Oklahoma City Thunder (3-0) beat LA the Clippers (1-2) 108-101 at home on Sunday, October 25.
How it unfolded
The Thunder trailed by 3 at halftime and by 1 through three quarters, finishing with a 7-point win.
What decided it
The Thunder gave the ball away on 15.6% of their possessions while the Clippers did so 24.6% of the time and the Thunder recovered 33.3% of their own misses against 20.5% for the Clippers. Protecting the ball is an easy edge to overlook, but each turnover costs a shot.
The Clippers did win one battle, shooting: eFG% of 54.9% against 48.9%. The Thunder made up for it elsewhere.
The game played at about 104 possessions per team. The Thunder scored 103.8 points per 100 possessions and the Clippers scored 97.1, a difference of 6.7.
The Clippers' reserves also made a difference, outscoring the opposing bench 43-26.
Who made the difference
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (OKC) posted the best line of the night by Game Score (25.8): 34 pts, 6 reb, 5 ast on 13-26 shooting. The team was +17 in the minutes Shai played.
For the Clippers, Kris Dunn was the best of the rest at 20.8: 15 pts, 4 reb, 6 ast, 5 stl on 6-8 shooting.
Isaiah Hartenstein (12 pts, 12 reb, 1 ast) and Darius Garland (16 pts, 4 reb, 11 ast) each recorded a double-double.
Game Score is a single number that weighs points, rebounds, assists, steals, blocks, shooting efficiency, fouls and turnovers. It is not an official stat, just a quick way to rank lines.
What it means
The result fit the pre-game Win Meter, which gave the Thunder about a 84% chance.
Across the last 7 meetings in our records, Oklahoma City Thunder lead 7-0.
The Thunder are now 3-0, and the Clippers are 1-2. The Thunder last five before this game: W-L-L-W-W.
Written automatically by Tip Off Live software from box score data. Ratings and probabilities are our own model estimates.