OKLAHOMA CITY — Desperately needing a win, the Oklahoma City Thunder snapped their five-game losing streak in a dominating 130-103 win over the Utah Jazz.
The Thunder led wire-to-wire with their lead growing as large as 29 points. A 33-19 fourth-quarter scoring advantage put to rest any outshot shot of a Jazz comeback attempt.
“The guys were ready to play,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “When you lose five in a row and when you lose the way that we’ve lost, confidence is always something I got my eye on watching and I didn’t think the guys — even amidst the losing streak — they still, offensively, were playing with aggressiveness and confidence and that carried over tonight.”
A massive difference in shot volume helped lead the Thunder to the 27-point win as they outshot the Jazz, 104-78.
The additional 26 shot attempts helped the Thunder increase their lead from outside as they went 17-of-43 (39.5%) from 3 — a significantly better outing than the Jazz’s 9-of-29 (31%) outside shooting night.
Overall, the Thunder shot 52-of-104 (50%) from the field while the Jazz shot 38-of-78 (48.7%) from the field.
A big help for the massive shot-taking advantage were the 26 turnovers the Thunder forced, which complimented OKC’s ball security as they only turned it over seven times.The 26 turnovers by the Jazz generated 32 points for the Thunder.
“At the end of the day, that’s why we won,” Daigneault said. “We’re a very help-oriented team that makes multiple efforts after the initial help because it forces teams to use multiple passes and to play deeper into the shot clock and it allows more time to make a mistake.”
Without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — who missed his fifth consecutive game as he continues to be under health and safety protocols — it was an evenly distribute scoring night for the Thunder.
Six of the 10 Thunder players who logged minutes scored at least 11 points. This included a pair of 20-point scorers in Jalen Williams and Aaron Wiggins. Giddey was close to joining Williams and Wiggins with 18 points, but will have to settle with dishing out 13 assists.
It was a quiet night for the Jazz in the first game of this mini-baseball series. All-Star Lauri Markkanen had 20 points and 10 rebounds while Walker Kessler had 10 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
After scoring a career-high 43 points last time against the Thunder, Markkanen was held relatively in check.
“It helps having a guy like Lu Dort guarding him,” Josh Giddey said about Markkanen. “That’s an All-Star… He’s one of the best players in the league… Those type of players are never a one-man job… For the most part, we forced him out of stuff he likes to get to.”
Let’s take a look at Thunder player grades.
Aaron Wiggins: A+
“Rich Flex” by Drake & 21 Savage became the unofficial theme song of the fourth quarter as Aaron Wiggins scored bucket after bucket.
Wiggins noted after the game that he’s tuned out the song at this point, which is very convenient in games like tonight as he scored 27 points on an efficient 12-of-16 shooting off the bench.
Wiggins played the closer role in the fourth quarter as he played the entire 12 minutes and scored 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting during the period.
Looking at Wiggins’ shot chart, it’s almost exclusively colored dots inside of the paint as he scored 22 of his 27 points in that area.
“It feels good,” Wiggins said about getting a win for the first time since Feb. 15. “We felt like we had hit a wall coming off of All-Star break. We had a couple losses in a row. Some of them were at the tip of our hands where we should have pulled through and won.”
2️⃣1️⃣👏 pic.twitter.com/nFVy49s1Ln
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
A new season-high 23 points for Aaron Wiggins 😤@okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/yc2UasZ44N
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) March 4, 2023
Josh Giddey: A+
Josh Giddey enjoyed playing conductor as the Thunder offense hummed along against the Jazz.
In 32 minutes, Giddey finished with 18 points on 8-of-17 shooting and 13 assists — the 13 dimes were the second-most in a game in his young career.
Without Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Josh Giddey took on a larger-than-usual ball-handling role.
“Tonight was fun,” Giddey said. “Everybody was out there enjoying it. My job as a facilitator is to get guys look and get guys open and I think we were able to do that tonight.”
Thunder Basketball >>> pic.twitter.com/omBViVZkKO
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
Wizardry 🪄 pic.twitter.com/2uMxDUUK7Q
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
Josh Giddey put the MOVES on Lauri for the quick bucket 🫣@okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/uGki14LYtH
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) March 4, 2023
Jalen Williams: A
It’s become the norm, but Jalen Williams had another high-efficient 20-point game.
Williams finished with 20 points on 8-of-13 shooting, six rebounds, four assists and four steals. Williams scored 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting inside of the paint — this included a pair of vicious dunks that got the crowd riled up.
Maintaining high energy plays! ⚡️@OGandE Power Play of the Game pic.twitter.com/Be3TC3dhiV
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
Smooth moves for the Rook! 👀 pic.twitter.com/Jo5FgBddRI
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
🍪 ➡️ 🔨 pic.twitter.com/rzShG0mA1d
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
🧈🧈🧈🧈 pic.twitter.com/TV9QHB9H8p
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
Jalen Williams' bag is ABSURD 😳@okcthunder | #ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/IviMzbzGnG
— Bally Sports Oklahoma (@BallySportsOK) March 4, 2023
Isaiah Joe: A
When asked about taking on playmaking responsibilities, Giddey mentioned how Isaiah Joe makes his job easier and is an easy go-to assist machine.
“I started to understand that if I find Isaiah a lot, (my assist numbers) probably look a bit better,” Giddey joked.
Well, he half-joked because it rings true. All five of Joe’s made 3s were assisted with four of them belonging to Giddey.
Returning to the starting lineup with Gilgeous-Alexander out, Joe finished with 17 points on 6-of-16 shooting and went 5-of-13 shooting from 3. The 13 attempts from deep were a career-high for Joe.
Lu Dort: A-
Lu Dort had another quality start as he finished with 19 points on 7-of-14 shooting and went 4-of-9 from 3. Dort also finished with four steals and three assists.
After the game, Dort revealed an interesting anecdote about what helped him build good habits.
As a two-way rookie, Dort was gifted an iPad to watch defensive film and mentioned veteran teammates Chris Paul, Dennis Schroder and Andre Roberson as influences to helping him become a film freak.
It’s a neat story that shows how important veteran leadership can be for young players and what the long-term benefits of that could be.
Working together on both ends 🤝 pic.twitter.com/aU2iVPwVYf
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) March 4, 2023
