Thunder cook the Clippers with their own ingredients: The Day After Report
The Thunder still aren't too good to tank. As you surely know, OKC controls the Clippers’ first-round pick this season. In another win-win, Oklahoma City dismantled the Clippers and improved its place in both the real standings and reverse standings at the same time. OKC maintained its grip on home court advantage and a shot at the wins record, while LA dropped its fifth straight and maintained its grip on being the laughingstock of the league.
Final: Thunder (25-2) def. Clippers (6-21), 122-101
- The Clippers went up 10-3 early and led by 11 after the first quarter following a legitimately good offensive showing. Kawhi Leonard, Bogdan Bogdonovic and the gang shot 63.6% to open the game, knocking down early threes and briefly looking like they belonged in the same league as the Thunder.
- OKC was not exactly shook. No James Harden for LA, which meant almost no ball handling. The hounds of Oklahoma City made life miserable for Clippers players just trying to advance the ball into a front-court set. It looked about as fun as getting called in to fill in for a job you're incapable of performing on national TV could be.
- I could call out a dozen Thunder impositions on the Clippers’ don’t-wanna-be-heres. Alex Caruso, Ajay Mitchell, and Jalen Williams eating Kawhi Leonard’s lunch was my favorite:
- DT commenter WilliamHurst observed: "Cason Wallace having five steals in 29 minutes is insane, but Caruso somehow topped that with four steals in just 15 minutes."
- Jalen Williams continued to look great as a play-maker in both transition and the half-court, doing his best Josh Giddey impression on this assist to Chet Holmgren in the first:
- JDub soon had another no-look interior pass and an alley-oop to Holmgren on his way to 4 assists in the first half.
- Chet and JDub have been excellent. They’re monsters defensively and two of the best offensive weapons in the league. But they can be even better, and should get better and more consistent as the Thunder march on.
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered in the second quarter as the Thunder turned the tide. A ridiculous bank shot. A more ridiculous reverse scoop. An easy exploit of the Clippers' non-existent interior help. And an even ridiculous-er step through, drifting, fade-away. His play looks ridiculous on paper, too:
- Shai was again the third-quarter killer, pushing OKC to cement its lead and drain whatever hope his first franchise had of winning the game.
- SGA finished with 32 points, 7 boards, 6 dimes, and 4 stocks and zero fourth-quarter minutes. MVP.
- The Clippers eventually let go of the rope. They couldn’t keep the ball in their possession, coughing it up over and over and feeding a flurry of Thunder fast breaks with 28 pitiful turnovers.
- Someone please rescue Bogdan from LA. He should be on a team that's fun to watch.
- With Jaylin Williams out for the first time this season and Isaiah Hartenstein resting, Branden Carlson logged some more meaningful backup-center minutes. He was pretty good, and I admire his drive — not just scraping into the NBA at an advanced age, but trying to cut it for the defending champs.
- Still, I officially want the Thunder to upgrade the backup big rotation. If Mark Daigneault prefers consistent double-big doses in the playoffs (both this season and history suggest he does), I’d stress less with a third or fourth big who brings a little more 3-and-D. The backups only really deliver 3 or D with any reliability.
- Lu Dort had his worst game of the season: 0 points, 0 steals, 0 blocks, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 1 turnover, 1 foul. I'm almost as annoyed that I couldn't call Dort's line a pure 0-fer or 1-fer as I was by his 6 empty shots.
One Key Takeaway: Cooking with Clippers Ingredients
The Thunder rebuild is remarkable in a lot of ways, but it’s also a testament to how well the Clippers could have done as a draft-and-development franchise on OKC’s level. In the infamous Paul George SGA blockbuster trade of 2019, Sam Presti swapped shopping carts at the NBA grocery store and has been cooking a 25-course meal as LA's acquired ingredients underwhelm the taste buds and near expiration.
From the Clippers, OKC got Shai. Then they got JDub. They built a pick-protection-and-swap-and-condition-and-leverage fortress stretching across drafts past and future. Thomas Sorber, another lottery pick from the Clippers haul, is still on deck. And they’re going to take even more, fair and square. As agreed upon, within the rules governing the NBA salary cap and transactions.
I said this after the first matchup:
“There are still a handful of juicy pick opportunities, and OKC’s rights to an outright Clippers first-round swap (no protections) in 2027 could be monumental… If the league hands down punishing penalties for cap circumvention, and/or the roster’s age catches up with them, the Clippers’ short-term outlook could crumble quickly.”
Who knew the collapse could come even sooner? Turns out, the 2026 Clippers pick might be just as juicy as the 2027 pick I was salivating over.
LA's brief era of respectability is coming to an embarrassing close while they watch what could have been unfold in Oklahoma City. Couldn’t happen to a weirder rich guy obsessed with (allegedly) cheating to win.
