Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 28 points and Jalen Williams narrowly missed out on a triple-double to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 128-120 win over the host Miami Heat on Wednesday.
The Thunder continued their hot shooting, finishing 59.3 percent from the floor, their ninth consecutive game shooting 50 percent from the floor or better. Oklahoma City is shooting 55.4 percent from the field during that stretch.
Oklahoma City has won back-to-back games and seven of its last nine. The win was the Thunder’s first over the Heat since Aug. 20, 2020, snapping a six-game Miami winning streak in the series.
Williams finished with 19 points, a career-high 12 assists and a season-high nine rebounds. Oklahoma City had 36 assists, one off its season high, set in Monday’s win over Washington.
Chet Holmgren added 23 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in the win.
The Heat were scoreless in the first five minutes of the fourth, missing their first nine shots of the quarter as the Thunder stretched what was a three-point lead entering the quarter into a 112-96 advantage.
Miami responded with seven consecutive points but didn’t get closer than eight until just more than a minute remained.
Holmgren scored nine of his points in the fourth, draining a 3-pointer, then grabbing a rebound at the other end and taking it the other way for a layup to help turn the tide back to the Thunder after the Heat made a bid to get back into the game.
Oklahoma City also scored the first 13 points of the third quarter.
Bam Adebayo led Miami with 25 points and 11 rebounds while Jaime Jaquez Jr. scored 21.
Haywood Highsmith scored a career-high 19 points, while Nikola Jovic added a season-high 15.
The Thunder’s shooting was particularly sharp in the first half, as Oklahoma City was 27 of 39 (69.2 percent) from the field before the break.
But the Heat shot 59.1 percent from the field themselves and hit nine 3-pointers before the break to lead for much of the first half.
Highsmith scored 13 of his points before the break while Jovic had 12 in the first half.
–Field Level Media
