The Oklahoma City Thunder are on the up-and-up. Even though their playoff future remains uncertain, as they will need to win one more play-in tournament game following their impressive 123-118 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans, it's clear that their future is blindingly bright. And that's especially the case after Josh Giddey turned in arguably the best game of his career at exactly the right time.
What was most impressive about the Thunder's victory was that they managed to remain calm under pressure despite being the youngest team in the NBA. Late in the fourth quarter, Brandon Ingram threatened to seal the deal for the Pelicans on multiple occasions, but instead, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder pulled through.
Josh Giddey was especially proud of the Thunder squad for displaying maturity befitting of a team more experienced than they are.
“Lu [Dort], Dub [Jalen Williams], our primary defenders, did an awesome job. But credit to the group. It was a resilient night. They keep making runs, they go in front with a couple minutes left. But we stuck with it, grinded out a big win in a tough environment to play in,” Giddey said after the game, per the official Thunder Twitter account.
Luguentz Dort, in particular, showed up tonight, putting in a season-best scoring effort in a must-win game. With Shai Gilgeous-Alexander struggling to score the basketball in the first half, it was Dort and Josh Giddey who shouldered the scoring load, paving the way for Gilgeous-Alexander's second-half heroics en route to a victory.
But Giddey, despite playing the game of his life, knows that their victory is a team effort, as he's quick to attribute credit to his teammates for playing their roles to a T.
“I felt good, got into a bit of a rhythm coming out of halftime. You know obviously with teams throwing double teams to Shai, other guys are gonna have to step up and make plays. I was trying to do that tonight. We had a lot of guys contribute in a big way tonight and that's what we need and we're gonna continue to need going forward,” Giddey added.
Josh Giddey will look to help the Thunder nab the eighth seed in the 2023 NBA playoffs when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday night.
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