While the Thunder finished its Sunday matinee against the Clippers minus-eight overall, OKC once again outscored the Clippers for the second straight game through the final three quarters.
The first frame unfolded eerily similar to Friday’s where the Thunder missed all of its 3-point attempts while the Clippers put up 36 points compared to OKC’s 18. However, one major difference between Friday’s start and Sunday’s — OKC played with the visible added edge of a team who learned its lessons from Friday and wanted to come out and make its presence known.
“I thought we competed from the jump tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “Obviously they’re a really good team and outplayed us by eight points this time but I was really happy with the progress we made coming out of the game Friday, there were some real tangible things we wanted to improve at and I thought we did that tonight for the most part, so it was a net positive day for us.”
The Thunder brought that edge throughout the game to rally back from the early 17-point deficit on multiple occasions and bring the game to within single digits. In the second quarter, it was the bench who sparked the effort led by Hamidou Diallo who finished with 14 points on 6- of-9 shooting. Mike Muscala and Kenrich Williams both chipped in seven points as the Thunder bench outscored the Clippers’ reserves 18-5 in the first half.
“I can go down the list and name all the guys who can contribute at a high level, so we expect them to come in and give us that burst,” Thunder guard George Hill said.
Minus its first possession out of the half, OKC scored on seven straight possessions to bring the Clippers’ lead down to five points, the closest margin of the game since the first quarter. Los Angeles packed the paint defensively in an effort to deter and limit the Thunder’s paint production. This didn’t stop the Thunder or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who finished the night with a team-high 23 points while dishing out seven assists. As a team, the Thunder imposed its will with multiple efforts on the offensive end and outscored the Clippers 66 to 42 in the paint. Secondary drives and extra passes opened up the lane for guards like Diallo, Hill and Gilgeous-Alexander to make plays at the basket.
“Against a good defensive team like the Clippers, it takes multiple efforts and multiple attempts to get what we want and ultimately, we’ll get the best shots from it,” Gilgeous-Alexander said.
With about 4 minutes to go in the fourth quarter, the Thunder received a massive offensive boost from 13-year veteran Hill who ripped off three consecutive 3-pointers to bring the game to single digits, this time in crunch time. Hill would finish the contest with a season-high 22 points on 9-of-12 from the field and 3-of-4 from the 3-point line.
“It felt good,” Hill said. “Just take advantage of every opportunity I get. Continue to trust myself and try to do the best I can for this team.”
Hill’s sudden barrage of 3-pointers forced the Clippers to call a timeout in the hopes of quelling any of the Thunder’s momentum. However, out of the timeout Lu Dort snagged a steal from an errant pass by Reggie Jackson that resulted in a dunk by Gilgeous-Alexander on the other end to bring the deficit to 6 points with just under 2 minutes left to play.
Following that play, the Thunder missed a 3-pointer with a minute remaining and Kawhi Leonard, who finished with a game-high 37 points, answered with a dunk on the other end to put the game back up to three possessions with just 45 seconds remaining.