After a neck-and-neck fourth quarter, the Oklahoma City Thunder just narrowly managed to get past the Golden State Warriors on the road.

Oklahoma City had jumped out of the gates with a 39-23 after the first quarter, but Golden State quickly battled back to bring it within double digits. Ultimately, the Thunder reigned supreme in a final score of 105-101.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led Oklahoma City with 35 points, nine rebounds, five assists, a steal and a block on 13-of-28 shooting from the field. The guard struggled with 3-of-12 shooting from 3-point range, but he was able to push the pace offensively in other areas to give him the edge over the Warriors.

Without Stephen Curry, the Golden State offense plummeted — shooting nearly 36% from the field and 32% from behind the arc.

Here are three takeaways from the Thunder’s four-point victory:

Even though Oklahoma City left Chase Center with a win, struggles from the free-throw line kept it far closer than it needed to be.

The Thunder made just 16 of their 26 free throw attempts, good for a measly 61.5%. Gilgeous-Alexander shot an uncharacteristically poor 6-of-10, while Jalen Williams didn’t fare much better with 5-of-8.

One of those misses came with seven seconds remaining in the game, where Gilgeous-Alexander missed his first of two attempts after a foul from Buddy Hield. However, he knocked down his following three attempts to secure the win for Oklahoma City.

Shooting anywhere near 60% shooting on free throws is less than ideal though, regardless of the outcome being in the Thunder’s favor. It’ll be an area it wants to clean up before it goes against the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday.

Between the free throws and a 11-of-37 — or 29.7% — finish from the 3-point arc, it was a win that’s ugly as they come for Oklahoma City.

The Thunder struggled to find offense against a depleted Warriors squad without Curry, which on paper, it should’ve had an easier time going up against. Golden State was led by Jonathan Kuminga’s 19 points on 8-of-21 shooting, and Andrew Wiggins also struggled with 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting.

It was undoubtedly a strong defensive effort for Oklahoma City, especially in regards to Isaiah Hartenstein and Luguentz Dort. As a whole, it finished with 10 steals and nine blocks on the night — adding to its high number of stocks throughout the season.

On offense, the Thunder did leave a lot to be desired, but it’ll take any win it can get in a tough Western Conference. After Wednesday night, it remains in the No. 1 seed with a one-game advantage on the Houston Rockets.

It seems that Oklahoma City can’t escape the injury bug this season, and it tends to happen against the Warriors.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Chet Holmgren awkwardly landed on his hip after making contact with Wiggins, leaving him with a hip fracture that will keep him out for most of the year. After last night’s win, Williams suffered a similar fate.

Kuminga went up for a slam dunk at the end of the first half, and Williams decided to challenge. However, Kuminga’s hand went right into his face on the play, causing a right eye injury that ruled him out for the rest of the game.

It’s unclear how serious the injury is nor how long it will leave him out of action, but it’s yet another blow that the Thunder has dealt with in that department. It still left with a victory in its hands, but if Williams would have played the entirety of the game, the outcome could’ve been much simpler.

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Different verse same as the first for the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Golden State Warriors. For the second straight clash between these two squads, the OKC Thunder have seen a rising star leave the game early.

Two weeks ago, the Thunder lost Chet Holmgren against the Warriors as the seven-footer soared to contest an Andrew Wiggins Jam. Holmgren took the worst of the contact, landing hard and awkwardly on his hip suffering a hip fracture that will sideline him for a large chunk of the regular season.

Tonight, Williams challenged a Jonathan Kuminga slam in the final seconds of the first half and wound up with a hand to the face that knocked him out for the game.

The Thunder rising star was dominating in this game – as he has the past ten – pouring in 13 points, six rebounds, seven assists, a block and two steals in just 16 minutes of action.

Williams never emerged from the locker room after intermission and was swiftly ruled out for the game. The Oklahoma City Thunder have announced he suffered a right eye injury.

This is not the first time in his career the third year swing man has been popped in the eye. In his rookie season, Williams started his career with an eye injury right out of the gate. His status for Friday’s NBA Cup game against the Los Angeles Lakers is not yet known.

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Oklahoma coach Brent Venables had a lot of emotions Saturday night after his team took down No. 7 Alabama, but surprised wasn’t one of them. 

The defense and running game prevailed in the 24-7 upset that stirred fans at Gaylord Family – Oklahoma Memorial Stadium to rush Owen Field for only the second time this millennium. But the truth is, fans only storm fields when there’s an unexpected result. 

The Sooner faithful had that faith in the defense, even if it was only the size of a mustard seed when going up against Bama’s potent offense led by Heisman hopeful Jalen Milroe. But what was expected from OU’s offense was low, especially after the consistent struggles from the offensive line, which broke program sack records you don’t want to break and didn’t pave the way for a 100-yard rusher until Week 10, and even that was against an FCS opponent. 

“I think if you go back and watch the film, I think each game we kept improving, kept our head down,” right guard Febechi Nwaiwu said. “Like we were saying at the beginning of the season, we knew it would take a lot of work to get to a point where we would feel like an elite offensive line. I still don’t think we’re at that. I still think there’s a lot of things we can work on, but Saturday, of course, it felt amazing. It was a good step forward, but it’s not done.”

Even if Venables denies being shocked by what transpired in the trenches Saturday night, the rest of us were. OU’s offensive line handled a group playing for a program that’s famous for winning with physicality. The Sooners rushed for 257 yards and averaged 5.1 yards a carry behind Logan Howland, Heath Ozaeta, Troy Everett, Nwaiwu, Spencer Brown and Eddy Pierre-Louis. 

“Just knew it was coming,” Venables said postgame. “Could we do it consistently? We had shown signs here or there, just one guy off here or there, and it all looks bad. And tonight, man, I think it’s a culmination of the development process, as we’ve said.”

The left side of freshmen Howland and Ozaeta first showed improvement in the passing game against Maine, when the big guys didn’t let the Black Bears get to their quarterback one time. The next week against Missouri, the Tigers sacked Jackson Arnold three times, which was still drastically better than the nine sacks given up in both games against Ole Miss and South Carolina. 

Although the sack numbers stood out against Maine, though, that was when the Sooners seemingly found their offensive identity with a sophomore quarterback and injury-plagued receiving group. Jovantae Barnes ran for 203 yards to become OU’s first 100-yard rusher of the season as the team totalled 381 rushing yards. 

“I think we are building (an identity),” Nwaiwu said. “You know, I can’t say what everybody else thinks, but I think that an offense should be good at everything—not good at everything, but I think an offense should be well-rounded all around, so yeah, we were good at running the ball, but there’s always something to improve on. You can never be too good at everything.”

With Barnes missing the next game against Mizzou, OU posted 122 yards on 36 carries as Arnold threw for only 74 yards. Even in the loss and the numbers not being as polarizing, it was still evident what offensive coordinator Joe Jon Finley wanted his group to do. 

Then against Bama in a win, Arnold actually threw for even less yards, 68, on only 11 attempts. It was OU’s lowest passing total of the season, yet, the Sooners still beat a top-10 team. Arnold did rush for a team-high 131 yards, though, as freshman running back Xavier Robinson had 107 rushing yards and two touchdowns to give the Sooners’ a pair of 100-yard rushers. 

“It really starts with that front five,” Robinson said. “They did a great, great job. Monday started that week. You can see it all. They just did a good job opening up the gates and just having us make those reads. With Jackson back there, that really opened up some windows.” 

“I mean, it’s just the standard, you know what I mean,” Brown said. “It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been grinding for the last few weeks and the work finally showed and the work showed on Saturday night.

Oklahoma RB Xavier Robinson Looking to Build on Breakout Game vs. Alabama

How Jackson Arnold Assured Brent Venables’ Belief in Him as Oklahoma’s QB