Shai Gilgeous-Alexander Leads Thunder to Win vs. Spurs
The San Antonio Spurs failed to build on Monday's 126-122 win against the Utah Jazz. They followed it up with a 130-114 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.
The Thunder came out of the gate hot offensively — scoring a game-high 38 points in the first quarter. The Spurs hung tough with 33 of their own. Oklahoma City continued to pour it on and had 70 points on the board before halftime, resulting in a 10-point lead.
“We got off to a good start,” Thunder center Mike Muscala said. “Obviously, they made some runs there, but we just stuck with it and kept encouraging each other and came up with the win. It was a fun game."
The Spurs had rallied back to trail by just 95-93 before the end of the third quarter. It quickly unravelled for them. Using a 14-point scoring differential in the fourth quarter, the Thunder pulled away from the Spurs. San Antonio
“We were good tonight, offensively and defensively,” Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said. “We just try to be the aggressors, play with pace, play together, try to make smart decisions.”
Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with 28 points, six rebounds, eight assists, two steals, and four blocks (career-high) in 33 minutes. While some supporting cast talents stepped up, the Thunder's main complementary starters didn't make a big scoring impact.
“We had an incredibly hard time guarding their live-ball penetration,” Spurs assistant coach Brett Brown said. “They did a great job. They’re hard to guard. We needed to do better (with) one-on-one defense and keeping the ball out of the paint and we didn’t. … We let them off the hook at times with unnecessary fouls.”
Devin Vassell led the Spurs with 20 points and the rest of the starting lineup finished with double-figures scoring. Keldon Johnson wasn't far behind with 19 points. It was another intriguing performance from Jeremy Sochan, who finished with 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and two blocks.
The Spurs return to action on Thursday when they take on the New York Knicks at AT&T Center.
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