) from 3. OKC also got a friendly whistle as it went 31-of-38 (81.6%) from the free-throw line. This marked a season-high in attempts.
“I thought the way the game got called tonight was a lot closer (to) the way we expected it coming into the season,” Daigneault said on OKC’s season-high 38 free-throw attempts. “The way it was called last year. I thought the contact tonight was no different than the contact we faced earlier in the season.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way for the Thunder as he scored a game-high 40 points and went a season-high 17-of-18 from the free-throw line. Chet Holmgren contributed with 18 points and 13 rebounds for the double-double.
On the opposite side, the Bulls struggled without Zach LaVine — who missed the game after some initial confusion about his availability. Chicago shot 39% from the field. A hot outside shooting night kept it in it as it went 17-of-44 (38.6%) from deep.
Coby White headlined the Bulls’ hot 3-point shooting night as he scored 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from 3. DeMar DeRozan led Chicago with 25 points and went a perfect 13-of-13 from the free-throw line. Nikola Vucevic collected a 16-point and 12-rebound double-double.
It wasn’t the prettiest win, but the Thunder scrapped out a quality home victory against a Bulls team on the verge of blowing up. OKC now improved its record to an impressive 11-4 on the young season, good enough for second place thus far in the Western Conference.
“Collectively, we didn’t shoot it as well as we have,” Daigneault said. “We needed to win a different way tonight and to the credit of the guys, we found a way to do that.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.