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\n Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered a dominant 40-point performance to power the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Orlando Magic 113-108 on Tuesday night. The victory secured Oklahoma City’s third straight playoff berth, making them the first NBA team to clinch a postseason spot this season.\n <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered a spectacular 40-point performance Tuesday night, powering the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 113-108 victory against the Orlando Magic on the road.<\/p>\n
The win secured Oklahoma City\u2019s third straight postseason berth, marking the first time any NBA team has clinched a playoff spot this season.<\/p>\n
Chet Holmgren contributed significantly with 20 points and a game-leading 12 rebounds for the Thunder. Ajay Mitchell was the only other Oklahoma City player to reach double digits, finishing with 16 points.<\/p>\n
Orlando saw all five of their starting players score in double figures, with Paolo Banchero leading the way with 32 points and a team-high 10 rebounds. Desmond Bane contributed 16 points to the Magic\u2019s effort.<\/p>\n
The loss marked consecutive defeats for Orlando following a seven-game winning streak.<\/p>\n
Gilgeous-Alexander struggled offensively during the opening half, managing just 4-of-12 shooting from the floor. However, the reigning Most Valuable Player caught fire in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
The star guard tied his season-high for points in a single quarter, pouring in 19 of Oklahoma City\u2019s 34 third-quarter points.<\/p>\n
Orlando held a 77-70 advantage with under five minutes remaining in the third period when the Thunder launched a decisive 15-2 surge to close the quarter and reclaim control. Gilgeous-Alexander contributed seven points during this crucial stretch while the Magic connected on just one of their final 10 field goal attempts in the frame.<\/p>\n
Despite playing their second game in as many nights, the Magic refused to surrender easily.<\/p>\n
Orlando responded with nine straight points early in the final quarter to regain the lead. Bane\u2019s three-pointer with 8:21 left on the clock put the home team ahead 90-89.<\/p>\n
Following a timeout, Oklahoma City countered with their own 8-0 scoring run, featuring five quick points from Mitchell before Isaiah Joe\u2019s three-pointer extended the Thunder\u2019s lead to 97-90.<\/p>\n
The Magic pulled within three points with less than 3:30 on the clock before Gilgeous-Alexander took over to seal the victory.<\/p>\n
After being held scoreless in the fourth quarter up to that point, Gilgeous-Alexander erupted for seven rapid points. During this offensive explosion, Alex Caruso added a layup following his own steal, helping the Thunder extend their advantage to 10 points.<\/p>\n
The defending NBA Most Valuable Player recorded a season-low two assists but matched his season-best with four steals.<\/p>\n
An unusual moment occurred with approximately four minutes left in the second quarter when Caruso\u2019s shoe came off during a defensive play, which he then picked up.<\/p>\n
Caruso moved over to defend Tristan de Silva\u2019s drive toward the basket, reaching up with both his hand and his shoe to block de Silva\u2019s shot attempt.<\/p>\n
Officials awarded de Silva the basket and assessed Caruso a technical foul for the unconventional defensive play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander delivered a dominant 40-point performance to power the Oklahoma City Thunder past the Orlando Magic 113-108…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":664596,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3783],"tags":[80926,80927,7,80920,80928,80922,80923,80921,80924,6,310,475,179,3966,3965,312,80925],"class_list":{"0":"post-664595","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oklahoma-city-thunder","8":"tag-102-3","9":"tag-102-3fm","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-fine-day","12":"tag-fine-day-102-3","13":"tag-fine-day-fm","14":"tag-fine-day-media","15":"tag-fine-day-radio","16":"tag-have-a-fine-day","17":"tag-nba","18":"tag-oklahoma","19":"tag-oklahoma-city","20":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","21":"tag-oklahomacity","22":"tag-oklahomacitythunder","23":"tag-thunder","24":"tag-weller-radio"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116249619689683370","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664595","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=664595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/664595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/664596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=664595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=664595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=664595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}