Beat up Thunder beat up beat up Hornets
OKC 106 CHA 94
The Oklahoma City Thunder (25-5) beat the Charlotte Hornets (7-24) for their 10th straight victory, turning in another workmanlike road win and remaining undefeated against the Eastern Conference.
OKC was missing its full prison guard shift of Lu Dort, Alex Caruso, and Cason Wallace (on top of Chet's ongoing absence), but Charlotte had a lot less firepower backing up its injured trio of Lamelo Ball, Brandon Miller, and Cody Martin (on top of Tre Mann and Grant Williams' ongoing absence). Off nights for Shai (22 points, 1-6 3PA, 6 TO) and Jalen Williams (20 points on 21 shots) were balanced by strong play from rare starters Aaron Wiggins (17 points, 5 assists, 2 steals) and Ajay Mitchell (10, 4 & 5 in his first career start). And Isaiah Hartenstein is just a guaranteed double-double (12 & 15).
That Charlotte is beat up is obvious, but holding them to a 94.9 ORTG playing without Holmgren and with two rookies (Mitchell played 31 minutes, Dillon Jones got called on for 15) is a brief testament to Hartenstein's skill, Shai's gradually-excellent instincts, and JDub's defensive leap coalescing for this historic season. The team is not more than the sum of its parts when you realize that kind of imposing trio is complemented by better rotation defenders in the wings. The Thunder are impossibly deep and competitive, even when not at full strength. Kevin Garnett was right.
Next up: Oklahoma City opens a juicy five-game homestand tomorrow night, with a chance to go up five games in the standings against 2-seed Memphis, minus Morant.
