The Oklahoma City Blue have needed to navigate a brutal start to their schedule, most of their games coming on the road and a multitude of back to back sets to date. Such is life in the G League. The Blue have posted a 4-6 record to start this season and were riding a two game skid as the red-hot Austin Spurs (9-1) swept Oklahoma City in a back to back set this past weekend south of the Red River.

Oklahoma City got to take a few days to regroup and breathe a sigh of relief as they open up a jaw-dropping nine-game home stand that spans the length of the Holiday season, not concluding until after the turn of the New Year.

It began on Thursday, Dec. 4 against the Osceola Magic –– the Orlando Magic’s G League affiliate –– with the Magic coming in with the second best record in the south division at 6-3 with two of those losses coming on the road to start this season.

The Magic got off to a fast start, even growing a 22 point lead after the Blue’s initial five point surge. From there, Oklahoma City had to play catchup a famailar spot for the Oklahoma City Thunder’s G League squad this season.

As the team kept battling in this game, they eventually ran out of time as the Magic clung to their fourth quarter lead and made just enough buckets to keep the Blue at an arm’s distance.

In this game, the Oklahoma City Thunder sent down two-way rookie Brooks Barnhizer, who the Thunder selected with the No. 44 pick in the 2025 NAB Draft, and rookie undrafted guard Chris Youngblood to enter the starting lineup for this Thursday night tilt. The team’s third two-way player, big man Branden Carlson, was not active tonight as he stays with the big league club ahead of their Friday matchup against the Dallas Mavericks.

This game got chippy with plenty of hard fouls and even a skirmished mixed in leading to a flagrant foul and double technical fouls.

The Magic really made their hay with their bench scoring, doubling up the Blue’s output, while forcing Oklahoma City into more plenty of turnovers in this one.

Ultimately, the G League is about development and this was a banner night for that in Oklahoma City. Barnhizer was able to fill the stat sheet while Youngblood splashed triples.

Barnhizer finished with 23 points and five rebounds as Youngblood chipped in 20 points, seven rebounds and two assists, shooting 4-for-11 from beyond the arc.

The OKC Blue fell 113-99 to the Magic in this game.