OKC Thunder: 3 takeaways from a resilient comeback victory over Chicago

After dropping two straight games, the OKC Thunder get back to a .500 record with a resilient victory over the Chicago Bulls.

A slow start led to a strong finish as the OKC Thunder wound up coming from behind to beat the Chicago Bulls to the tune of a final score of 127-125.

Trailing by 20 points at the half and as many as 22 in the final two rounds of regulation, Oklahoma City put forth a “never say die” attitude and marched back to force overtime and, in turn, a hard-fought ‘W.’

To start things off, it appeared Chicago couldn’t miss while the Thunder couldn’t catch a break. Ultimately, the shooting percentages wound up breaking reletively even with the Bulls shooting at a 47/ 45/ 72 clip while OKC shot 45/ 33/ 66.

Leading the way for Oklahoma City was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who posted a double-double of 33 points and 10 assists on a stellar 68 percent shooting from the field and 60 percent shooting from deep.

Serving as his Robin — arguably more as a Nightwing — was Luguentz Dort, who stuffed the stat sheet with 21 points, eight rebounds, and a whopping six steals on 47 percent shooting from the floor and 36 percent shooting from deep.

From watching the game there are quite a few takeaways to be had, and we here at Thunderous Intentions have 3 specific ones that jump off the page:

OKC Thunder takeaway No. 1) Third-quarter dominance continues

Throughout the team’s first 12 games, the third quarter has been their most dominating period.

Finding themselves outscoring their opponent out of the half in eight of their matchups, it has appeared as though halftime has consistently given the team somewhat of a resurgence feeling. Their game against Chicago continued this trend.

Finding themselves behind by a 20 point deficit, the OKC Thunder went on to outscore the Bulls 37-27 heading into the fourth, cutting the lead to just 10 and, in turn, setting the tone for the remainder of the game, which was hard-fought energy throughout.