Thunder Head to the NBA Cup Championship

Jaylin Williams is one win away from achieving his dream of an NBA Cup Championship.

In a physical battle of the NBA’s top two defenses, the Oklahoma City Thunder dealt more blows to the Houston Rockets, running away with the game in the fourth quarter to win 111-96.

The first half was ugly basketball by both teams.  In the first quarter, the Thunder didn’t hit double digits until there was 2:58 left to go, scoring just 18 total points.  The second quarter wasn’t much better, as the Thunder mustered only 23 and trailed 42-41 at the break.

OKC shot just 2-14 from three in the first half, and the team’s bread and butter, steals and live ball turnovers, were virtually non-existent.  Houston barely fared better from deep, and shot worse overall than the Thunder, shooting just 31% from the field.

But in the second half, Oklahoma City started pushing the pace, which opened up the offense.  The Thunder, notorious for not drawing a whistle, got a much friendlier officiating crew en route to 30 attempts over the final 3 quarters (to 15 attempts for the Rockets).

After Houston pushed the lead to 6 early in the third quarter, the Thunder really began to look like itself as Shai was finally able to take the lid off the basket.  OKC built a 6 point lead headed in the fourth, and after a sweet alley-oop from Jalen Williams to Isaiah Hartenstein, Oklahoma City built its first double digit lead of the game, a lead that would grow to as large as 15.

With the win, the Thunder got revenge from its loss to the Rockets on December 1 and head to the NBA Cup championship to face the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night.

• In the first quarter, it looked like the Thunder players were just going to get mugged all night without a whistle.  Houston shot 10 free throws to just 2 for OKC, and every Thunder fan just assumed there would be a massive free-throw disparity.
• Ultimately, OKC started getting to the line, and shot 32 free throws, knocking down 28.  Houston had 25, but only converted 15.
• After that 2-18 start from beyond the arc, OKC finished 9-14.  Lu Dort led the way, shooting a blistering 56% from three.
• Speaking of Dort, he was a machine tonight.  It’s easy to take his defense for granted, and he was his usual stellar self, but he was hot offensively (19 points).  Not only that, Dort had no hesitation in laying his body on the line.
• One more Dort note… Dort got his first technical of the season for flashing a “3” sign with his thumb, index finger, and middle finger.  The refs thought he was making a gun sign.  Felt a little bit like Dort was my kids using the word “Skibidi” and their old dad assuming that had to be some kind of swear word the kids were using.
• Hartenstein had his best game offensively for the Thunder, while at the same time absolutely shutting down Alperin Sengun  Sengun shot just 6-16, while Hart had 21 on 9-12 shooting.
• Through most of the game, the Thunder were somehow surviving a barrage of offensive rebounds by Houston.  While Houston shot poorly, they were routinely getting second and third chances.  The Rockets ended up with 19 offensive rebounds.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 30+, yet again.  SGA’s scoring was fueled mostly by a strong third quarter.  Shai had 12 points in the first half, and 12 points in the third quarter, alone.
• Yes, you heard “O-K-C” chants, as well as “M-V-P” chants for Shai.  Kudos to the OKC fans in Las Vegas.
• If you didn’t stick around for the post-game interview, the players were riding high, and Shai had to tell his teammates to “shut up.”  His teammates called him out for such salty language, leading to Shai saying, “my bad.”  The rowdy players didn’t calm down though, and forced Lisa Salters to tell the peanut gallery to quiet down so SGA could finish his interview.  Never change, guys.

Next up: Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night for the NBA Cup