THUNDER - The Oklahoma City Thunder suffered a frustrating 116-109 loss to the Golden State Warriors. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander’s 52 points weren’t enough as OKC’s offense dried up in the second half. Meanwhile, Golden State’s offense came to life with back-breaking shot-making.

“On both ends of the floor they were really physical, and then on the offensive end, they obviously had a good shot-making night,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “After they got out of the first quarter and deserved a win, they outplayed us.”

The start looked different, though. It felt like the Thunder were on their way to another stress-free win against a depleted Warriors. Draymond Green and Jonatha Kuminga were both out. After the first quarter, OKC built a 34-20 lead. Gilgeous-Alexander showed early on that this would be another scoring outburst with 21 points in the frame.

Then, the Warriors slowly chipped away in the second quarter. A 14-4 run turned this into an interesting contest. They scored 28 points in the frame. As Gilgeous-Alexander nailed a 3-pointer in the final seconds, Wiggins answered right back at the buzzer. The Thunder entered halftime with a 58-48 lead. A decent margin, but it could’ve been a lot more.

The Warriors didn’t take long out of the break to make OKC regret that. They cut it to a four-point deficit a little over two minutes into the second half. Buddy Hield fed Wiggins and Kevon Looney easy dunks to give Golden State a 65-64 lead with a little over seven minutes left in the third quarter. That was part of a larger 21-8 run that gave it all the momentum.

Gilgeous-Alexander was OKC’s lone source of offense as the rest of the squad struggled to score points. He stopped some bleeding as the Warriors scored 36 points in the third quarter. After leading by as many as 14 points, OKC entered the fourth quarter tied at 84 points apiece.

To start the fourth quarter, both teams went back and forth with each other. After a pedestrian first three frames, Curry caught fire and hit demoralizing 3-pointers, giving Thunder fans bad flashbacks. Tied at 93 points, the Warriors scored five straight points to create breathing room. Gilgeous-Alexander tried his best to wield the Thunder back, but the oneman show wasn’t enough. Brandin Podziemski and Kyle Anderson scored on difficult jumpers that showed it was Golden State’s night. Trailing 104-98 with four minutes left, OKC went scoreless for nearly the next two minutes before Williams got into a late rhythm.

That made things interesting in the final two minutes, but Curry and Wiggins hit back-to-back 3-pointers to seal it. And Gary Payton II posterized Isaiah Hartenstein to send the Warriors’ home crowd into a frenzy in their comeback win.

The Thunder shot 40% from the field and went 9-of-39 (23.1%) from 3. They shot 20-of-25 on free throws. They had 21 assists on 40 baskets. Three Thunder players scored double-digit points.

Gilgeous-Alexander led the way with a monster 52 points. Williams helped with 26 points. Isaiah Joe had 17 points off the bench. Hartenstein finished with four points, 18 rebounds and six assists.

Meanwhile, the Warriors shot 49% from the field and went 13-of-38 (34.2%) from 3. They shot 23-of-28 on free throws. They had 30 assists on 40 baskets. Five Warriors players scored double-digit points.

Curry finished with 21 points on 6-of-15 shooting and four assists. Wiggins had 27 points on 10-of-17 shooting and four rebounds. Looney had 18 points and shot 8-of-9 on free throws. Payton II tallied 15 points and nine rebounds.

OKC’s offensive woes were magnified in the loss, no doubt about it. A failure to generate points without Gilgeous-Alexander going supernova has been an ongoing concern all season. It showed its ugly head again in this contest. Still, it took the Warriors hitting on ridiculous shots that had the Thunder throw their arms up in disbelief to barely beat them.

Add in the Warriors rivalry for Thunder fans and this quickly climbs the ranks of annoying losses. That said, these results are part of the ebbs and flows of a regular season. Every title contender has a handful of meltdowns in gimme wins. This was one of them for OKC.

“I thought their pressure bothered us a little bit tonight. We just didn’t have the force necessary to combat that on certain possessions,” Daigneault said. “But I thought there was a shot-making element to the game as well, which is a single-game thing, so we’ll evaluate it and learn what we can from it and keep it moving.”

Next up for the Thunder is the Sacramento Kings on Saturday the 1st of February at 7 p.m.

The game is a home game for the Thunder and will be televised on Bally Sports and NBA League Pass.