Inside The Thunder

Oklahoma City Thunder Escape Los Angeles Clippers in Final Seconds, 101-100

The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Los Angeles Clippers on the road to earn the seventh seed and win the first of a three-game road stand in L.A.

Dustin McLaughlin

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With an opportunity to both earn the seventh seed in the Western Conference and improve to a .500 record, much was at stake for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they hit the road to face Kawhi Leonard, Paul George, and the fifth-seed Los Angeles Clippers. Remarkably, the Thunder would find success after Luguentz Dort thwarted a potential buzzer-beater from Leonard.

As soon as the game tipped off inside the Crypto.com Arena, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander went to work, drilling his first shot – a mid-range jumper – to draw first blood. But an and-one dunk by George, a steal by Leonard, and two more slam dunks from Russell Westbrook would ignite the Clippers as they would quickly build a 17-4 lead early in the first frame, forcing a Thunder timeout.

Post-timeout, the Thunder were able to earn three consecutive defensive stops. On the other end of the floor, Josh Giddey found his own and-one opportunity, Jalen Williams scrapped his way to a highly contested layup before Gilgeous-Alexander drained a 26-foot 3-pointer to cut the Clippers’ lead to six, 12-18, with about four minutes to go.

Then, Gilgeous-Alexander's drive followed by Isaiah Joe's 3-pointer whittled down the Clippers' lead to just two points. Afterwards, Jalen Williams proceeded to take over on offense, scoring six straight points to close out the first frame and giving the Thunder a 23-22 advantage heading into the second quarter.

Two big 3-pointers from Jalen Williams and Ousmane Dieng highlighted how the Thunder would kick off the second frame, leading to a 31-31 stalemate with just under eight minutes to go but only after a successful challenge by Mark Daigneault wiped out a layup by George. In a wild turn of events, Terence Mann would score six straight points over the next three minutes to give the Clippers a 39-35 advantage before two consecutive technical fouls led to his ejection.

With Leonard also receiving a technical, the Thunder would convert two of the three technical free throws to bring the score to 40-41. And after the dust settled, the Thunder found some rhythm from behind the arc as Jaylin Williams knocked down two 3-pointers and Joe knocked down another. Giddey would go on to drain a tough floater to cap off a 16-11 run to earn a 56-51 lead over the Clippers heading into the break.

Back-up big man, Olivier Sarr, earned and converted two quick free throws and Luguentz Dort drilled a much-needed corner 3-pointer for the Thunder as back-to-back triples via Leonard and Marcus Morris kicked off the third quarter to force a 61-61 tie with just under nine minutes to go. Just a few minutes later, Leonard would hit another 3-pointer to push the Clippers’ lead to 69-65, but Jalen Williams would quickly answer with a thunderous dunk and a timely triple before Gilgeous-Alexander found another layup to keep things close, 72-73.

With just under four minutes remaining, George somehow found the time and space to pull off a 360-degree slam dunk to ignite the Clippers crowd before stealing the ball and finding his way to the rack two possessions later, giving Los Angeles a 77-72 lead. Gilgeous-Alexander responded by scoring eight straight points to close the gap heading into the fourth quarter, 80-81.

Oklahoma City opened up the fourth frame with an early five points behind Lindy Waters' 3-pointer and mid-range bank shot from Giddey but the Clippers kept up after George crossed up Giddey to hit a 14-foot pull-up, tying the game up, 87-87 with eight and half minutes to go. 

Jalen Williams would score the lone basket for the Thunder over the next three minutes and Leonard and Gilgeous-Alexander would exchange a pair of buckets to keep things tied, 91-91, just before an awkward landing forced a pause in the game as George had to be helped off the court.

As play resumed, the game reached the final stretch, and with just under four and half minutes to play, Leonard urgently searched for offense, quickly hitting another mid-range shot to keep the Clippers afloat. But the Thunder responded back as Joe knocked down a 14-foot jumper and Jalen Williams hammered home an electrifying transition dunk to spark his team's offense, 95-93.

Now, with both teams desperate to score down the stretch, Gilgeous-Alexander searched for and drew a foul from his predecessor, Westbrook, leading to two made free throws, giving the Thunder a 99-95 lead with under two minutes to go. Eric Gordon would respond by maximizing  a second-chance opportunity, drilling a clutch 3-pointer to cut the lead to just one. But, Gilgeous-Alexander would answer back with another downhill attack, extending the lead out to 101-98.

In the final minute, however, Leonard would find Nicolas Batum for an easy layup to once again cut the Thunder’s lead down to just one point, 101-100. And after Joe missed an open corner 3-pointer and an opportunity to increase the Thunder’s chance of winning, the Clippers held the final possession. With just seconds remaining and the shot clock turned off, Leonard, guarded by Dort, would force a deep, contested two and miss, securing a Thunder victory.

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Dustin McLaughlin
DUSTIN MCLAUGHLIN

Dustin has followed the Oklahoma City Thunder since their inception in 2008, and the NBA since the early 2000s. He's been scouting NBA prospects for 4 years and running.

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