OKC Beat The Warriors After Chet Holmgren’s Fading Three At The Buzzer Forced OT

Chet Holmgren had a career night on Saturday in San Francisco, as the Thunder’s redshirt rookie erupted for 36 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, two steals, and a block as Oklahoma City handed the Warriors yet another home loss on the season.

OKC trailed by 10 at the half, but had pulled to within two going into the fourth quarter and, seemingly, had wrestled control of the game away from the Warriors in the fourth thanks to the play of Holmgren and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. However, on the other side Andrew Wiggins finally woke up from his season-long slumber offensively to put up a 31-point night, including five three-pointers as he finally got going from beyond the arc. His last three looked like it might be the game-winner, as Kevon Looney was able to pull in an offensive board off of a Steph Curry missed floater and kicked it out to a wide open Wiggins who put Golden State up 117-114 with just under two seconds to play.

That forced the Thunder into drawing up a sideline play for a desperation three, and rather than turning to their MVP candidate in SGA they sought out the hot-hand of Holmgren, as he darted to the corner and shot a spinning, fading three at the buzzer that was nothing but net.

It’s a sensational shot from Holmgren, who was able to keep his feet inbounds as he stopped, spun, and rose up for the unblockable jumper — his second made three of the game.

In overtime, it became the Shai Gilgeous-Alexander show, as he scored 10 points in overtime (including every made field goal by the Thunder) to lead them to a 130-123 win. SGA did a bit of everything, pulling up for midrange jumpers, blocking a Steph Curry three, and finishing at the rim on the other end to put the game out of reach.

The win moves the Thunder to 9-4 on the season as they just keep ripping off wins and gaining confidence in their ability to close things out in late game situations. SGA has been a clutch monster for the last two years, but if Holmgren can take some of the burden off of him in those situations like he did on Saturday night, that makes them an even more dynamic threat in the fourth quarter. For the Warriors, they drop to 6-8 and are now just 1-6 at home, a reversal of last year’s wild home-road splits. They can hope Wiggins’ hot shooting night is a sign of things to come, but without Draymond Green their defense had no answers for Holmgren and Gilgeous-Alexander’s attacking.