Thunder 114, Pacers 117: The Day After Report
Nuggets & Notes
- Coming off back-to-back dominating road wins, the Oklahoma City Thunder returned to the friendly confines of the Paycom Center, where they had lost 3 games all year. The Thunder faced the 10-win Indiana Pacers, who had won all of 2 road games all season.
- And yet, after flexing the last two games, Oklahoma City flailed its way to a loss against the injury-riddled Pacers, 117-114. The Pacers, in fact, controlled the game from tip-to-tip to nab their most impressive win of the season.
- The Thunder went into this one seriously shorthanded. No Jalen Williams, Alex Caruso, Ajay Mitchell, Aaron Wiggins, and Isaiah Hartenstein. That's a lot of punch and ballhandling missing, which makes the loss more understandable.
- On the other side, Indiana was without Bennedict Mathurin, Obi Toppin, and of course, has Tyrese Haliburton out for the season. So, Indy was missing some key players as well.
- The first quarter set the tone: Indiana scored 34 points on 13-of-25 shooting, assisted on nearly everything, and looked far too comfortable running offense in OKC’s building.
- The Pacers finished with 34 assists on 45 made field goals, demonstrating an efficient offense that worked the Oklahoma City defense.
- Indiana hit 16-of-38 from three (42%), while the Thunder went just 7-of-26 (27%) from deep. The Pacers also dominated the glass, grabbing 14 offensive rebounds to just 4 for OKC.
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was outrageous: 47 points on 17-of-28 shooting, 12-of-12 at the line, with just one turnover. Despite the lengthy injury list, I was pretty confident the Thunder could take care of business at home against the lowly-Pacers with SGA at the helm.
- Not only did OKC have Shai, it had Chet Holmgren who continues to add to his All-Star caliber season. Holmgren had 25 points, 13 rebounds, 3 blocks. He was aggressive offensively and a menace defensively.
- I guess the real problem was that SGA and Chet couldn't play all 48 minutes.
- In fact, SGA + Chet had shooting splits of 60/38/95 and accounted for 72 of OKC's points. The rest of the team? Splits of 38/22/80 and 42 points.
- Every time OKC threatened, Indiana had an answer. There were multiple runs where OKC pulled to within single digits and looked like it might finally take control, but every time the Pacers responded. Credit to Indiana–they were the better team.
- One big reason Indiana never lost control was Andrew Nembhard. Nembhard carved up the Thunder with 27 points and 11 assists, repeatedly finding seams and punishing late rotations.
- Another reason? Jarace Walker, who added a career-high 26 points. Although Walker missed his first four free throws, he also iced the game by making his final 7 FT attempts.
- The Thunder had a last gasp with just over 3 seconds left. Mark Daigneault drew up a play to get Isaiah Joe a corner three, and despite a decent look, Joe couldn't convert. It was a tough night for OKC's flame thrower, as he went 0-of-5 from beyond the arc last night.
- SGA, as the leader of this team, immediately went to Joe to let him know he still believed in him. Even after the buzzer sounded on this disappointing defeat, Shai didn't look defeated. A good reminder a win or loss over Indiana in late January isn't going to break (or make) the season.
One Key Takeaway
With all the injuries, Mark Daigneault continues to tinker with lineups and rotations. Last night he had Isaiah Joe start, Joe's first start of the season. After halftime, though, Daigneault went to Jaylin Williams to start.
Coach also experimented with rotations, having SGA come out early in the first (as opposed to his usual rotation of him playing the entire first quarter) and staggering Chet and SGA.
When healthy, OKC has the deepest team in the NBA, but with all the injuries, the list of available players is constantly changing. While the hope is the Thunder is fully healthy for the playoffs, you never know who will be available from game to game and who may have the hot hand on any given night. Constantly gathering data, these injuries are giving Mark more and more data points that he'll keep filing away.
