After dominating the majority of the second half Saturday, the Oklahoma City Thunder struggled to put the game away against the Charlotte Hornets.
In the end, third-year guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the hero, hitting the game-winning shot with 1.4 seconds left to push the Thunder to a 109-107 victory in Oklahoma City’s first game of the same.
“Obviously the last two minutes was a weird experience, an emotional experience,” said head coach Mark Daigneault, who picked up his first win as an NBA head coach. “But we played a 48-minute game and our guys did a really good job of that.”
In those final two minutes, the Thunder let what had been a 13-point lead with 2:13 remaining slip away. Gilgeous-Alexander committed three turnovers and Darius Bazley had one of his own all within a 33-second span. Oklahoma City made four trips to the free throw line over the final 40 seconds of the game, but made only one of two free throws in three of those four trips to the stripe.
Charlotte did their part in catching up, going on an 18-5 run and making a 3-pointer on four consecutive possessions, the final of which tied the game. Gilgeous-Alexander clinched the win on the next possession.
From the outside, it looked like a very specific area of where last year’s Oklahoma City team would have thrived and not allowed the opponent back in.
On paper, this year’s Thunder team lacks the poise and experience under pressure that guys on last year’s roster had. The Hornets were successful in their full-court coverage, and they forced turnovers that allowed them to claw back into it. Gilgeous-Alexander is a blossoming star, but he’s still in his third year. Two other starters are second-year players, a departure from last year’s unit led by two veteran ball handlers in Chris Paul and Dennis Schroder.
Head coach Mark Daigneault called that notion “hindsight bias” while acknowledging his team can improve in its late-game situations.
“We have great players on this team. It’s an experience we can learn from … There’s things that we could’ve done better down the stretch, and you give Charlotte credit — they played all the way through the finish line tonight, and it just goes to show what happens when you do that,” Daigneault said.
“But we’ll learn from it. I’m confident in the guys we have this year on this team and our ability to handle those things. We could’ve handled it better tonight, but hopefully we learn from it and we handle it better next time.”
So far, this article sounds negative. That shouldn’t be the case, and it shouldn’t be how this game is remembered in the morning.
Outside a handful of minutes in the second quarter and the final couple minutes of the game, Oklahoma City played a very, very good game. They beat down a team that made two big additions this offseason in Gordon Hayward and No. 3 overall pick LaMelo Ball. They defeated a team that has playoff expectations in the Eastern Conference.
The Thunder beat a team who very well may be in the playoff hunt. If there’s one takeaway, it can be that.
Here is a quick list of some positives to go along with it:
The third quarter. The Thunder at one point held the Hornets to 2-of-21 shooting, absolutely dominating the defensive end. Charlotte only scored 16 points that quarter — and not a single one came from Terry Rozier, Gordon Hayward or Devonte’ Graham, who combined for 0-for-11 shooting during that time.
That defense as a whole looked very good. Rozier scored 42 against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the Hornets’ opener but finished with 19 on 5-for-15 shooting against OKC. Hayward had 28 points and seven assists in his season opener, but against the Thunder, scored just 12 points. Graham finished with 14 on 4-for-16 shooting.
“I think we stopped letting them be comfortable. We got up into the ball a little bit more, we stopped fouling, we got straight up at the rim,” guard George Hill said.
The starting lineup. Up until the closing minutes, several of them had plus-minuses above 20. Even after the Hornets’ run at the end, their plus-minus showed that the starting lineup can compete with other solid teams.
Gilgeous-Alexander’s 24 points led the team, but Hill’s 21 points in 24 minutes on 8-for-9 shooting really stands out on the box score. Darius Bazley had a double-double, Lu Dort contributed 15 points – while showing the willingness to drive to the hoop and ability to finish or get to the free throw line – and Al Horford had only three points but he grabbed 13 boards.
With a bench that struggled, the Thunder desperately needed this kind of output from the starters. They got it.
Mike Muscala. Speaking of the bench, Muscala was the bright spot off it. Oklahoma City may not have even been in the game had it not been for his nine points in the first half when the bench struggled to score overall. He filled in well at the backup center spot as Horford got 29 minutes and was, along with Hill, often the first of the starters to the bench and the last back on the court.
Muscala finished with 14 points, a pair of 3s and overall solid defense. After limited play last year behind Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel, he can be expected to keep this role this season.
The rookies entered in the first quarter and showed confidence. At the risk of returning to negativity, they weren’t particularly good, but that’s not as important as the fact that they played real, meaningful minutes and showed areas of promise in a victory.
Aleksej Pokusevski’s 0-for-6 shooting, all of which were 3s, was not good, but his confidence is ideal. The disgust on his face when he was subbed off in the fourth quarter after missing three straight shots showed he knows he can and should be better. It wasn’t a look of defeat. It was a look of determination to be better.
As for Theo Maledon, he had a couple bad turnovers and struggled to score, but his passing skill is obvious after just one game and he played 20 minutes behind Hill. The two will see plenty of opportunities this year.
Daigneault said the energy and pressure of Charlotte, who was coming off a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers, was intense, and it was a new NBA experience for the 19-year-olds who had only seen preseason play.
“It was great out have them out there and it was great experience for them,” Diagneault said.
In the post-game press conferences over Zoom, all four players who spoke emphasized a key message from Daigneault:
“Coach always says it’s a 48-minute game. And obviously we let our foot off the gas.” – Gilgeous-Alexander
“Coach talks about it all the time, it’s a 48-minute game, so we gotta play the full length.” – Bazley
“He always preaches it being a 48-minute game, which in this case, it truly was.” – Muscala
Hill’s variation may have been the best summary of the game:
“I think we played a complete 47-minute game, outside the last minute, but that all goes with it,” he said. “We’re a young team, they’re still learning, we’re still learning all together, and you’re going to have those hiccups. Shai made a big shot late to seal the game, but we live and we learn.”
The Thunder may be in a rebuild, but they’re 1-0.
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