{"id":382840,"date":"2024-04-08T05:44:36","date_gmt":"2024-04-08T05:44:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382840"},"modified":"2024-04-08T15:06:03","modified_gmt":"2024-04-08T15:06:03","slug":"giddey-stuns-with-game-winning-triple-double","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/?p=382840","title":{"rendered":"Giddey stuns with game winning triple-double"},"content":{"rendered":"

Josh Giddey<\/a> had 20 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds for his 11th career triple-double, Isaiah Joe had two key 3-pointers in the final 1:30 and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> 121-118 on Monday (AEST) to snap a three-game losing streak.<\/p>\n

The Thunder had lost their previous three games – their longest skid of the season – with stars Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams out with injuries.<\/p>\n

But Aaron Wiggins stepped up with 26 points and Chet Holmgren had 20 points and 10 rebounds as the Thunder escaped with a win when the cold-shooting Brandon Miller missed a 3-pointer at the buzzer that would have sent it to overtime.<\/p>\n

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Eight of the Thunder's last 10 games have been on the road, and they went 5-5 during that stretch. They'll finish the season with games at home against Sacramento, San Antonio, Milwaukee and Dallas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren't great in a lot of areas, and it was an ugly one," Giddey said.<\/p>\n

"But at this part of the year you take the wins you get… Now hopefully we can close out the regular season the right way."<\/p>\n

Thunder coach Mark Diagneault said playing without Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams could be beneficial for his team heading into the postseason as it has given other players a chance to gain confidence with more playing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully, when we insert Shai and Jalen back in the lineup they will maintain that confidence,\u201d Diagneault said.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Grant Williams led the Hornets with 19 points, and Vasa Micic had 17 points and 10 assists.<\/p>\n

Oklahoma City<\/a> entered the game third in the Western Conference, 1 1\/2 games behind first-place Denver.<\/p>\n

But Micic, Tre Mann and Davis Bertans – three players they traded to the Hornets on Feb. 8 for Gordon Hayward – nearly handed the Thunder what would have been a terrible loss, potentially costing them a chance to move up in the standings.<\/p>\n

Micic made plays all night, Mann had 18 points and six assists and Bertans made four 3s helping the Hornets cut the Thunder's 10-point halftime lead to one entering the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were all great tonight,\u201d Giddey said about his former teammates.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a really close team and those guys are just as much a part of it as anybody. It was awesome to see them doing so well, but it would have been great if they had done this on another night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Diagneault: \u201cThey've flourished with more opportunities" in Charlotte.<\/p>\n

Charlotte would take its first lead of the game at 106-105 with five minutes left to play when Micic hit Nick Rick Richards with a wild, rolling pick-and-roll alley-oop for a dunk bringing the home crowd to its feet.<\/p>\n

It would go back and forth from there before Joe splashed a 3 for a 118-115 Thunder lead with 1:27 left.<\/p>\n

Micic tied it on a drive, but Joe hit another 3 from the top of key, this one coming of a pick-and-pop with the Holmgren as the ball handler and Joe the screener.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Hornets coach Steve Clifford said that is tough play to defend.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have a centre handling the ball and a point guard screening for him, most teams don't do that,\u201d Clifford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only other guy who could possibly do it would probably be (Nikola) Jokic<\/a>. It\u2019s not a coverage that you're used to playing."<\/p>\n

With Charlotte trailing by 3, Miller drove to the hole for a layup instead of shoot a potential tying 3, cutting the lead to one. The Hornets fouled Giddey and he made two free throws on the other end.<\/p>\n

Miller then missed a leaning 3 at the buzzer.<\/p>\n

Bridges also missed two 3s in the final minute and he and Miller finished a combined 2 of 15 from behind the arc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Josh Giddey had 20 points, 13 assists and 13 rebounds for his 11th career triple-double, Isaiah Joe had two key 3-pointers in the final 1:30 […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":382842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=382840"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382840\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":382845,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/382840\/revisions\/382845"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/382842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=382840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=382840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportinfo.pro\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=382840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}