Thunder out-grit Grizzlies: The Day After Report

Box Score | Play-by-Play

Oklahoma City hosted a shorthanded Memphis team without Ja Morant and, despite its own own deep rotation absences, still turned the night into a stress test the Grizzlies couldn’t survive. The Thunder forced chaos, survived size mismatches, and rode Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to a win that pushed them to 26-3 ahead of a Christmas mini-series with San Antonio.

Final: Thunder (26-3) def. Grizzlies (13-16), 119-103

• If you follow the NBA on Twitter (someone please make me stop), you’d think Chris Finch’s recent ejection cracked open the officiating matrix itself. Finally—per the internet—someone threw a hissy fit protested loudly enough that refs might start calling fouls on the Thunder.
• Watching this game would disabuse you of that fantasy. Oklahoma City does foul, but getting away with it isn’t their defensive strategy. The strategy is aggression with discipline. Relentlessly legal and disruptive positioning, hands everywhere, and maddening anticipation for where the offense wants to move the ball. The limbs of OKC's demons reach from behind the cell bars of the rulebook. They gave Memphis another hellish nightmare, turning over the Grizzlies a season-high 23 times.
• Brandon Carlson started at center with Isaiah Hartenstein (rest/return-to-play), Jaylin Williams (hamstring), and Chet Holmgren (late scratch, hip tightness) all out. Alex Caruso (ankle) sat as well, leaving OKC undersized and without its best equipped small-bigs.
• The result looked a lot like the early-season 2024-25 Thunder: Jalen Williams at center for long, scrappy stretches the Thunder won by taking the ball away before their taller opponents could shoot or rebound it.
• Despite the size issues, I knew Memphis would struggle without their best point guard. Vincent Williams was really missed. Without reliable guard creation, entry passes became an adventure instead of a release valve.
• The misdirection is almost cruel. Oklahoma City has no traditional bigs. Memphis had no guard pressure relief. The obvious answer is to pound the post through Jackson — but the Thunder simply refused to let the ball get there. Entry passes turned into turnovers instead of second-chance possessions. It’s not a great plan for opponents.
• Carlson was cemented as a perpetually late help defender, glued to the biggest, slowest Memphis frontcourt player in his minutes. Zach Edey’s absence made the mismatch survivable--Jock Landale doesn't have the same interior presence. Carlson kept shooting well enough to hang: 3 of 6 from three, the seventh straight game he's shot 50% or better from distance.
• Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored a workmanlike 30-plus. That work, as always, meant no hiding on defense for the Thunder superstar. He helped the pack of Thunder guards front, swipe, and gang rebound all night.
• Shai had some uncharacteristically sloppy passes, finishing with five turnovers (well above his ~2.2 per-game average).
• He also extended his streak too 100 straight games with 20+ points, now sitting 27 back of Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such streak in history.

One Key Takeaway: Forget the wins record?

I got very excited about the wins record, especially with SGA and JDub openly staring down history. On the one hand, a game like this is a reminder that OKC has the kind of depth and coaching-plus-effort combo to make every single regular season game winnable for the Thunder. They can steal stretches and even whole games while top rotation players rest. It doesn’t have to be a burn-up-your-energy-and-luck campaign for this team to maximize its wins total.

On the other hand, it’s also a reminder that Mark Daigneault will always experiment and develop, even while the team leverages its depth with conservative rest and injury management. Daigneault coaches from the opposite end of the regular season spectrum as Tom Thibodeau (who maxed out his best players and units every regular season night). Thunder players want to win every possession, every game. Their coach wants them to learn how to win every kind of possession and game, even when playing with an obvious disadvantage. I don’t care how well the Thunder can win Carlson minutes, because I don’t want to be rooting for them to survive Carlson minutes in the postseason. It’s Daigneault's job to care about that, though, especially when the team maintains a death grip on the No. 1 seed.

So yes, the wins record is extremely improbable after the two recent losses. It was always very improbable. But we already know this team can win a bunch of regular season games. What matters is whether they can win even more postseason games, against every kind of matchup, next spring.