Thunder 116, Raptors 107: The Day After Report

Box Score | Play-by-Play

The Thunder did it again. Shy Shai, Ajay, and JDub for the eighth straight game, they sonned another Eastern playoff team for an impressive road win with veteran, championship guile.

When falling behind 32-22 to open the game and letting a 25-point margin disappear down the stretch, Oklahoma City looked like a team badly missing its three best playmakers. But OKC escaped with its third straight victory thanks to just enough offense paired with their patented defense. They’re back in front of the Spurs and Pistons in the standings, and will hopefully get SGA back soon to protect their seeding the rest of the way.

Final: Thunder (45-14) def. Raptors (34-24), 116-107

Nuggets and Notes

• Cason Wallace (27 pts, 8 rbs, 7 ast) was a steadying hand from start to finish, and Isaiah Joe went unconscious for a Klay-like 19-point third quarter by scoring in bunches of 3 and 4 points at a time.
• Like the Cavs did on Sunday, the Raptors erased OKC’s 20+ point lead in the fourth quarter. Behind a locked in crowd, Toronto pulled to 101-101 with four minutes remaining. The Thunder offense was bottled up, unable to penetrate or generate good shots out of some jittery action around the perimeter.
• But Cason took over. Again. Wallace responded to the tie by shaming me* with two momentum-halting finishes in the lane, finding Joe for a momentum swinging three in transition, and scoring or assisting on 11 of the Thunder’s next 13 points to put the game back out of reach.
• The fans were quieted for good by midrange Lu Dort daggers. What a way to go.
• Scottie Barnes (15 points, 4 blocks, 3 steals) was an absolute monster, snuffing out Thunder passes, drives, and shots up and down the roster. Barnes suffered a quad contusion late in the fourth quarter and limped to the finish. Cason had come up empty on two drives against the Raptors’ star before the injury, but managed to arch a lefty layup over Barnes and off the glass to help seal the win:

• Chet Holmgren shut down plenty of Toronto opportunities himself. He had three blocks, two of which erased fastbreak layups for the Raptors.