Thunder 132, Wizards 111: The Day After Report

Box Score | Play-by-Play

Nuggets & Notes

• Against a team that had lost 14 straight, the assumption was that this would be a quiet night for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Turns out, the Washington Wizards had some fight in them–literally and figuratively.
• Yes, this one turned out to be pretty eventful, culminating in a late second quarter scuffle. With the teams separated by just 5 points nearing the end of the half (68-63), Jaylin Williams and Justin Champagnie exchanged some words and then some shoves. Ajay Mitchell stepped in, resulting in Champagnie shoving Mitchell in the face. Like directly in the face. Mitchell was having none of that, and as Ajay and Champagnie got into it, Anthony Gill came rushing in to send the entire scrum into the baseline seats. Cason Wallace ended up in the mix as well.

• After video review, the officials tossed JWill, Champagnie, Mitchell, but also Wallace. Notably absent from the list was the Wizards' Gill.
• Honestly, it's really hard to tell if Caso was in there trying to break it up or trying to get into it.
• The baseline cameraman got the worst of it, though.

• I'll tell ya something: Jaylin is the enforcer on this team. That's right, the guy with the biggest smile is 100% the one guy you do not want to mess with on this team.
• Now about the game, the Wizards actually looked like an NBA basketball team for three quarters. They came out firing right off the bat, scoring at will. It was 32-32 after one quarter, and 69-64 OKC at the break.
• The Thunder offense was elite throughout the night, and while it felt like Washington wouldn't go away, you just knew that there was little chance the Wiz could keep up with the Thunder firepower all night.
• And that's what happened. It was 93-93 with 1:34 to go in the third. The Thunder then went on a 25-3 run, and this one was over.
• This run happened despite OKC seeing three rotation players tossed. That's Thunder depth for you; it will just trot out Kenrich Williams who will then drop 11 points in 14 second-half minutes despite sitting on the bench the entire first half. No big deal.
• Of course, the real reason the Thunder comfortably ran away with this one: Shai Gilgeous Alexander. SGA scored 40 points in just 32 minutes (16 in the third quarter alone), while also adding 7 assists. And I think he went easy on the Wizards.
• That buzzer-beater three from SGA to close the third was just the momentum boost the team needed to run away in the fourth quarter.
• Just for good measure, the MVP-leader decided to be the hammer to put the nail in the coffin.

• Isaiah Hartenstein did some work. Hart finished with 9 points, 10 assists, and 20 (!) rebounds. He had a chance to get the triple double after being fouled on a shot while sitting on 8 points. Unfortunately, Hartenstein went 1-2 from the line, and then later missed a baseline shot before taking a seat with the game in hand.
• Frankly, I'm kind of upset OKC didn't give Hart the Bam treatment and just feed him until he got that triple double. Bro earned it.
• Jared McCain had a nice warm-up for his revenge game against the 76ers on Monday. McCain dropped 18 points, including 4 threes.
• With the Thunder making its first and only trip to Washington DC as NBA Champions, the team would have normally visited the White House. A "timing issue" kept that from happening.
• The Thunder has now won 11 in a row and is 14-1 since the All-Star break.

One Key Takeaway

If you noticed, I didn't mention Chet Holmgren at all in the notes. The reason was I wanted to give Holmgren some love in the takeaway.

For quite some time now, Chet has been consistently good to great. Night in and night out, Chet has been scoring efficiently on the offensive side and just wreaking havoc on the defensive side.

Case in point, with about 9:40 to go in the second quarter, Chet is defending Alex Sarr who is charging into the lane. Sarr dumps it off to Bilal Coulibaly, and Holmgren slides over to take away the shot. Looking for help, Cloulibaly passes to Champagnie who receives it in the middle of the paint. Chet then turns and rejects Champagnie's shot at the rim.

In a matter of about 4 seconds, Holmgren takes away three shots from three different players, including one block. There just aren't other players in the league who can defend like this on the interior. And it's plays like this that demonstrate why Chet should absolutely be in the Defensive Player of the Year conversation, and is an easy first-team All-Defense selection.