The Oklahoma City Thunder traveled to New York to take on the Knicks in the Mecca of basketball, Madison Square Garden. The Thunder were down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Lu Dort, Jeremiah Robinson-Earl, and Mike Muscala being forced to leave even more on their youngsters down three starters. Josh Giddey, Tre Mann, and Darius Bazley took the opportunity and ran with it.
On the heels of a five-game losing streak, and another Josh Giddey triple-double in the loss to the Chicago Bulls, how would the OKC Thunder react to taking on a hungry Knicks squad in the mecca of basketball under the bright lights without their leader and star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to take some of the pressure off? Oh, just with a historic outing.
Josh Giddey records third triple-double, second straight, Tre Mann scores 30, OKC Thunder snap five-game losing streak
Under the bright lights, Josh Giddey logged his third triple-double, going for 28-points, 12 assists, 11 rebounds, and a steal on 50-percent shooting from the floor and 3-for-4 shooting from three-point land. Despite his seven turnovers as his ball-dominate usage grows without SGA, Giddey played 38-minutes and led Oklahoma City to an overtime win.
Tre Mann chipped in 30 points on 56-percent shooting from the floor, and 4-for-7 from deep. Mann also saw the lights go out during his postgame press conference to which he noted “see, I shot the lights out” after having a 29-point outing earlier this season, his new career-high as a rookie establishes how legit his scoring output will be throughout his career.
Darius Bazley, who has been ridiculed by the Oklahoma City Thunder fanbase for over a year, contributed 23-points, eight rebounds, three assists, a steal, and 2-for-6 from three-point land including tough buckets down the stretch in this win.
The Oklahoma City Thunder will have one last contest before the NBA All-Star Break on Wednesday afternoon against the San Antonio Spurs.