Running a pick-and-roll with Ajay Mitchell, Branden Carlson received a bounce pass. The seven-footer quickly spun around for the one-handed dunk. He posterized Isaiah Collier in the contest. That was the first of a flurry of buckets when he first checked in.
Carlson finished with 13 points on 5-of-9 shooting and six rebounds. He shot 3-of-6 from 3 and went 0-of-2 on free throws. He also had a block.
No Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, no problem for the Oklahoma City Thunder in their 131-101 win over the Utah Jazz. They continue to make NBA history with a 23-1 start to the 2025-26 regular season.
It didn’t take long for Carlson to show his impact. The Thunder had a short roster available. Usually, those situations only materialize in the G League. But OKC was about as thin as a piece of paper. That elevated the end of the roster to get significant minutes, like the three two-way players.
Carlson ran home with the opportunity. He had eight points in his first minute. He tallied 11 points in his first two minutes. His hot outside shot helped the Thunder build up an unreal 25-point lead after the first quarter. Quite the showing in his Utah homecoming.
This is why the Thunder are viewed as the NBA’s deepest team. To get this type of production from your two-way player is unreal. It makes OKC’s laundry list of absences an afterthought. Every now and then, Carlson pops off. This was the perfect set of circumstances for that to happen.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault believes Carlson helped keep their distance on the scoreboard. There was a brief moment there when it felt like the Jazz would make a comeback when they got it to below a 20-point deficit. That didn’t last long.
“He changed the game. We had a little bit of a lead when we went in there and the game could go either way. When that’s the game and your bench guys could come in and extend it, it really sets the tone,” Daigneault said about Carlson. “His little flurry there changed the game for us.”