THUNDER WIRE - In a zone, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t hesitate for a single second. He pulled up from deep despite Bogdan Bogdanovic’s textbook contest. Didn’t matter as he swished in another outside look and talked smack with some of the front row fans as the reigning NBA champion pulled away.

The Oklahoma City Thunder turned a back-andforth affair into a laughter. They blew out the LA Clippers in a 126-107 win. They crossed off another milestone as they broke the franchise record for best start of a regular season at 8-0.

“I thought we ran pretty well tonight, I thought we passed really well tonight, and kept the ball ahead of them,” Thunder head coach Mark Daigneault said. “Most of the night, even before the shots even started going in, I thought the offensive attacks were pretty good. I thought the defense got better and better as the night went on.”

Early on, you couldn’t have imagined the final moments playing out the way they did. As Kawhi Leonard was out, James Harden had a throwback start. He scored 12 points in the opening minutes to give LA the surprising 12-2 advantage. He was unstoppable in this clash of MVP winners. That forced the Thunder to call a quick timeout.

Could the Clippers spoil the Thunder’s perfect start?

They hand-delivered OKC an NBA championship. Being a spoiler here could’ve been a decent consolation prize. The Thunder was in a 33-23 deficit after the first quarter. It was the sloppiest they’ve looked all year.

But then things changed in the second frame. As Harden rested, the Clippers’ bench lineup melted away their lead. OKC’s nine quick points turned into a fourpoint contest. The Thunder scored 33 points in the second quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander got into a groove and Isaiah Joe was hot from the jump. They entered halftime in a 57-56 deficit.

Brand new ballgame. The Thunder went back to playing their defensive style of forcing turnovers. Meanwhile, the Clippers cooled off from the outside. Aside from Harden and John Collins, nobody else in LA could score points. After the break, OKC continued to dictate the pace.

Another nine consecutive points put some distance on the scoreboard. Once a tied game at 78 points apiece, the Thunder went unconscious from the outside. Gilgeous-Alexander and Joe took turns hitting on unreal shots from beyond the perimeter that silenced LA’s artificial wall of fans.

The Thunder had 38 points in the third quarter. They exited with a 94-86 lead. While some decent cushion, nothing that could’ve foreseen how the opening minutes of the final frame would play out. As Gilgeous-Alexander rested, OKC’s second unit buried LA’s.

A 19-3 run by OKC put this away. Chet Holmgren demoralized the Clippers with a fadeaway jumper. Not even four minutes into the fourth quarter, the Thunder opened up a 107-89 lead. In the blink of an eye, this looked like a game that could come down to the final possessions, to a boring late-night blowout.

What the Thunder did was even impressive for Reggie Miller. The NBC broadcaster dared to compare the Thunder to the 1990s Chicago Bulls. He compared Gilgeous-Alexander and Williams as a Gen Z Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Just the highest of compliments you can get as the game went along in garbage time.

The Thunder’s run eventually avalanched to 29-6. The Clippers couldn’t buy a bucket. It finally found a flow with Brook Lopez’s outside heaves, but there was no structure or rhythm with what they ran. LA’s offense boiled down to asking Harden to do what he was only capable of a decade ago.

The Thunder scored 32 points in the fourth quarter. Gilgeous-Alexander wasn’t needed to get up out of his seat. They led by as many as 25 points. It was another ho-hum blowout that allowed the entire roster to get some decent minutes in and prettied up their point differential.

The Thunder shot 52% from the field and went 18-of-38 (47.4%) from 3. They shot 18-of-22 on free throws. They had 28 assists on 45 baskets. Six Thunder players scored double-digit points. Gilgeous-Alexander had another 30 points in three quarters. Joe scored 22 points with six outside makes. Cason Wallace and Aaron Wiggins each had 12 points. Holmgren finished with 11 points in his return. Isaiah Hartenstein tallied 10 points and seven rebounds.

Meanwhile, the Clippers shot 41% from the field and went 18-of-43 (41.9%) from 3. They shot 23-of-27 on free throws. They had 26 assists on 33 baskets. Five Clippers players scored double-digit points.

Harden finished with 25 points, six rebounds and six assists. Collins finished with 17 points and four rebounds. Derrick Jones Jr. had 16 points and four rebounds. Lopez scored 12 points. Bogdanovic scored 11 points.

Add the Clippers to the growing list of teams that threw their best punch at the reigning NBA champion. A fast start saw them put the Thunder in a surprising 13-point deficit, which was their largest of the season. That’ll be a fun storyline to keep track of throughout the year as the rest of the league circles their dates against OKC.

“I think the league has respected us for a while now. We’ve been playing in higher-level games for a little bit. Including last season. That’s what we want. We want to get better, especially this early in the season,” Daigneault said. “The best way to get better is to take the best shot your opponent can throw. I thought the Clippers outplayed us for most of the first half tonight and threw a good punch to us and forced us to rise to that level of game.”

Among the octet of wins, this has gotta be up there as one of the more impressive ones for OKC. This isn’t college, so resumes don’t matter, but add this performance to the long list of reasons why everybody and their grandma has picked the Thunder to repeat this year. They’re back to being a winning machine. Any combination of players will do. Doesn’t matter as long as Gilgeous-Alexander is on the floor.

“I just more appreciate the team and the way they go about everything. The ups and the downs. That’s really where my appreciation is. It’s a team. I’m aware how lucky I am to coach a team like this,” Daigneault said on OKC’s 8-0 start. “I’m grateful every day to work in this organization. To coach these guys. To work with the people I get to work with. That stuff’s great, but the day-to-day quality of life is unbelievable for everybody.”

With Jalen Williams still out, it was Isaiah Joe’s turn to step up as OKC’s second-leading scorer. He did it from deep, per usual. Alongside Gilgeous-Alexander, a couple of daunting outside buckets put this one away before the Clippers could get truly excited at the thought of an upset.

Joe finished with 22 points on 7-of-12 shooting and three rebounds. He shot 6-of-10 from and went 2-of-2 on free throws.

“Just trying to create as much space as possible, move around, find open gaps. My teammates do a helluva job finding me, all I gotta do is knock down shots,” Joe said. “So, it makes my job really easy, so all I’m trying to do out there is create some space.”

The Thunder have a few road games before they play In Oklahoma City. The Trail Blazers on the fifth, Sacramento Kings on the 7th, Memphis Grizzlies on the 9th and then back home on the 11th to face the Golden State Warriors.

The home game against the Warriors Is set for a tipoff of 7 p.m.

The game can be viewed on Bally Sports and the NBA League Pass Network.