Feb. 2, 2026, 12:00 p.m. CT
Curling from the right-wing to left-wing, Cason Wallace caught Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s overhead pass. He calmly swished in the outside catch-and-shoot look to get things going on the opening possession. The quick bucket foreshadowed the career night the 22-year-old was about to have.
The Oklahoma City Thunder made a statement in their 121-111 win over the Denver Nuggets. The wire-to-wire victory showed that the reigning NBA champions are still the team to beat as they showed out for Sunday Night Basketball’s inaugural night.
Wallace finished with 27 points on 9-of-14 shooting and six rebounds. He shot 7-of-11 from 3 and went 2-of-3 on free throws. He also had two steals.
Quoting John Wall — I ain’t never seen Wallace move like this. Zooming out, it’s OK to admit that he’s had a gross season on the offensive side of the ball. Not only has the outside shooting turned into a pumpkin, but the on-ball juice also remains vacant. It’s not the developmental arc you’d like to see in his third season.
So for him to step up and be the Robin to Gilgeous-Alexander’s Batman was surreal. Wallace had 11 points in the first half. Most games, you don’t even see him reach that total. And then his third quarter happened. In an out-of-body experience, he dropped 12 points — all on outside makes.
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It reached the point where the Thunder were actively looking to feed the ball to Wallace. Gilgeous-Alexander knows what it’s like when you feel untouchable. So he wanted to make sure the 22-year-old put up as many shots as he could while he was in that mental space. He co-opted OKC’s third-quarter avalanche run to put this one away.
“It felt good. He stepped into most of his shots confidently. I think that above all is most important. Whether they go in or out. Making sure you’re comfortable shooting them and you think all of them will go in,” Gilgeous-Alexander said about Wallace. “Over time, the numbers will follow with hard work and the right mindset. Tonight, he shot it at a super high clip.”
Just an unreal performance by Wallace. Where it was easily the best game of his career. Not just for the scoring explosion, but for what he did on the other end. Matched up with Jamal Murray, the first-time All-Star looked anything but his new career accolade. He became forgettable the entire night.
Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault only needed one piece of data to back up his belief in Wallace — his career win percentage. Since he entered the NBA, all he’s known is being the first seed. He’s won a luducrious 75.1% of his career games, including a championship ring.
“He’s one of many guys on our team that plays his role very well on obviously a very good team. His winning percentage as a pro is crazy when you look at his winning percentage,” Daigneault said. “One of the things that comes with playing on this team as a young player is that your role can feel narrow at times relative to your peers. If he were not on a team this good, he probably would be able to do a lot more and his role would be a little wider. When you got a guy that is that committed to that kind of role and winning and team success have a night like tonight, everybody is happy for him.”
A lot of criticism has been made over the last few weeks about Gilgeous-Alexander’s supporting cast not carrying their weight. For at least one night, those comments were moot. Wallace helped the Thunder get their most impressive win of the season as an unlikely hero.
“It felt good just knowing that I made the timely shots. My teammates found me and I had a lot of confidence before the ball went up,” Wallace said. “It went in. And it’s always fun to celebrate with the guys.”