Thunder beats Rockets and meets the Bucks in the final
Oklahoma City Thunder beats the Houston Rockets and meets the Milwaukee Bucks in the NBA Cup final.
LAS VEGAS — The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Houston Rockets this Saturday at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas and beat them 111-96 to fly to the NBA Cup final, where they will face the Milwaukee Bucks. executioners of the Atlanta Hawks.
The Thunder tore down the wall of the Rocketsone of the most defensively aggressive franchises in the NBA, led by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, protagonist with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists and five steals.
They did it a few hours after, in the same scenario, the Bucks won 110-102 against the Hawks driven by 32 points and fourteen rebounds from the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo.
Gilgeous-Alexander managed to leave his mark on the game despite the fierce defense of Dillon Brooks, who tried his best to limit his movements.
In the Thunderwho are still without an injured Chet Holmgren, Luguentz Dort shined with 19 points, nine rebounds and five key three-pointers for OKC to step on the accelerator in the second half.
Its Rockets they said goodbye to NBA Cup on a night in which they did not exceed 36.5% accuracy in field goals. Amen Thompson was their leading scorer with 19 points off the bench.
Six players from the Texans, coached by Ime Udoka, finished in double figures, but that was not enough to contain the Thunder’s talent.
The Turkish center Alperen Sengun, despite his double double of thirteen points and eleven rebounds, failed to be dominant as he had shown in his recent performances. Nine of his thirteen points came in the fourth quarter.
Dillon Brooks scored fourteen points, grabbed five rebounds and hit four three-pointers.
Two of the youngest and most ambitious franchises in the NBA met, some Rockets that in the quarterfinals they controversially knocked down the Golden State Warriors and the Thunder that ended the path of Slovenian Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks.
It was a clash between two brilliant defenses and the percentages reflected it in style from the beginning. The light marked 42-41 for the Rockets to rest. The Texans shot 31% from the field and the Thunder shot 33%. From the arc, the numbers were even lower: 21% for Houston and just 11% for OKC.
Even Gilgeous-Alexander, usually a sniper, had a hard time finding rhythm against Houston’s fierce defense, and he had to support the Thunder especially from the foul line.
The wall of Rocketsaggressive and focused to deactivate the Thunder, began to break down in the third period. OKC scored fifteen points in less than five minutes and Gilgeous-Alexander, with twelve points, and Dort, forceful with three triples, were picking up pace.
The Rockets held on to the game, but the Thunder, with Gilgeous-Alexander directing the operations and Isaiah Hartenstein imposing his power in the paint (10 points in the fourth quarter) accelerated towards the final.
Mark Daigneault’s team will fight on Tuesday, again in Las Vegas, for the franchise’s first title since it was established in Oklahoma City, taking over from the Seattle SuperSonics.
