OKC Thunder win 101-93 thriller over defending champion Lakers

The Oklahoma City Thunder survived a clutch-hour thriller to beat the Los Angeles Lakers 101-93 in their third Emirates NBA Cup group game.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander drilled a 27-foot pull-up three over Max Christie to put the Thunder up by four points with a minute and a half left. Christie converted a turnaround jumper in the final minute but trailed Gilgeous-Alexander on a drive to the basket — last season’s MVP runner-up made both free throws to restore the four-point lead and Jalen Williams made a steal and swatted the ensuing inbounds pass to seal the victory.

Gilgeous-Alexander scored 36 points on 28 shots, including three 3-pointers, and added nine assists, six rebounds, two steals and a block. His plus-13 also led all players.

Jalen Williams contributed 19 points, four rebounds, two assists and two steals. Isaiah Hartenstein had 11 points, 17 rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block. Luguentz Dort made four of his five 3-point attempts.

Dalton Knecht led the Lakers scorers with 20 points, going 6-for-11 from beyond the arc. He also grabbed six rebounds and dished out four assists. D’Angelo Russell had 17 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two steals. Anthony Davis recorded 15 points, 12 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks.

The Thunder started Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Williams, Hartenstein, Dort and Cason Wallace — their ninth unique starting five in 19 games.

Los Angeles started Austin Reaves, Knecht, Rui Hachimura, LeBron James and Davis.

Wallace and Hartenstein recorded early steals on back-to-back possessions, leading to a wide-open Dort triple in transition and a Gilgeous-Alexander breakaway layup. Oklahoma City went on a 13-2 run after Reaves hit a top-of-the-key 3-pointer to start the night’s scoring.

Davis hit a running floater, scored a putback layup and blocked Gilgeous-Alexander at the rim within a minute to help cut the Thunder’s lead to five points midway through the opening frame.

Hartenstein stuffed a Knecht dunk attempt with two minutes left in the first quarter, but fell hard on his back and struggled to get back up. He left the game during the next stoppage of play. Oklahoma City led 34-26 after 12 minutes.

Reaves took a similar fall eight minutes into the second quarter when he went down on his lower back after attempting a driving layup that was challenged by Gilgeous-Alexander and Hartenstein. He shot and made both earned free throws after the Lakers’ timeout, but checked out for D’Angelo Russell and went to the locker room at the next whistle.

Gilgeous-Alexander drained a step-back 3-pointer to make it 48-48 with 26 seconds left in the half, and assisted on a Kenrich Williams triple at the buzzer to give the Thunder a three-point advantage at halftime. Oklahoma City scored six points in the final minute of the second quarter after registering just 13 points in the first 11 minutes.

The Lakers attempted 10 more free throws than the Thunder in the first half, a statistical category coach Mark Daigneault explicitly addressed before the game.

“When you plan for (the Lakers), the battlefield is the free throw line,” Daigneault said. “And it starts there because of the difference that they’re able to make in that part of the game. I mean, they shot 507 more free throws than their opponents last season, 476 the season before. They’re plus- 97 this year Those are just huge, huge numbers and the free throw line is the most effective shot you can take on the court.

“That’s a big key in the game plan tonight and we’re doing everything we can to neutralize that matchup.”

Daigneault yelled at two officials after a missed Jalen Williams layup attempt in the third quarter.

The Thunder went on a three-and-a-half-minute stretch and scored zero points on a Hartenstein putback layup with about four minutes left in the third quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander made a pull-up 3-pointer and Aaron Wiggins converted a contested turnaround mid-range jumper to close the quarter, giving Oklahoma City a 71-69 lead with 12 minutes left.

Russell hit two straight three-pointers from the left wing – increasing his total to 17 – to give the Lakers a one-point lead, but Dort and Ajay Mitchell answered with two consecutive corner triples in front of the Thunder bench to force a Los Angeles timeout four minutes into the last picture.

The Thunder take on the no. 2 seed Houston Rockets this Sunday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m. CST.

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