OKLAHOMA CITY — Being heavy favorites, the Oklahoma City Thunder took care of business in their dominating 134-120 win over the short-handed Utah Jazz.
OKC led wire-to-wire against a struggling Utah squad that missed several key players and had lost 8 of its last 11 games entering Monday. The final margin might’ve been just 14 points, but sans a sloppy fourth quarter, the Thunder were thoroughly the better team.
“I thought we stacked a lot of good possessions,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win. “I thought we played together on both ends of the floor tonight and that’s encouraging. I thought we got better tonight.”
After spending previous years being viewed as an easy win on the calendar for other teams, the roles have reversed for OKC against rebuilding Utah — who were without arguably its three best players in Lauri Markkanen, John Collins and Walker Kessler.
The Thunder created a 34-20 lead following the first quarter. The 14-point lead remained as OKC entered halftime. In the third quarter, OKC put this game to bed with a 45-point period that grew its lead to a game-high 38 points.
The Thunder entered the fourth quarter with a 36-point lead to turn the final period into garbage time. Utah managed to cut it to 12 points in the final frame with a 45-point fourth quarter, but it proved to be inconsequential.
The Thunder feasted on offense as they shot 52% from the field and went 18-of-38 (47.4%) from 3. OKC also shot 16-of-17 (94.1%) from the free-throw line and dished out 35 assists on 50-made baskets.
“A lot of the layups were cuts,” Daigneault said on their offense. “I thought the guys did a really good job at taking cuts tonight both in the action and off-ball.”
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 30 points in 17 shots as OKC finished with six players scoring double-digit points. All 15 Thunder players received extended playing time.
This blowout win also marked some of the best performances of the season for both Josh Giddey and Ousmane Dieng. Giddey finished with a near triple-double while Dieng scored a season-high 18 points.
“I think it validates the time he spent in the G League,” Daigneault said on Dieng. “He played four games in a very short period of time… He’s a better player. He came back obviously very sharp from that experience.”
Meanwhile, Utah’s offense failed to generate any rhythm during the meaningful portion of this contest. The Jazz shot 49% from the field and went 12-of-38 (31.6%) from 3. In the first three quarters, those numbers were 40% from the field and 21% from 3.
Jordan Clarkson — their best available scorer — was held to eight points on 3-of-13 shooting. Rookie guard Keyonte George led the way for Utah with a career-high 30 points on 10-of-17 shooting.
Collin Sexton scored 20 points off the bench. Simone Fontecchio also contributed with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting.
Both franchises are going in completely different directions as OKC enters the infancy stages of a contending window while Utah begins a rebuild. Despite this, the Thunder didn’t play around with their food.
“We don’t play the record,” Gilgeous-Alexander said on not overlooking the Jazz. “There’s 29 (other) teams in this NBA that are really good and can beat anybody on any night and that’s how we approach it.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.