OKC Thunder fall to Suns despite scrappy run

The OKC Thunder have played some great basketball in recent weeks, none better than last night’s win over the Denver Nuggets as the Thunder played their first true complete game of the year. The Bricktown boys led for nearly the entire game against the Nuggets while holding the league’s MVP in check. Tonight, the Oklahoma City Thunder played the second leg of the back-to-back traveling to take on the reigning Western Conference Champion Phoenix Suns as the final tilt before players get a two-day break to celebrate the Holidays.

After resting Mike Muscala on the front end of the back-to-back he returned to the floor tonight as his fellow veteran big man Derrick Favors took his turn to rest instead. The Oklahoma City Thunder bench boss Mark Daigneault stuck to his guns of benching Darius Bazley and instead started rookie Aaron Wiggins for the fourth time this season. Since Bazley has been allocated to the bench, Daigneault has been sliding rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl up to the power forward position while starting veteran big man Derrick Favors. Without that option, it was up to the two-way wing to fill the void, creating an interesting defensive lineup.

Despite the Suns preparing for a Christmas Day clash with the Golden State Warriors one of the league’s best teams so far this season, on arguably the largest platform on the NBA calendar, the Chris Paul-led squad would not overlook this scrappy Thunder team.

Suns down OKC Thunder despite the scrappy second-half run

Different verse, same as the first for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who got down early in this one allowing the Suns to grow a 16 point lead, which feels routine at this point against them. Devin Booker, Deandre Ayton, and Chris Paul were good as advertised with big bench minutes from Cameron Johnson who went 7-for-7 on his way to 21 points were all the Suns needed.

Booker lit up the scoreboard for 30 points on 52-percent shooting, while Ayton dominated the undersized Thunder with a 19-point, 12-rebound double-double to go along with his two blocks, and two assists.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is fresh off his second career triple-double, would attempt to match Booker shot-for-shot as SGA also made half his shots while pouring in 29 points, dishing out seven assists, and hauling in five rebounds. The bright spot for the OKC Thunder is their max contract point guard finding the bottom of the net from beyond the arc as Shai blitzed in a pair of triples to the tune of 33-percent from distance.

Josh Giddey remained excellent as a rookie taking on the usage rate that he is, chipping in 17-points, two assists, six rebounds, and shooting 41-percent from the floor. His fellow rookie, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl showed off his court-stretching ability going 3-for-6 from distance with five rebounds, 11-points, and a block from that center spot.

The OKC Thunder shot 48-percent from the floor in the final frame, totaling 40-percent for the entire second half but it was not enough to outduel the Suns who made 55-percent of their second-half shots.