Story & Photos
By Michael Kinney
In a season full of firsts, Oklahoma City was in danger of hitting an achievement it had avoided all year.
After already picking up back-to-back losses to the Houston Rockets and the Los Angeles Lakers in their two previous outings, the Thunder were in danger of earning their first three-game losing streak. While they had already wrapped up the top record in the Western Conference and were in sight of clinching the best in the NBA, it was still the wrong time to fall prey to such an ignominious lapse.
However, it took another MVP-type performance from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic losing his composure to help Oklahoma City prevail 136-120 at the Paycom Center.
Yet, Gilgeous-Alexander gave credit to the team’s gritty defense and mental toughness as the main reason for the victory.
“I always say this, but we found a way to get stops,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “ The game got a little crazy with the techs and officiating and stuff like that. We just stay the course, find a way to get stops, and then that’s when we’re at our best all season long. It’s been like that. It’s a trend. When we win games, we find a way. It’s very rarely we win a game by just outscoring the team and not getting stops. At some point, we have to buckle down and do it defensively, and we did it in time tonight.”
Gilgeous-Alexander led all scorers with 42 points on 14 of 26 shooting. He made 9 of 11 from the free-throw line and knocked down five 3-pointers to go along with six rebounds and six assists.
Jalen Williams added 26 points while Lu Dort made 5 of 8 from 3-point range on his way to 17 points. Isaiah Hartenstein grabbed 15 boards in the win.
LeBron James paced the Lakers (48-31) with 28 points while Austin Reaves and Doncic scored 24 and 23 points, respectively.
For three quarters, the teams went back and forth. Neither was able to pull away and distance themselves from the other.
The turning point came in the fourth quarter with the Thunder (65-14) leading by one point. Doncic knocked down a shot, and as he ran back up court, he had some things to say.
But that is where the drama started. The referee appeared to believe Doncic had directed his comments at him and handed the newest Laker his second technical foul of the night. That led to an automatic ejection.
However, Doncic, James and the rest of the Lakers argued unsuccessfully that the comments were directed at an Oklahoma City fan.
Regardless, the officials stood by their call and Doncic’s night was over.
On the ensuing play, the Lakers’ Jarred Vanderbilt blocked a layup attempt by Oklahoma City’s Alex Caruso and then got face-to-face to share a few more words. He was also assessed a technical foul.
James, who is in his 22nd year in the NBA, described the entire sequence as weird.
“I don’t know why the ref was taking it personal,” James said. “He had already gave Luka one and Luka knew that and Luka was going back and forth at that time with the fan like Luka does, and the fans get to talk s**t, talk out of their mind, whatever the case may be. And Luka was going back and forth and the ref took it upon himself to think it was cursing him or whatever the case may be. But then another technical on (Vanderbilt) after a blocked shot and the game was just weird as hell.”
From that point on, the Thunder put the game away. They outscored L.A. 29-12 to close the night out.
But even in the final minutes, tempers flared between Vanderbilt and Williams. It was the type of environment both teams seemed to expect as they look forward to a possible matchup in the postseason.
“This is a playoff. Both teams knew that this was going to be a playoff-type atmosphere, playoff-type competition, playoff-type feeling,” said James. “It just got weird.”
Oklahoma City has three games left in the regular season. All are on the road at Phoenix (April 9), Utah (April 11) and New Orleans (April 13).
The NBA playoffs will kick into gear on April 19.
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