The OKC Thunder entered Wednesday Night on a six-game losing streak and welcomed the Houston Rockets to the Paycom Center in Downtown Oklahoma City. No, that is not a typo, I am hopped up on little sleep and four cups of coffee in the last three hours, but that is a fact. The Oklahoma City Thunder once again played the Rockets, for the fourth time this season!
The Oklahoma City Thunder are done playing the Houston Rockets for the year as the final buzzer sounds in Bricktown tonight. After a slog of a game on Monday, these two games provided some much-needed entertainment on the first night of December…I hope you all remembered the advent calendars and get to wake up every morning to a sweet treat with your coffee.
This night started with some fresh faces, as Josh Giddey and Derrick Favors were out tonight with the flu, Mark Daigneault had to go to a new starting five. He elected to start rookie guard Tre Mann who got the scoring started with a quick three points.
OKC Thunder fall to Houston Rockets despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s top-notch game
The story of this tilt was Shai Gilgeous-Alexander‘s incredible night. The max contract point guard was back in his bag tonight, as the kids say. After a tough stretch, SGA posted 39 points setting a new season-high in points. This is his second game with 30-plus points this year, and the15th such game for his career. This was a career-high in field goal attempts and free throw attempts for the All-Star caliber point guard.
Despite some pretty passes, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished with just two assists, he hauled in four rebounds and blocked a shot with just one turnover and two fouls.
The OKC Thunder held a double-digit lead in the second half of this game, and still found a way to collapse dropping their seventh straight game falling to the Houston Rockets 114-110.
Jae’Sean Tate took over in the fourth quarter posting 32 points, ten rebounds, seven assists, and five blocks tonight with just three turnovers and three fouls. Tate was incredible shooting 73-percent from the floor while going 1-of-2 from three. He was one of six Rockets in double figures including a big lift off the bench from Armoni Brooks who chipped in 18 points.
Despite Christian Wood only playing nine minutes, and Kevin Porter Jr existing after 13 the Rockets came away with an impressive win.
Tre Mann finished with 11 points and two rebounds. His fellow rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl was able to turn in double-digit points with 12 points, nine rebounds, four assists, a steal, on 55-percent shooting.
Luguentz Dort was back on track offensively going for 19 points, four assists, two steals, and a block. Dort turned in 53-percent from the floor and four of eight from downtown. The Canadians Dort and Gilgeous-Alexander put on a show in front of Toronto Raptors ambassador, world-renowned artist, and fellow Canadian Drake. Dort had a few tough finishes at the rim, an area he is having a career year in improving his rim finishing by eight percentage points this season.
“It was random, very random.” Jeremiah Robinson-Earl said when asked about seeing Drake courtside. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander echoed that sentiment going as far as to say he does not know why the talented rapper was in town.
Despite going two of four from the floor, hauling in two rebounds, dishing out a no-look assist to Lu Dort, swiping a steal, and swatting a shot, Aleksej Pokusevski only played eight minutes. In that span, Poku was a +11 in the plus/minus category.
The OKC Thunder blew a 15-point lead, shot 47-percent from the floor, 25-percent from deep were outrebounded by two boards but won the turnover battle by five.
The team is back in action tomorrow night in Memphis against the Grizzlies as they look to stop this losing streak.