OKC Thunder defeats Memphis Grizzlies for best start in team history

On one possession, the world seemed to spin at Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s pace.

There were eight seconds left in the third quarter when the ball found his hands, the final play of the quarter. His pride betrayed no urgency. He strolled past halfcourt. Then there were three seconds left. With a single thrust and contraction, Gilgeous-Alexander slid through the air and gifted the ring – and the defense, who watched wide-eyed and jaw-dropped – with his hand.

He played his own strings as he slowly made his way across the court. His audience cared about him and followed him. The second-seeded Grizzlies — who missed out on Ja Morant — succumbed to his whims then, but generally had little control over them Sunday night.

“Three seconds is a lot of time,” Gilgeous-Alexander said after the Thunder’s 130-106 victory, extending their winning streak to 11 games. “I knew with that time I could get to the rim if I wanted to.”

That’s how his reality worked this season. Time flies forever for a man who can score in slow motion and with angry feet. And his wishes were fulfilled almost everywhere on the pitch.

“He’s the MVP,” center Isaiah Hartenstein said of the third-quarter buzzer-beater. “He can do things like that.”

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Gilgeous-Alexander, who had posted his second consecutive 40-point performance just three nights earlier, dropped 35 points, six rebounds and seven assists on 14 of 19 shooting on Sunday. He made 13 of his 14 2-point attempts. He exercised his free will on a basketball court like no other.

The superstar guard was a catalyst for the team’s 26th win, a game that featured a 26-7 run for the Thunder before halftime and a 25-7 run.

OKC started it. It held Memphis to 38.1% shooting and 27.5% from 3; the usual. Jaren Jackson Jr. made just three of his 17 shots.

After Gilgeous-Alexander, OKC’s second-leading scorer was Ajay Mitchell, the impressive rookie who dropped a career-high 17 points on Sunday. The thunder lived in the color, in the transition – wherever Gilgeous-Alexander wanted to be.

He was the common denominator of a team that suffered numerous injuries. Games without center Chet Holmgren, games without Hartenstein, games without a center at all. Countless other games where injury reports added pages.

But SGA was as consistent as advertised. With his availability, with the ball in his hands, he led this young Thunder team to a Western Conference-best 26-5 record – the best start to a season in OKC history.

All of this and the aftermath of his second-place finish in the MVP race last year have laid the foundation for his cause this season. A steadfast star guard, an impenetrable scorer who made it through the season without his potential All-Star center.

The talent to translate an otherwise mundane matchup onto his own screen without the explosive effects of a player like Morant.

Gilgeous-Alexander was, without trying, a show unto himself. Jalen Williams has stopped explaining with his intimate perspective.

“Watch the games,” Williams said when asked why SGA should be MVP. “It’s pretty obvious. I don’t know why he didn’t get it last year, so I don’t know what to tell you.”

More:OKC Thunder Schedule: Dates, Times, TV Channels for 2024-25 NBA Season

Things are moving quickly for Ajay Mitchell.

Just this week, he posted his first career double-double, made his first start and set a career-high.

More than ever, Mitchell felt like a revelation, a typically steady hand in an offense still learning itself. Valuable as a rookie, and not just because general manager Sam Presti selected him in the draft. But that part, and the fact that he remains on a two-way contract, has made Mitchell’s progress all the more remarkable.

“Sam loved him from the jump,” Daigneault said of Mitchell. “I remember (Presti) being around and watching him all last season, and I remember him telling me about him before I ever saw him.”

On Sunday, he collected away passes and drilled open 3s en route to 17 points and three assists. Much of what he did complemented his two outstanding ball-handling teammates.

“Me and (Williams) joke, we can tell by the way he plays that he went to college for four years,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “He does every reading. He plays basketball the right way. He does all the little things and just helps us win.

“With his situation at the start of the season, you might not have expected that – I certainly didn’t. But after following him through the first few weeks of training camp and preseason, you can see where he’s going with this.”

SGA recalls one practice where Mitchell ran through six or seven plays in a row. He knew then that he was “taught to play.” Mitchell embodied the stereotypes of a 22-year-old rookie in all the right ways.

“If you feel the game, you can play anywhere,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “It doesn’t matter what game you’re thrown into. In Germany, in Italy, in the NBA, in Canada – it doesn’t matter. … That’s what we see with Ajay.”

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The strange list of stars OKC overlooked

It wasn’t until late before Saturday’s game that Thunder players were informed that neither LaMelo Ball nor Brandon Miller would be playing against them. Some were visibly amazed and clearly ready to compete with some up-and-coming young stars.

That trend continued with Morant’s absence on Sunday. That’s the nature of the league this season, and perhaps even more so given OKC’s schedule so far.

All in all, the Thunder saw the Suns without Kevin Durant; the Magic without Paolo Banchero in OKC and without Banchero and Franz Wagner in Orlando; the Pelicans without Zion Williamson and several impact starters; the Mavericks without Luka Doncic; Spurs without Victor Wembanyama; the Clippers without Kawhi Leonard (there’s a reader waiting with a snarky comment, but Leonard is targeting a return next week, which means he’s not dead); the Warriors without Steph Curry; the Hornets without Ball or Miller; and now the Grizzlies without Morant.

“It’s something you have to adapt to,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “In this league you play against the best players in the world. You want to play it, get up to play it. It’s fun to play them. It’s fun to compete, it’s fun to see how good you really are, and you do that by competing against the best.”

The Thunder’s own season was marked by serious injuries. Before Chet Holmgren went down, he resembled an All-Star. And he carried extra weight in Hartenstein’s absence. Hartenstein was forced to do the same without Holmgren.

“This is the NBA, the season is long,” Hartenstein said on Saturday evening. “You really can’t control that. All you can control is what habits you develop.”

OKC has yet to play a game with a fully healthy rotation, although it has proven to be a fully capable team, posting the NBA’s best record of 18-3 since the Holmgren loss. But the unusual run of games against teams lacking the first option has left the team’s own assessment of what it has shaky.

“If you ask me which one I prefer, it is obvious that we play against fully healthy teams at full strength so we can see where we stand,” SGA said. “But this is something we can’t control and all we can do is try to win a basketball game.”

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OKC Thunder defeats Memphis Grizzlies for best start in team history

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