Player grades: Thunder stuns Warriors with 130-123 OT win to complete comeback
Receiving the inbound pass, Chet Holmgren let off a miracle turnaround 3-pointer that swished into the net as the final buzzer sounded. The improbable bucket stunned the Chase Center crowd.
After trailing by as many as 18 points, the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied for the comeback and came away with a 130-123 overtime win over the Golden State Warriors.
“I really appreciate the mental resilience to just kinda hang in the game,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said about the win. “It felt like a game we weren’t going to win but there’s always time on the clock… Games are long. I thought our guys had great maturity and toughness to do that tonight.”
After an Andrew Wiggins 3-pointer gave the Warriors a three-point with three seconds left, it looked like the Thunder would have to take solace in the fact that they pushed Golden State to the brink and split this mini-baseball series.
Instead, Holmgren — who made a pair of miscues with a missed layup and a shot clock violation seconds earlier — redeemed himself and put an exclamation mark on his best game of his rookie season yet.
The shocking 3-pointer jolted the Thunder in overtime as they outscored the Warriors 13-6 in the five-minute period. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander helped put this one to bed with 10 points in OT.
The final six minutes of this game will get all of the buzz and headlines, but OKC laid down the foundation of this comeback win in the third quarter.
A poor first-half finish by OKC ignited a Warriors run that helped them build a 10-point lead at halftime. Golden State proceeded to go on one of its signature second-half runs and had a 79-61 lead with 6:54 left in the third quarter.
By that point, it felt like the Thunder were beginning to let go of the rope. And if they did, it would’ve been hard to be too upset at them. OKC already did its job by splitting this two-game set at San Francisco. With this being the first night of a road back-to-back, it wouldn’t have been outrageous to see the Thunder lose tonight in a valiant effort.
Instead, the Thunder closed out the fourth quarter on a 22-6 run in the final six minutes to suddenly turn this into a two-point deficit heading into the final frame.
A back-and-forth fourth quarter concluded with Holmgren’s miracle shot that forced overtime and the Thunder’s strong final five minutes closed out their most impressive win of the season thus far.
Overall, the Thunder shot 52% from the field. 26 of their 52 buckets were assisted on. The trio of Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren and Jalen Williams combined for 98 points on 60% shooting.
Meanwhile, the Warriors were led by Stephen Curry and Wiggins. Curry — who missed the first game on Thursday with a knee strain — scored 25 points on 8-of-21 shooting and went 5-of-11 from 3. Wiggins had a season-high 31 points on 12-of-19 shooting and went 5-of-8 from 3.
Overall, the Warriors shot 45% from the field and went 18-of-46 (39.1%) from 3.
Sitting at 9-4 and enjoying one of their best starts in recent memory, the Thunder continue to rack up impressive road wins. Getting two against the Warriors is a potential season-defining feat.
“This was a game we knew we had to earn,” Daigneault said. “That was what was cool about it. Just the experience of having to earn it. Whether you come out on top or fall short, that’s a good experience for a team that’s as early in their season as we are.”
Let’s look at Thunder player grades.
Chet Holmgren: A-plus
The game-tying 3-pointer will get all of the attention, but Holmgren also had his best game of his young career thus far against the four-time champion Warriors.
In 37 minutes, Holmgren finished with a career-high 36 points on 14-of-22 shooting, 10 rebounds, five assists, two steals and two blocks. He also shot 2-of-5 from 3. He joins Michael Jordan as the only other NBA rookie to ever put up that stat line. The 36 points are a Thunder rookie record.
The seven-footer was a menace inside of the paint, where he went 10-of-14. It was a thoroughly dominating performance by Holmgren throughout the night. By halftime, he had 19 points. By the start of the fourth quarter, he had 25 points.
The late fourth-quarter three-play sequence defined Holmgren’s night. After a late pass resulted in a crucial shot clock violation and a rolling layup was missed, the 21-year-old quickly made up for his mistakes with the game-tying 3-pointer that sparked the comeback win.
“It felt good in my hands and it went in,” Holmgren said on his 3-pointer.
Viewing the big picture, this is the type of game that can start to shift the Rookie of the Year odds over to Holmgren’s side — that’ll especially be the case if the two-man game between him and Gilgeous-Alexander continues to look similar to what it did tonight.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: A-plus
Playing against Curry, Gilgeous-Alexander outdueled the two-time MVP on his own court.
In 41 minutes, Gilgeous-Alexander scored 40 points on 18-of-29 shooting, seven rebounds and six assists. The most impressive stat of his monster night might be the fact he only went 2-of-2 from the free-throw line.
An unreal performance by the All-NBA player where he scored on a combination of fadeaway jumpers, drives and 3-pointers.
This included rattling off 10 points in overtime to seal the comeback win for the Thunder. Eight of those points came on a personal 8-2 win against the Warriors in a 1.5-minute stretch.
The five-minute period wasn’t even arguably Gilgeous-Alexander’s best stretch of the night. It’ll be hidden in the background, but his 15-point third quarter helped OKC stay in the game and not get overwhelmed by the Warriors when they grew an 18-point lead.
It goes without saying that the Thunder can thank their two-headed monster of Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren as the reason why they’re leaving Golden State in a good mood.
Jalen Williams: A
Lost in all of the Gilgeous-Alexander and Holmgren hype, Williams was OKC’s other notable scorer in its massive win.
In 41 minutes, Williams had 22 points on 8-of-16 shooting, six rebounds and three assists. He shot 6-of-6 from the free-throw line.
After being limited to four first-half points, Williams went off in the second half for 18 points, where 10 of those points came in the fourth quarter as OKC completed its comeback to force OT.
With Gilgeous-Alexander resting during stretches of the fourth quarter, Williams’ shot-making abilities helped keep OKC in it. Some timely buckets by the 22-year-old either gave them the lead or tied the game late in the final frame.
Isaiah Joe: B
OKC’s three-headed machine deserves all the praise for its big win, but Isaiah Joe provided the only real production off the bench.
In 27 minutes, Joe had 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting and went 2-of-4 from 3. While it wasn’t a 23-point night on perfect 7-of-7 shooting from deep, OKC needed all 10 of his points in this win.
With Josh Giddey struggling, Daigneault elected to go with Joe as he played 11 fourth-quarter minutes. OKC needed someone else besides Gilgeous-Alexander, Holmgren and Williams to provide something on offense and Joe provided that.
