Two nights ago, the OKC Thunder were blasted by the Houston Rockets in a 136-106 loss at home, dropping the Thunder’s home record to 1-7 on the season. The Rockets made 28 3-pointers in the game, tying an NBA single-game record.
On Wednesday, the Thunder entered the game without starting point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and George Hill. Shortly after, Luguentz Dort left the game for good after logging just nine minutes of court time due to knee soreness.
All signs pointed to another collapse. Instead, the OKC Thunder dominated the Rockets in every facet of the game, holding Houston to a season-low 87 points for a 104-87 win.
OKC Thunder role players step up in dominant performance
Even without Gilgeous-Alexander, Hill and Dort, for the most part, the OKC Thunder had little trouble scoring against the Rockets.
The night featured a breakout game for Kenrich Williams, whose 19 points on 87.5 percent shooting led all Thunder scorers, and that was with Williams playing just 23 minutes off the bench.
Darius Bazley shot 46.2 percent from the field for 18 points and picked up a double-double by pulling down 12 rebounds. Al Horford dropped 17 points on 60 percent shooting and Hamidou Diallo added 16 points on 55 percent shooting and nine rebounds. Isaiah Roby added 13 points on 66 percent shooting off the bench.
Perhaps the biggest difference in this game versus the last was the defense.
The OKC Thunder held the Rockets to 26.1 percent shooting from 3-point range. Theo Maledon anchored the defense with his performance against Victor Oladipo and Eric Gordon. Oladipo made just eight of his 24 shot attempts, finishing the game with 19. Gordon was more efficient, making 53.3 percent of his shots but finished with only 22 points.