SGA Scores 40 | TENSIONS RISE for OKC Thunder vs. Wizards | Hartenstein DOMINATES the Glass

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Days locked on Thunder Podcast.

The Oklahoma City Thunder gets the win over Washington, SGA dropped 40 intentions rose

in the nation's capital.

You are locked on Thunder, your daily Oklahoma City Thunder Podcast, part of the Lockdown

Podcast Network, your team every day.

Let's get it going on the Lockdown Podcast.

On the Lockdown Podcast Network, your teams every day, another one sports podcast network

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I'm Rowland Styles.

We're talking about the Thunder taking on Washington in this Saturday matchup on this bonus edition

of Locked on Thunder SGA, took over dropped 40 points.

The Thunder get a win, I Heart dominates the glass and we had a little skirmish, a little

brawl, a little brujaha, a little kerfuffle in the nation's capital.

I'll have to dive into on today's bonus show.

This is Lockdown Thunder Monday through Friday, plus after every single game, plus our

bonus shows and our live streams throughout the week.

The Thunder in this game, saw 25 points be their biggest and that didn't happen until

the final frame because in between there, there was a 15 lead change contest playing out

with 12 ties and ultimately the Thunder end up with a win.

That is 132.11, it was a blowout game for the Thunder, but an interesting way to get

there.

It was powered by SGA who had 40 points.

I thought that Oklahoma City in this game really did not start out with the proper intensity

defensively.

They looked a step slow, they looked sluggish, they get out to this 11 to 4 start and it

almost looked as though they were ready to put the game on autopilot and Washington to

their credit punch back.

Then you saw the Thunder 1.11, oh running, you thought, okay, this is going to be where

they break it open and instead Washington punched back again.

The first three quarters were back and forth of fair as indicated by the amount of lead

changes and ties and it was an SGA buzzer beater from the ground from beyond the arc that

really put a charge in O.K.C. at the very end of the third quarter where they eventually

did balloon that into their 25 point lead.

The wizards in the fourth quarter really struggled to score the basketball.

They didn't score until about the six minute mark in that fourth quarter.

You look at Washington scoring output.

First three quarters, they had 32 points in each of them.

The fourth quarter, they scored just 15 total points against this Thunder defense.

When the Thunder defense locked in, that was all she wrote for Washington.

You'd have liked to see Oklahoma City lock in defensively earlier, but better late than

never for them to pull out this win because the biggest thing about a game like this, you

know, on a Saturday afternoon in Washington, D.C. against the worst team in basketball that

let Batman and Bio just do whatever he wanted on the court.

This is a team that is a toothless tiger.

This is a team that wants to lose and it's pretty good at losing.

They're pretty good at losing.

You're not going to learn anything substantial from a game like this.

You're not going to learn anything about your postseason outlook or about your championship

ability.

All you're going to learn from this game is that you win or lose and in a race this

type where you see the spurs right on your heels for that one seed in the Western Conference

and how important the home quarter advantage is, how important the playoff bracket is,

you cannot afford to drop a game like this to Washington.

You would have liked to see the Thunder have the defensive intensity earlier, but the bottom

line is you just had to see them eventually get the win, which they did in blood fashion.

If you're just kind of parachuting in to the final box score, it looked like the Thunder

did their job from start to finish.

That's not exactly the case.

They got lost on zone.

They didn't have that right defensive effort earlier that they were a step slow reacting

to Washington.

They didn't force many turnovers to start this game and didn't contest many shots to

start this game, which led Washington to go on fire from three.

And look, as you saw, play out once you let a team get comfortable, once you let a team

knock down shots, it's harder to shut that water off than it typically should be, but

OKC eventually did do it.

You're watching March Madness of the last two days.

This game felt like watching a 16 seed go up against a one seed where the 16 seed can

come out guns ablaze and they can come out on fire.

They can come out chippy.

They can come out ready to go and they might give that one seed a scare and you might be

sitting at home thinking, oh, are we going to see something crazy?

Are we going to see history?

Are we going to see an upset at the end of the day?

No, you're not.

And Washington eventually let go of the rope Washington eventually was a situation where

they just could not keep up with Oklahoma City and they faded fast in this contest.

The Thunder get the win in a blowout fashion by the end of it because they dominate on

the glass.

The Thunder did 5534.

The Thunder eventually forced 15 turnovers and it's impressive to that number while it's

not the most jarring number that the Thunder have ever created in the turnover category.

The fact that Washington didn't have any turnovers during the first like what two mandatory

time outs and then ended up a 15 says a lot.

OKC dominates points in the paint 64 to 40.

The Thunder get second chance points to go their way and tie and fast break points.

The Thunder shoot 53% from the floor compared to Washington's 45% from the floor.

OKC shot just 36% from three compared to Washington's 41% from three and both teams had

it equal day at the free throw line.

So when you look at this game, ultimately, OKC got it done in this one because of

SGA.

I think the Chet Humbren had a really nice fourth quarter.

Isaiah Hartenstein was stellar all throughout, which is the big reason why you ended up getting

this win on the glass and ultimately getting this win overall.

The entertaining part of this game happened just before half time where SGA was at 19 points

before intermission and these two sides broke into a little kerfuffle with 27 seconds to

go in the first half and ended it with seeing J will eject that a J Mitchell ejected

case and Wallace surprisingly ejected and Champenny ejected but Gill was not ejected

in this game, which was a bit crazy, right?

What happened was J will got shoulder to shoulder bump and down on the baseline trying to

inbound the ball.

The two sides came together, Champenny slapped a J Mitchell and then a skirmish of shoving

broke out in that first row and even into the camera operator as the screen went cream

for a bet after the camera got knocked loose.

And I'm fine with all the suspensions, I'm sorry, all the ejections.

I think that J will deserve that A J deserve that Champenny deserved that.

My only complaint with this is the case and Wallace ejection.

And I think that if you're going to eject case and Wallace, then you also have to eject

Gill.

If you're not going to eject Gill, you can't eject case and Wallace, I think that those

guys were one of the same.

Now, don't put a lot of stock in the poor report and the last two minute report.

This is what we call COA, a CYA, I guess you would say, cover your own, you know what?

By the NBA, the official said, oh, it was clear that case and Wallace actually shoved

Gill into the action.

Okay.

If you believe that, I've got beachfront property in Kansas to sell you.

Gill was, you know, he was involved in this thing well before case and Wallace.

And Gill shoved A J. Look, it is what it is, right?

This is going to blow over soon.

That's my only gripe is the lack of consistency.

And again, you should not believe the poor report, whatever they were saying, it was very

clear that case and Wallace actually pushed Gill into the fray.

Come on, come on.

I think that everyone deserves the ejection except for, I think that the case and

Gill could have been, it should have been on the same plane, whether you wanted to eject

both or not.

It should have been one of the other in my opinion, Gill, who's not long for the NBA,

he'll be a heck of an edger usher in the XFL one day, whenever the tanking days are passed

Washington and he kind of can move on with his life.

The thunder though, ultimately played a back and forth into Washington for three quarters.

And yes, that's not the standard OKCS set, but the fourth quarter went how you would expect

the thunder defense was suffocating, Washington could not score.

OKCS offense got really easy buckets, even with a shade not on the court.

And the thunder pulled away and put it into this contest while having a little breakout

bruh in the mix.

So I thought the shade though, 40 points, he really helped this team, it has crazy sounds,

say back and forth with Washington for these three quarters.

He was the lifeblood of this team's offense.

He gets to 40 points in this one again.

And to have a guy who can go out there and efficiently score, name his score whenever

he wants to and can drag an offense on a night where he just didn't have it.

Yes, you would prefer to have it against the team like Washington, but they just didn't

and Shay did his job and got this win.

I think that, you know, you got to give credit to Chad, got to give credit to I heart.

And also, Jared and I came off the bench.

He was spectacular.

He got some fun shots to fall in that fourth quarter.

We'll talk about all of it coming up on today's bonus edition of Lockdown Thunder.

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We're back.

I'm locked down.

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I work your teams every day here talking thunder basketball here talking Oklahoma City

taking on Washington.

The thunder win their 11th straight in this game.

They're powered by actually at you at 40 points, seven assists, three rebounds and a steel.

One of his best plays of the night did not come from the fact that he hit a buzzer beating

three in the third quarter where he obviously got fouled in the blade.

They didn't call it, but he landed on the ground and knocks in a three, but it was actually

earlier in the first quarter where he plays catch in the corner.

He tosses out to the corner.

He's on the baseline.

Gets the ball right back and then reverses it to the other side, skips it over there for

an easy three for OK, see keeping the ball moving, keeping the ball with energy.

Those seven assists really helped Oklahoma City got to the three though line eight times

tonight went five for eight at the charity stripe and shot 63% from the floor one for two

from distance in this contest.

So SGA plus 11.

He was awesome.

I see a heart and sign equally as awesome.

He was also plus 11.

He only had nine points, but he only took seven shots to get there.

And you know, I know that everybody was hoping that that he could get left in that fourth

quarter and that blow out to try to get that extra bucket, that extra point to go for

a triple double, but I will say an encouraging part on that front is I heart who's been dealing

with the minutes restriction since his return.

He didn't play 25 minutes and three seconds, which is technically 26 minutes, which means

that he's played the most amendments in this game since he has since March 1st.

So good job by the thunder to see him go off and this one 20 rebounds in this game tying

a career high tennis assists as well with two steals.

He was a nice facilitator for this team.

And there was a play that I really want to highlight where it was him and Joe that ran

this top of the key D.H.O.

And it goes to Joe and everybody in the gym believes that Joe was going to take a three.

And AJ Mitchell still fills the lane correctly and goes over to the break of the three point

line.

And is there all alone and Joe makes the extra pass and AJ Mitchell has a wide open

three.

He went two for two from beyond the arc.

This was a second three of the contest.

He had 14 points, Joe did in 15 minutes, 14 points and 15 minutes.

And he was ejected, of course, due to that skirmish.

But in the meantime, he was an excellent offensive weapon for them with those 14 points coupling

with those three assists that he had that steel defensively and that rebound defensively

for AJ where he was able to help this thunder team out in a big way.

But I heart, you don't win the glass, especially as convincingly as OKC did.

Without Isaiah Hartenstein's career high tying 20 rebounds.

Chet Holmgren had 10 rebounds himself.

He had a double double as well.

His was with points and rebounds, 18 points for Chet, 10 rebounds for him, two blocks,

six for six with a charity stripe and went six for nine overall from the floor, but

did miss the only three that he ended up taking.

That fourth quarter for Chet is where I thought that he really came alive yet eight of his

points in that final frame with three rebounds to go along with it and a perfect three

for three as the ultimate play finisher.

I heart also found Chet on a beautiful lob play where I heart is getting swarmed in the

paint and I heart turns.

Chet's going down the middle of the lane and I heart throws him a lob there to finish

it.

I thought that those two have been on the same page in a big way this season and it's created

some easy buckets.

So those three guys of Shay, Chet and I heart were pivotal in getting this win for

Oklahoma City.

Caruso had the five assists tonight, which helped this team.

He had to do some more on ball stuff, given the amount of ejections and this one, you

didn't have Wallace, you didn't have Mitchell.

And so you already didn't have Jada, of course, Lou Dort was out today with a contusion

on the knee.

So you look at that raster for OK, see, you're down, you know, case at that point, AJ at

that point, Jay will at that point, plus J Dub and Lou, you're out of five pivotal rotational

pieces and they still pulled away in that final quarter.

In large part, because of Jared McCain, who had 18 points off of this thunder bench,

he had three rebounds and one assists.

He had that and one rise up and one midi and the kind of a off the dribble step back,

pluck the foul in the middle of the lane for Jared McCain.

He also had four of his 10 threes that he attempted tonight, got that volume up there.

He's the only guy really to shoot that shoot that kind of volume alongside Joe.

Everyone else had two or less threes attempted.

He was McCain with 10 and Joe with 8 in this game to get to that 30 attempts from beyond

the arc for Oklahoma City.

I thought that the Joe and McCain really did a good job stretching the Wizards defense

and McCain came through both in the mid range in this game and from beyond the arc.

And then another shout out on the night on the night, Kenish Williams, I mean, Kenish Williams

is just a professional player.

He's the ultimate professional.

When you look up a professional basketball player in the dictionary, a picture of

Eric Williams should be there because this is a guy that came into this game cold and

played 13 minutes, really 14 because he played 13 30.

And I don't think that the plan is a series from to play at all in this game.

Just given the way the game was flowing and because of the objections, he had to step

up.

And what do you do?

He missed one shot.

He scored 11 points off the bench.

He had three rebounds and we talked about a team that was kind of a slow.

We talked about a team that didn't quite have juice.

You know, Kenish Williams is going to bring that juice.

You know, Kenish Williams is going to bring that energy all throughout a contest.

He did that in this game.

So I thought that Kenish Williams really stepped up when it mattered for his team to allow

you to afford the opportunity where all that went against them.

And again, if you didn't watch the game, it probably isn't going to fill this way to

you.

A lot went against them by looking at the final score, but they got off to a slow start

and they didn't defend to their standards for three quarters.

And they had five players out by the end of the third quarter and to still get a blow

out, it's because you have guys who you can lean on with your full roster and with your

full depth.

And it's also because of guys like Ken Rich, who can come into a game.

You can come in cold, but he stays ready and he's able to inject life into this team.

We wondered if the Brooklyn second half would be kind of a launching pad for Wiggins.

Wiggins to his credit, knocked out a couple of open shots this one early, but it didn't

do much to right home.

I had the four turnovers.

It was an awkward role for Wiggins.

I will say in this game to give him the benefit of the doubt there, but it was not some

coming out party for Wiggins like we thought it could parlay into after that Brooklyn contest

or at least wonder if it could parlay into after that Brooklyn contest in this game.

You did see Alex Sarr have 14 points.

He started out hot in this one, Bob Carrington, I mean, he went four for seven from three.

He was one of the guys that the Thunder lost track of whenever they were running his

own early.

And he just cannot do that against a shooter like Carrington who's capable of getting hot

and he had 19 points in this game.

Kulabale, nice little player in this contest.

And Washington, look, they have a rebuild that a lot's gone wrong for them when it comes

to lottery luck.

I think they've made the most of their picks, they've been the most of their of their

opportunities with that bad luck in the lottery.

That's an O.K.C.

front office over there, buying low on AD and Trey, that's a fine move.

Let's see if they get lottery luck this year because if they do, they could be a little

bit of a player here in the Eastern Conference starting next season.

But the Thunder, it's a whole home game.

The biggest storyline was that that little skirmish in the second quarter.

And with Shay having 19 points at that point, I think everybody was wondering, oh my goodness,

is history going to repeat itself?

Because you know, as we've said on the show before, Wilts record and streak of scoring

20 plus points, whenever it got to 126, it snapped because he got ejected before he could

score 20.

And AJ got pulled out of the pile by SGA and SGA did a great job of kind of getting AJ

away from everybody and kind of bringing him all the way to the Thunder bench.

It kind of reminded me of that scene on the blind side where Michael or blocks the kid

all the way to the bosses and says it's time to go home.

I get kind of reminded of AJ was taking, was taking a ride by Shay, pushing him to the

bench.

And I get out of here, time to get out of here, which is what we should be doing right

now.

So ultimately though, this was a fine game from Oklahoma City, a lot to clean up on, but

look, it like we said at the top of the show, this game doesn't really mean a ton of

in this standpoint of anything big picture, other than getting the win, the win's the most

important part.

And now you go take on Philadelphia, that'll be a heck of a game.

That'll be very fun from the standpoint of the drama as well, where you have Jared

McCain returning to Philadelphia for the first time as a member of the Thunder.

How will he be received by that fan base?

It should be a very warm reception in a way, sticking it to DeRomore, and then of course

you have Isaiah Joe, who's a product of Philadelphia as well.

It's going to be a lot of fun to see that one.

We'll have that one recap before you look.

This is this is locked on Thunder.

It's the only daily Thunder podcast out there Monday through Friday, plus our bonus

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We have so much content coming out for you on Monday's morning show, what we'll have

a show with Brown or a bar, getting you set for this week, which includes a potential

finals preview with the Celtics.

On Monday afternoon, I'm trying to work something out to have locked on Sixers on to talk about

Jared McCain, to talk about what the reception could be like for Philadelphia, if you've seen

them on social media, they're still pretty scorned by this move rightfully so.

So I think it'll be a fun preview for that Sixers game, plus more throughout the week.

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And until next time, folks, be good and be good to one another.