The Oklahoma City Thunder mounted a big comeback against the Sacramento Kings, but they fell just short as Isaiah Roby’s 3-pointer rolled out.
As Isaiah Roby’s 3-point attempt spun in and out, one could imagine the confused groan coming out of Oklahoma City Thunder fans collectively.
The Thunder trailed by three points with about six seconds to play when the shot bounced off the rim and allowed the Sacramento Kings to ice the game. Oklahoma City lost 103-99.
It was the second game in a row the Thunder have put together an impressive fourth-quarter comeback, and the second game in a row they’ve fallen just short.
Mixed feelings may have come from fans: Wins reign above all … but Oklahoma City’s loss puts the team in sole possession of fourth-best NBA draft lottery odds and has them just 0.5 games behind the Timberwolves.
In the Thunder postgame press conference, there wasn’t any of that confusion. Players and head coach Mark Daigneault certainly want to win. But there was a sort of happiness and pride for the job the team did to go on a 14-2 run in the fourth quarter and take the game down to the wire.
“You get to learn so much from those games when it gets down to the stretch like that,” said Darius Bazley, who scored a game-high 24 points.
“Being in those situations, get that opportunity to just go through it, that’s really big for all of us. And like I said, it’s fun, just getting a chance to do that.”
Against the Phoenix Suns on Sunday, the Thunder nearly came back from an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter as they played with more aggression and forced Phoenix into mistakes. They did the same thing against the Kings after trailing by 12 points entering the final frame.
With just under 40 seconds to play, the lead had been cut to one and the Kings had the ball. The Thunder were not going to foul.
Daigneault said he told the players to play for a stop, and if they got a rebound, to get up the court without calling a timeout.
“Make me interrupt you,” he told them. “Otherwise, play.”
Delon Wright hit a layup, but he fell to the ground, giving Oklahoma City a 5-on-4 opportunity. Daigneault elected to not interrupt them with a timeout.
Maledon got into the paint and kicked it out to Roby, who took a couple dribbles left and pulled up.
“He stepped in and took a confident shot that was halfway down,” Daigneault said. “Those are tough calls but at the end of the day, I liked how we were kind of flowing up the floor and the way that things looked. And I thought we got a decent look.
“It’s really hard when you call a timeout, especially in a 3-point game, to get a clean look.”
They got as clean a look as they could, particularly for a team who had struggled to hit from deep.
Oklahoma City’s numbers in this game are nothing to brag about, but narrowing the view to a closer scope reveals a couple promising things:
First off, that fourth quarter was simply good basketball. The Thunder went on an 11-0 run that was stopped on a poor turnover by Theo Maledon, but they answered with an and-one from Bazley. The power forward continues to play well, and he finished this game with 24 points, 11 rebounds, three steals and nine free throw attempts.
Gabriel Deck was electric, scoring 16 points in 16 minutes of play off the bench to go with three rebounds and assists apiece. He went 5-for-7 from the field.
“He’s gotten better every game,” Daigneault said. “We love his physicality around the basket. Plays much bigger than he is. Plays much tougher than his size. He’s a pretty nasty dude defensively. And then offensively he really knows how to play, and that’s a pretty good combination.”
Jaylen Hoard had his best game in almost a month, posting nine points, seven rebounds, two assists and a block in 18 minutes of play.
This was just his second appearance in the last five games.
“I know that being not in the rotation, you’ve still got to be locked in and ready at any time because your name could be called like today,” he said.
The Thunder did just enough to hold the Kings within reach and then pounce. We’ve looked at this game from a close view; now let’s take a wide scope: It felt similar to the first half of the season, when the Thunder were staying in games they seemingly had no business being in.
Oklahoma City has two more games against the Kings this season. Based on this performance, it wouldn’t be shocking if they pulled out in a win in one of them.
No matter how conflicted fans would feel about it.
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