With 6 double-digit scorers, team play leads Thunder over Magic

There are some games where it’s tough to find the storyline.

Who was the storyline of the OKC Thunder 108-99 win over the Orlando Magic? Which player had the biggest impact? Was it Darius Bazley, who notched his second double-double of the season with a team-high 19 points and 12 rebounds? Was it George Hill, who made 13 points in the third quarter alone to help keep the Thunder in the game? Maybe it was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, whose impressive passing helped all this happen and then he closed it out offensively.

Was the standout on the bench? Theo Maledon had his best game as an NBA player and Hamidou Diallo had 12 points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes.

It wasn’t one player who coaxed the Thunder to victory on Saturday night. OKC found a secret to winning a game when opponents aggressively defend Gilgeous-Alexander — the rest of the team has to answer.

“We had great balance tonight with how we played on both ends of the floor,” head coach Mark Daigneault said. “We got a lot of contributors, top to bottom.”

Orlando couldn’t find offensive power outside its best two scorers. Center Nikola Vucevic and guard Terrence Ross combined for 56 points, but the rest of the team shot just 18-for-66, a mark of 27%.

Meanwhile, as Gilgeous-Alexander went 4-for-16 through the first 45 minutes of the game, the rest of the Thunder went 32-for-65, slightly above 49%.

Then the star guard took over. He hit a tough, off-balance look just inside the free throw line with a defender draped on him for an and-one to give the Thunder a seven-point lead with 2:30 to play. He drove and made the right passes after attracting defenders, finally culminating with a kickout to Al Horford. The center hit Aaron Gordon with a jab step before pulling up for 3 to take an 8-point lead with 50 seconds left.

Oklahoma City played stupendous defense in the fourth quarter, limiting the Magic to 17 points and Vucevic, who had 26 entering the quarter, to just four. Orlando only scored eight points in the final 8:30 of the game.

“The coaches, they really harped on us being in position to make it difficult for him. When you have a guy like Vucevic, you have to make sure that your whole team is there helping and in the right positions,” Horford said. “We made the double-teams when we needed to, we kept him guessing.”

It was a back-and-forth first three quarters until Maledon hit a 3 early in the fourth to break a tie and then assisted a Diallo 3. Bazley hit a 3 off a Gilgeous-Alexander assist to go up 97-91 and then got a dunk off a Horford assist. Gilgeous-Alexander hit his and-one, and then Horford iced the game.

So, with six players scoring double-digits and another, Lu Dort, scoring nine, this wasn’t a one-man show. There wasn’t a single player who was the storyline.

It was unselfish offense with swing passes and hockey assists, team defense and effort that pushed Oklahoma City to its second win of the year.

“We just played this team, and we came up short. I think we could’ve won the last one,” Bazley said, referencing OKC’s Tuesday loss to Orlando.

“I think everyone knew what it was going to take to beat this team. They weren’t just going to give us the game, we had to go and take it”