NBA scores: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander explodes, but Warriors beat Thunder

Golden State Warriors hosted Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday night in a showdown between the two guards chosen as Western Conference All-Star Starters, Steph Curry and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

There was no doubt that Gilgeous-Alexander won the individual matchup. But both players know that the only thing that matters is winning the game. And a Golden State team on the back of a back-to-back facing the best team in the NBA, and desperate after a declaration of declaration, got one, withdrew an exciting comeback to beat Thunder 116-109.

It started, as most Warriors do, with a new starting lineup: This time, the Rookie Quinten post initiated initially five with Curry, Gary Payton II, Buddy Hield and Andrew Wiggins. It only worked on defense when Thunder missed their first five shots, and did not score before a defensive three second violation technical free throw two minutes and 16 seconds into the game.

But Golden State’s violation could not follow their strong defensive start, and soon the defense crumbled. After these five consecutive Misses, Thunder raised from five consecutive on the way to a 15-4 race. Before long, the deficit was double, and at the end of the quarter it looked like Warrior fans were in a long, long night.

Gilgeous-Alexander, who chased his first MVP award for career, made a statement from the first quarter, got everything he wanted and dominated Warriors in all areas. All-Star Matchup was definitely one-sided. After a quarter, SGA had 21 points on 7-for-8 shooting, while Curry had not yet scored, and had missed all five shots … to run his consecutive Misses stroke to 13. Warriors, as a teams, couldn’t even match Gilgeous-Alexander’s total and pulled 34-20.

Curry finally ended his drought early in the second quarter with a middle-class jumper, and it injected some life in the team before falling back to a 14-point deficit. Wiggins then put the team on his back for a while, and back-to-back triangles by Han and Dennis Schröder closed an 8-0 race that drew Warriors within six points. It was clear that the Golden State would not disappear, even if the thunder did not make a comeback easy.

Kevon Looney – who, despite not starting, played most of the minutes in the middle – had a massive second quarter and made a couple of free kicks to get Warriors within four points with a few minutes left. But the thunder had once again a response and pushed the lead back to double digits. With a few seconds left, it seemed that OKC had a back break as they grabbed several offensive rebounds for an opportunity for the third chance, which ended in a Gilgeous-Alexander Three. But Wiggins gave Dubs a small momentum with a sum that has beaten three of its own, making it a deficit of 58-48 during the break.

At the break, the Gilgeous-Alexander Outscored Warrior’s starters had 31-23 and had the Outscored Curry 31-4. Warriors had shot only 4-for-21 on triangles, but with thunder shooting only 5-for-20 from a distance, there was not much hope that some course correction on this front would change the scoring.

But an angry curry triggered warriors in the third quarter, which we all hope for each game day. About a minute into half, without points on the board for both teams, a momentum -changing acting emerged. Thunder missed a shot but got the offensive rebound. They missed another shot, but got another offensive rebound. They missed a third shot, but got a third offensive rebound. We all hung up on our heads when the inevitable felt it was creeping in. These are the plays that are demoralizing.

However, they missed the fourth shot, and this time Warriors found rebound. Payton leaked out in the transition for one and one, and not only put three points on the board, but a fourth error on Jalen Williams. It seemed to give Dubbs life, and between huge plays from Looney, Wiggins and Hield Warriors tired at the forefront. Their defense locked inside, their offense found energy, and they rattled off a 21-6 race, which ended with 11 straight points. The 14-point deficit was deleted and replaced with a five-point lead when they finally began to slow down Gilgeous-Alexander.

Of course, the thunder did not go down easily. They re-enter the lead a few minutes later and seemed to be heading for a lead that went into the last quarter before impressive and aggressive layups of Brandin Podziemski and Moses Moody in the last minute crushed the game at 84. It was a 12-minute Play ahead of us.

Curry set the tone by draining a three for the first points of the quarter, and from there the teams traded jabs, hooks and capital letters where SGA continues to hurt. It was really beautiful and breathtaking basketball all around, with Golden State’s defense that fought so hard. Critically, Warriors won the minutes when Curry was on the bench and handed him a four-point lead when he returned with about four and a half minutes back.

A victory finally worked a minute later when Looney drained a couple of free kicks to an eight-point lead, and then followed it up with a massive block at the other end. But Thunder had one last race where he scored five straight points to get within three points by two minutes still back.

And then came the defining spectacles. First, a scandalous deep three of Curry with just under two minutes pushing the lead to six.

Second, after Thunder cut the lead to four, Curry used all the shooting clock before finding Wiggins that spiked a clutch three to bring the lead to seven.

And third, after Schröder pulled a charge to get the ball back to Warriors, he cut through the pitch and cut to a cut Payton for an absolute poster of all seven feet of Isaiah Hartenstein, sent the bench, the crowd and your truly into a madness and cover of a sensational victory.

Warriors moved back over .500 and proved what they are capable of, even with Daymond Green and Jonathan Kuminga the sidelines. They just became the second team in the NBA to beat Thunder several times this year.

Gilgeous-Alexander won the individual match with a scandalous 52 points, but it was Curry’s team that went home happy. Curry ended with 21 points when everything was said and done, with Wiggins leading dubs with 27.

Warriors now get a very deserved day off before hosting Phoenix Suns on Friday night.