Oklahoma City’s strong finish to the regular season continued with a late run to secure its 11th straight win.
The Thunder beat the Detroit Pistons 117-103 as it continued to make history. With their 64th win of the season, the Thunder tied the record for most double-digit wins in a season with 50 and capped their record-setting 29-1 mark against the East.
The game wasn’t always pretty, but as the playoffs near, it is a great reminder that a win is a win. The Thunder and Pistons both were missing some key pieces and had some struggles to get going offensively for stretches.
In the end, Oklahoma City’s historic defense shined through, holding the Pistons to 40.4% from the floor and 30.3% from deep while forcing 18 turnovers. After the Pistons got within four with 3:55 remaining, the Thunder held them scoreless the rest of the way and used a 12-0 run to cap off the win in true Thunder fashion.
Let’s dive into three lessons that can be learned from yesterday’s game.
The biggest takeaway from this game was apparent within the first few minutes. Getting the start at center, Chet Holmgren quickly made his presence felt inside, with Isaiah Hartenstein coming off the bench.
Along with being his usual self defensively, finishing with six blocks and grabbing 11 rebounds, Holmgren had perhaps his most aggressive offensive game of the season. From taking advantage of mismatches in the halfcourt to going coast to coast in transition, Holmgren had no issues taking it to the Pistons.
He finished the night with 22 points while shooting 7-of-9 from inside the arc. Although he missed all five of his 3-point attempts, he made up for it by being aggressive and drawing fouls. Holmgren got to the line throughout the night and drained eight of his nine free-throw attempts. If the Thunder can get this version of Holmgren with any consistency, they might be impossible to beat.
On paper, it looks like the Thunder had a rough offensive night from the field. Shooting 42-of-96 overall and 10-of-38 from deep, it’s clear that Oklahoma City didn’t have the offensive touch it would like to have most nights.
However, the Thunder still prevailed to a 16-point win and added some much-needed points at the foul line, draining 25 of their 31 attempts. While it appears the free-throw line was the only place the Thunder found consistent success offensively, it was simply the jumpers that weren’t falling.
When Detroit could force Oklahoma City to take a jump shot, it often led to a miss on what was a bad outside shooting night. Yet, it was a long night for Detroit’s defense anytime the Thunder managed to break through the perimeter defense.
The Thunder finished with 58 points in the paint, making up nearly half of their scoring on the night. Converting 22-of-30 on shots in the restricted area, the Thunder feasted against a Detroit frontcourt desperately missing the rim protection of Isaiah Stewart.
After the Thunder’s loss to the Denver Nuggets on the second night of a back-to-back in mid-March, they dropped to 53-12. The dream of becoming the third team to reach 70 wins was seemingly all but over, needing an improbable 17-game winning streak to make it happen.
Yet, Oklahoma City’s win over Detroit marked the 11th game of the 17 needed to reach 70. While the Thunder might not necessarily need to win all of these games to finish the year, gathering more reps for Holmgren and Hartenstein together and some other pairings is still a priority. As the team enters the final six games of the year, securing the top overall seed is also still something to watch.
If the Thunder can continue to power through like they did against the Pistons and find ways to win on nights where they can’t hit from outside or have to fight through other adversity, making it to 70 wins is in play. If Oklahoma City could somehow do that, it would add another record to its impressive season. The needed 17-game winning streak would be the longest end-of-season winning streak in league history, surpassing the 2017-18 Philadelphia 76ers, who won their final 16 games.
The Thunder are dominant and are cementing themselves as one of the best regular season teams in NBA history. Although they don’t have much left to prove in the regular season, the final few games will be important to ensure they go down as more than just a great regular season squad.
The Thunder will continue their final stretch of the season on Friday when they cap the season series against the Rockets in Houston.
