{"id":519456,"date":"2026-01-06T03:47:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:47:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/519456\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T03:47:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T03:47:17","slug":"nba-leading-thunder-humbled-in-124-97-home-loss-to-struggling-hornets-wral-com","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/519456\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA-leading Thunder humbled in 124-97 home loss to struggling Hornets :: WRAL.com"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Brandon Miller scored 28 points and the Charlotte Hornets stunned the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder 124-97 on Monday night.<\/p>\n<p>Kon Knueppel added 23 points for the Hornets, who had lost three of four before handing Oklahoma City its worst loss of the season. It was a season-low point total for the Thunder and the only time they have failed to score 100 points.<\/p>\n<p>Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 21 points for his 108th straight game with at least 20, the second-longest streak in NBA history. He made just 7 of 21 field goals, and while he&#8217;s known for sitting out fourth quarters because the Thunder are far ahead, he sat out the fourth this time because they were so far behind. <\/p>\n<p>It was Oklahoma City&#8217;s second straight loss and second home defeat of the season. The defending NBA champions started 24-1 but now are 30-7. <\/p>\n<p>Charlotte ran out to an early 21-9 lead, but the Thunder, led by Ajay Mitchell&#8217;s 10 points off the bench, tied the game at 33 by the end of the first period.<\/p>\n<p>Charlotte regained momentum in the second and went up 67-50 at halftime. Miller scored 19 points before the break. Oklahoma City made just 8 of 15 free throws in the first half. Gilgeous-Alexander, the league&#8217;s No. 2 scorer, was held to nine points on 3-for-12 shooting through two quarters.<\/p>\n<p>Early in the third quarter, Charlotte&#8217;s LaMelo Ball caught a ball that was heading out of bounds, then made a circus shot from the corner with a foot on the 3-point line while standing on one leg to push Charlotte&#8217;s lead to 74-55.<\/p>\n<p>Miller&#8217;s 3-pointer as time expired in the third extended Charlotte&#8217;s lead to 99-71, and the Hornets remained in control from there.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tUp next<\/p>\n<p>Hornets: Host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Thunder: Host the Utah Jazz on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>___<\/p>\n<p>AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) \u2014 Brandon Miller scored 28 points and the Charlotte Hornets stunned the NBA-leading Oklahoma City&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":519457,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3783],"tags":[56984,2097,7,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-519456","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-ap-sports","9":"tag-associated-press","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-oklahoma","13":"tag-oklahoma-city","14":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","15":"tag-oklahomacity","16":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","17":"tag-thunder"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115846110366287682","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519456","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=519456"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/519456\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/519457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=519456"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=519456"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=519456"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}