Utah Jazz @ Oklahoma City Thunder
Wednesday, March 20, 2024 at 8:00 PM ET
Paycom Center, Oklahoma City, OK | Game ID: 22301000
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Final
OKC 31 22 29 37 119UTA 25 29 26 27 107
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Chet Holmgren scores 35, grabs 14 rebounds and Thunder beat Jazz 119-107
OKLAHOMA CITY -- — Chet Holmgren scored 35 points and tied a career high with 14 rebounds and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the short-handed Utah Jazz 119-107 on Wednesday night.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 20 of his 31 points in the second half for the Thunder, who have the best record in the Western Conference at 48-20.
Alexander became the 13th player in NBA history to score 30 points or more in 50 games.
“Credit Utah, they really competed tonight,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault said. “I thought they were the more physical team after the first six minutes of the game, and that really tested us.”
Collin Sexton had 25 points for Utah, which played without injured players Lauri Markkanen and Jordan Clarkson — two of the team’s top three scorers.
“I thought we played 42 good minutes tonight,” said Utah coach Will Hardy, whose team has lost three straight and 14 of its last 17 to fall to 29-40. “I was really proud of the team’s effort, competitiveness. I thought the first half was probably as good a half of basketball as we’ve played in a while, which shows some growth and maturity from the team. Turnovers hurt us tonight, for sure.”
Utah committed 15 turnovers that resulted in 19 points for Oklahoma City. The Thunder also scored 35 points on second-chance opportunities compared to eight points for the Jazz.
Oklahoma City jumped to a 22-11 lead on an alley-oop pass and dunk from Josh Giddey to Holmgren. Utah scored 10 of the next 12 points to pull within 24-21.
Holmgren, who finished one point shy of a career high, had nine points and seven rebounds in eight minutes and the Thunder had a 31-25 lead after one quarter.
The Jazz outscored Oklahoma City 29-22 in the second to pull in front 54-53 at halftime.
Oklahoma City trailed 61-57 early in the third but went on a 11-0 run to pull ahead 68-61. Gilgeous-Alexander scored 15 in the quarter and the Thunder led 82-80 to start the final quarter.
“I thought in the second half we showed good persistence,” Daigneault said. “We tried to amp it up on the defensive end. The game didn’t open up for us right away, but we kept at it, and then that group to start the fourth quarter really ignited the rest of the game.”
The Thunder took control midway through the fourth, outscoring the Jazz 20-4 at one point to lead 100-86. A 3-pointer by Aaron Wiggins and a pair of 3-point plays by Holmgren — fouled twice on dunks — highlighted the run.
“Some shots didn’t fall from the outside, but we did a good job of not just saying ‘We’re a team that’s going to win when we make shots,’ ” said Holmgren, who also blocked three shots. “We found other ways to open up the game and pull away at the end.”
The lead grew to 16 points on a 3 by Holmgren and his fifth dunk of the game with 5:50 remaining.
Holmgren shot 12 of 18 from the field and the Thunder shot 43 of 88 (48.9%) as a team.
Who is who
the initials in the Players column
OKCAW A. Wiggins
CH C. Holmgren
CW C. Wallace
GH G. Hayward
IJ I. Joe
JG J. Giddey
JW J. Williams
JW Jal. Williams
LD L. Dort
LW L. Waters III
OD O. Dieng
SG S. Gilgeous-Alexander
UTABS B. Sensabaugh
CS C. Sexton
JC J. Collins
JJ J. Juzang
JP J. Preston
KD K. Dunn
KG K. George
KL K. Lewis Jr.
LS L. Samanic
MP M. Potter
OY O. Yurtseven
TH T. Hendricks
TH T. Horton-Tucker
WK W. Kessler
OKC/UTA the team itself, not a player
-- the feed named nobody
What
What happened
the codes in the Events column
M2 / M3 made 2 / made 3
X2 / X3 missed 2 / missed 3
FT / X1 free throw made / missed
AST assist
OR / DR offensive / defensive rebound
STL steal
BLK block
TO turnover
FL foul
OF offensive foul — ends the possession
VIOL violation
JUMP jump ball
TM timeout
IR instant replay
HE heave at the buzzer, filed to the team
Where
Where a shot came from
the middle field of M3.LW.25
RM at the rim inside 4 ft
RC right corner
RW right wing
SO straight on
LW left wing
LC left corner
M3.LW.25 made 3, left wing, 25 ft
X2.RM.01 missed 2, at the rim, 1 ft
When
When it happened
the Offset column
one number per event, in the Events order:
whole seconds from the start of the
possession to that event
Events FL X3.RC.23 OR M2.RM.01
Offset 0 18 22 24
the foul opens the possession at 0s;
the putback ends it at 24s, which is
the possession's own Dur