Gilgeous-Alexander had the first triple-double by a Thunder player at home since Russell Westbrook during the 2018-19 season.
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Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had his second career triple-double with 27 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists, and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 108-94 on Wednesday night. Gilgeous-Alexander had the first triple-double by a Thunder player at home since Russell Westbrook during the 2018-19 season.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (@shaiglalex) gets shifty as he puts up a triple-double in the @okcthunder win!
27 Points
11 Boards
12 Dimes pic.twitter.com/UkQgNKfxhI— NBA (@NBA) December 23, 2021
Gilgeous-Alexander said his teammates told him he was closing in on the triple-double. He clinched it on a rebound with about a minute to go.
”I can’t keep track of stats when I’m playing,” he said. ”I’m just trying to win and trying to make the best basketball play every possession on both ends of the floor and whatever happens, happens.”
Darius Bazley had 17 points and 11 rebounds, Lu Dort had 15 points and rookie Jeremiah Robinson-Earl added 14 points and nine rebounds for the Thunder. Oklahoma City claimed its largest margin of victory this season and improved to 5-3 since a 73-point loss at Memphis on Dec. 2.
”It would have been easy to go into a shell, making excuses — we’re a young team, blah, blah, blah,” rookie Josh Giddey said. ”But credit to our guys. After that Memphis game, we wanted to come out and prove a point that that’s not the team we are. We don’t want to be remembered for that. I think since then, we’ve come out with an edge, a chip on our shoulders to prove to teams that when you come into our building, or when we come to you, it’s not going to be an easy game.”
Nikola Jokic had 13 points, seven rebounds and three assists for the Nuggets. The reigning league MVP entered the game averaging 26.3 points, 13.5 rebounds and 7.5 assists. Denver coach Michael Malone said the he didn’t like the way the starters were playing, so he sat all of them for the entire fourth quarter.
”As a coach, what I really care about is when you play and you compete and you play the right way,” Malone said. ”We didn’t have that from our starting group.”
Denver had won three of four, but hadn’t played since Dec. 17. The Nuggets’ game against the Brooklyn Nets scheduled for Dec. 19 was postponed because the Nets didn’t have enough available players due to health and safety protocols and injuries.
Gilgeous-Alexander had nine points and two assists in the final four minutes of the first half to help the Thunder take a 60-52 lead. He had 19 points at the break. Jokic and Aaron Gordon each scored 10 points for the Nuggets.
The Thunder extended their lead to 16 points on a 3-pointer by Dort with just under five minutes left in the third quarter. A 3-pointer by Giddey pushed Oklahoma City’s lead to 21. The Thunder led 88-66 at the end of the period.
Denver cut its deficit in the fourth with the reserves, but never got closer than eight points in the final period. Malone respected the effort from the reserves, led by Austin Rivers’ 12 points.
”I really applaud the effort by our bench,” he said. ”Those guys went out there and competed and played hard.”
