Jan 29, 2025; San Francisco, California, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) dribbles past Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (2) in the third quarter at the Chase Center. Mandatory Credit: Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images / Cary Edmondson-Imagn Images
The Golden State Warriors became only the second team — after the Dallas Mavericks — to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder twice this season after they picked up a 116-109 victory Wednesday night.
A huge 27-point performance from Andrew Wiggins helped catapult the Warriors to the win, despite a 52-point game from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the other side. Though it didn’t quite reach the MVP frontrunner’s recently made career-high of 54 points, it was quite the showcase nevertheless.
The Thunder offense didn’t quite have its best showing, struggling to shoot from the 3-point arc and a few key players having down nights. Besides Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams and Isaiah Joe, you’d be hard-pressed to find another player on the roster that contributed much offensively.
Here are three takeaways from the seven-point loss:
Oklahoma City certainly took a high volume of 3-pointers during yesterday’s loss, but the same can’t be said for the shots that actually went through the bottom of the net.
Collectively, the Thunder shot 9-of-39 from behind the arc — good for just 23%. Joe’s 5-of-10 clip carried much of the scoring on triples, but the trio of Luguentz Dort, Jaylin Williams and Aaron Wiggins all went 0-of-4 each.
With so many players struggling to perform offensively, it was going to be an uphill battle to get past Golden State. The Warriors fared a few makes better than Oklahoma City did, finishing 13-of-38 by the end of the night. To no suprise, five of those makes came from Stephen Curry.
This isn’t the first time — nor will it likely be the last — that the Thunder dropped a game in large part to struggles from 3-point range, but more times than not the offense is there enough. It hasn’t reached the numbers that it did last season, but it’s still a team that is capable of being dangerous in that area.
It’s been happening all season, but the run Gilgeous-Alexander has been on as of late has been nothing short of breathtaking.
The guard dropped 52 points, three rebounds, four assists and a steal on 16-of-29 shooting from the field and 18-of-21 at the charity stripe. Just last week, he scored 54 points in a win over the Utah Jazz. Two 50+ games in the span of one week is incredibly rare for any player, even with the status of Gilgeous-Alexander.
Though it didn’t translate to a win, Gilgeous-Alexander was impressive as ever. He not only became the first player to notch two 50-point games this season, but the third player in Oklahoma City history to accomplish it. Yes, 21 free throw attempts is a lot, but he did plenty of damage in the mid-range and at the rim.
The soon-to-be All-Star starter is in the midst of the best stretch of games he’s had this season, and it’s only making his MVP case more likely. Combining stats with team record, it’s hard to look at any other player in the NBA and say they are more deserving.
The rest of the Thunder didn’t quite live up to the excellence of Gilgeous-Alexander in this instance, but these types of performances are sure to continue moving forward.
Going beyond the trio that combined for 95 of Oklahoma City’s 109 points, there was little if any ounces of offensive momentum down the rotation.
Several key contributors simply didn’t add anything, including both Isaiah Hartenstein and Luguentz Dort. Hartenstein shot an uncharacteristically bad 2-of-10 from the field — though he did finish with 18 rebounds — and Dort only mustered up four points on 2-of-8 shooting.
Even further down the lineup, it doesn’t get any better. Cason Wallace brought in two points with a 1-of-5 clip. Two points for Jaylin Williams. Two points for Aaron Wiggins. Zero from Ousmane Dieng and Kenrich Williams in a combined 16 minutes of playing time.
The Thunder’s bench unit is undoubtedly strong, consistently performing as one of the league’s best and managing to hold leads while starters sit out. Often times it nearly adds as much value as the starters themselves, if not more. Last night was more of an outlier than anything.
If Gilgeous-Alexander puts up numbers like that again, however, shots are going to have to start falling elsewhere too.
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