The thunderous second-half ride pushed past the Rockets into the Cup final

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault described the first half of Saturday’s NBA Cup semifinal between the league’s two stingiest defensive teams as “mess.”

That’s about as comfortable a word as you can use to describe the worst shooting half of the season for both the Thunder and Houston Rockets.

The second half was a different story as Oklahoma City exploded, scoring 70 points to claim a 111-96 win and earn the right to face the Milwaukee Bucks in the title game on Tuesday.

But Daigneault called a defensive play the defining moment. Just over a minute into the second half, Oklahoma City stopper Luguentz Dort pounced on a loose ball to steal it, scooping the ball to Cason Wallace for a one-man fastbreak, which the guard capped with a left slam Dunk completed.

Suddenly the energy changed and The Thunder soon found their rhythm.

“The energy was kind of gone,” said Dort, who scored 14 of his 19 points in the second half. “I think the crowd was kind of depressed, the whole arena was kind of depressed, but that game somehow did something for us, for the team. We got it going.”

After holding Oklahoma City to 41 points in the first half and trailing by one point at halftime, Oklahoma City scored 34 points in the third quarter to take control of the game. The Thunder went 5 of 5 from 3-point range in the quarter – led by Dort’s three 3-pointers – after going 2 of 18 from long range in the first half.

“We looked the same,” said Thunder forward Jalen Williams, who finished the game with 20 points, five rebounds and five assists. “I think we’ve slowed down a little bit. There’s so much going on in these games, we kind of had to calm down in the first half, but our defense was great and it carried through the whole game. Offense comes and goes, but you. “I can play defense and kind of shut certain things down, but the offense came late.

According to ESPN Research, Oklahoma City made 14 of 19 uncontested field goal attempts in the second half after making just 7 of 23 such attempts in the first half.

“There’s a reason why they’re as good as they are defensively,” Daigneault said of the Rockets, who trail only the Thunder in defensive rating. “I thought in the first half we were kind of tiptoeing with the ball and you really can’t do that against this team and expect to break them down and then we had more power in the second half. … I thought our mentality relative to their physicality was much better in the second half, and it left a lot to be desired in the first half.”

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had an MVP-level performance with 32 points, eight rebounds, six assists, five steals and one block. But Gilgeous-Alexander endured a poor start as he missed eight of his first nine shots from the floor.

“We all knew it was Shai,” said Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein, who scored a career-best 21 points on 9 of 12 shooting, including five dunks, all scored by his teammates. “He will get it back to the point. He did that in the second half.”

Gilgeous-Alexander had 20 points in the second half, making the most of his individual game against Team Canada teammate Dillon Brooks.

“It’s fun. It makes you better,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “That’s what this league is all about, competing against the best in the world and defensively he certainly is. I like to think that about myself on offense. It gives me the chance to really see where I stand, a good test.” . I’d say I handled it pretty well.”