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Tim MacMahon, ESPN Staff Writer
LAS VEGAS — Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault described the first half of Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal between the league’s two stingiest defensive teams as “muddled.”
That’s about as pleasant of a word that can be used to describe the worst shooting half of the season for both the Thunder and the Houston Rockets.
The second half was a different story, as Oklahoma City exploded for 70 points to cruise to a 111-96 victory and earn the right to play the Milwaukee Bucks in Tuesday’s title game.
But Daigneault pointed to a defensive play as the tone-changing moment. A little more than a minute into the second half, Oklahoma City stopper Luguentz Dort dove for a loose ball to come up with a steal and shoveled the ball to Cason Wallace for a one-man fast break that the guard finished with a lefty slam dunk.
Suddenly, the energy shifted and the Thunder soon found their groove.
“The energy was kind of down,” said Dort, who scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. “I think the crowd was kind of down, the whole arena was kind of down, but that play kind of did something for us, for the team. We got it going.”
After being held to 41 points in the first half and trailing by a point at halftime, Oklahoma City scored 34 in the third quarter to seize control of the game. The Thunder went 5-of-5 from 3-point range in the quarter — led by Dort’s three 3s — after going 2-of-18 from long range in the first half.
“We were getting the same looks,” said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, who finished with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. “I think we slowed down a little bit. There’s so much going on in these games, kind of had to settle in the first half, but our defense was great, so that carried over the whole game. Offense comes and goes, but you can play defense and kind of shut certain things down. I think we did a good job of that, and offense came late.”
According to ESPN Research tracking, Oklahoma City made 14 of 19 uncontested field goal attempts in the second half after making only 7 of 23 such looks in the first half.
“There’s a reason they are as good as they are defensively,” Daigneault said of the Rockets, who rank behind only the Thunder in defensive rating. “I thought in the first half we were kind of tiptoeing with the ball, and you really can’t do that against that team and expect to crack them, and then in the second half we had more force. … I thought our mentality against their physicality in the second half was much better, and it left a lot to be desired in the first half.”
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an MVP-caliber performance with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, five steals and a block. But Gilgeous-Alexander had to overcome an ugly start, as he missed eight of his first nine shots from the floor.
“We all knew that it’s Shai,” said Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, who scored a career-high 21 points on 9-of-12 shooting, including five dunks that all came off feeds from teammates. “He’s going to get it back on point. He did it in the second half.”
Gilgeous-Alexander had 20 points in the second half, getting the best of his individual matchup against Team Canada teammate Dillon Brooks.
“It’s fun. It makes you better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s what this league is about, competing against the best in the world, and defensively he is that for sure. I like to think that of myself offensively. He gives me a chance to really see where I’m at, a good test. I’d say I handled it pretty well.”