OKLAHOMA CITY — The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets 96-84 Thursday night in their home opener at Paycom Center. The win came on the night Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s NBA-record streak of 20-point games ended.
Tulsa native Kolbi Jordan opened the night with the national anthem before tipoff. Jordan, an R&B singer-songwriter, reached the top 10 on Season 23 of “American Idol” and began leading her church’s praise team at age 11.
Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s two-time reigning MVP, finished with 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting. His streak ends at 141 consecutive regular-season games with at least 20 points. He was coming off a 32-point game in Tuesday’s 116-104 win at San Antonio.
A rare cold half for SGA
Gilgeous-Alexander missed all seven of his first-half shots, and Oklahoma City trailed by as many as nine. Two free throws kept him from his first scoreless half since his 2019 rookie season with the LA Clippers, according to the Associated Press. ESPN reported it was only the fourth time in 450 games with the Thunder that he went a half without a field goal.
He scored the first basket of the third quarter to cut Denver’s lead to 48-46. An Ajay Mitchell layup then gave the Thunder a 64-62 lead, their first since 3-0. Gilgeous-Alexander closed the quarter with a transition 3-pointer that put OKC up 70-64.
His late 3-pointer made it 93-76 and gave him 17 points. He came out with 1:43 left after Nuggets coach David Adelman cleared his bench.
Defense carries Oklahoma City
Jalen Williams led the Thunder with 21 points. Holmgren added 12 points, 17 rebounds and four blocks. Mitchell scored 12 points and had five steals.
Oklahoma City shot just 11 of 43 from 3-point range and won with its defense. The Thunder forced 22 turnovers, scored 21 points off them and finished with 12 steals and nine blocks.
Aaron Gordon led Denver with 20 points in the Nuggets’ season opener. Nikola Joki? and DeMar DeRozan scored 13 each, with Joki? shooting 5 of 19.
