Oklahoma City used a pair of defensive stops of Utah’s Simone Fontecchio and Jordan Clarkson to earn a sigh of relief and collect an intense 134-129 over the Jazz. The result snapped a two-game losing skid for OKC and a six-game winning streak for Utah.
“That was an impressive 48-minute effort in the middle of a road trip off those two games we just had the other day,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said on the win. “We’re not feeling 100%, yet really competed for 48 minutes together on both ends.
“They’re the hottest team in the league coming in. They play with a lot of confidence. They put a lot of game pressure on us and the crowd was great. It was a great experience for us.”
Even though the Thunder led wire-to-wire, the Jazz threatened throughout the entire contest. OKC led 39-27 following the first quarter and 76-67 at halftime.
A 28-point third quarter by the Jazz cut OKC’s advantage to 98-95 entering the final quarter. What followed was an exciting final 12 minutes.
In their non-SGA lineup, the Thunder started the final quarter on a 15-7 run to build a 113-102 lead a little over three minutes into the final period. However, Utah cut it to four points with a little less than two minutes left.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored with the shot clock ticking away to push the lead back to six, but Collin Sexton quickly got those points back on a dunk.
On the ensuing possession, Cason Wallace hit a massive left-wing 3-pointer to give OKC a seven-point lead with 52 seconds left. Clarkson quickly made a 3-pointer on the other end to return it to a four-point contest with 42 seconds remaining.
A monster Chet Holmgren block on Walker Kessler with 12 seconds left served as a defensive dagger. Utah had a couple of more scrambling chances to potentially tie it before the final buzzer sounded.
All five Thunder starters scored at least 15 points. OKC shot 56% from the field and went 14-of-32 (43.8%) from 3. Led by Gilgeous-Alexander, it converted 24-of-28 free throws.
The Thunder dished 36 assists on 48 baskets, including a franchise-record 24 assists in the first half. They also scored a season-high 76 points in the first half.
Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 31 points including a monster 15-of-17 night from the free-throw line. Jalen Williams continues his ascension with 27 points on 14 shots and eight assists.
“We’re learning fast,” Williams said on attacking Utah’s zone. “I think that’s the biggest thing with how young we are — we’re able to kinda flush one game, understand what we need to do better and go out there and execute.”
Josh Giddey also had one of his best games of the season with 20 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. Holmgren added 15 points and four blocks. Wallace, who was given the spot start, scored 16 points.
“They’re a talented team and they kept coming at us all night,” Giddey said. “We knew coming in, they were the hottest team in the league — especially in front of their home fans. It’s a tough place to play… I think we all did a great job weathering the storm down the stretch.”
Meanwhile, the Jazz also had a high-octane scoring outing. Utah shot 48% from the field and went 13-of-32 (40.6%) from 3. It had a busy night at the charity stripe, shooting 30-of-36. The Jazz had 33 assists on 43 baskets.
Sexton scored 31 points on 10-of-19 shooting and had seven assists. Lauri Markannen had 26 points, 10 rebounds and four assists. John Collins tallied 21 points and four rebounds.
This was a massive win for the Thunder, who needed to get out of their two-game losing funk. Beating the Jazz — one of the hottest teams in the league — is the exact type of boost OKC has recently yearned for.
“I think all but two teams have a very condensed January because of the in-season tournament,” Daigneault said. “You look at some of the scores at night, there’s like some gorey scores right now so I don’t think anybody is feeling great.
“We’re drumming up a good amount of energy I think. Tonight is a good example, we probably didn’t have our fastball physically but we had our fastball mentally and competitively and that’s all we can ask for… I always try to evaluate our competitiveness and energy and I thought that was there tonight.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.