Dennis Schröder scored 31 points, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied from 24 points down in the third quarter to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 126-122.
The Thunder trailed 89-65 with 7:10 left in the third quarter. Their chance to win fell to 4.9% with 6:58 left in the third quarter, and they outscored the Grizzlies 61-33 the rest of the way.
Schröder’s 2 free throws with 7.5 seconds left made it 126-122 and put it away.
During clutch time, the Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 14-10. Schröder scored 6 of the Thunder’s 14 on 1 for 2 shooting and 4 for 4 at the line. In the fourth quarter, Ja Morant had 5 of his 7 assists, 2 of them on baskets by Brandon Clarke that put the Grizzlies ahead. In that stretch, Chris Paul had 2 steals, one of them leading to Steven Adams’ dunk that put the Thunder ahead 114-112, and the Thunder scored 4 points off them. With 2:58 left, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander stole the ball from Dillon Brooks, and his driving layup off it put the Thunder ahead 118-116.
Gilgeous-Alexander had 20 points and 9 rebounds. Danilo Gallinari added 20 points (9 in the third quarter), and Paul scored 18 points on 6 for 10 shooting. The Thunder had 3 20-point scorers.
For the Grizzlies, Clarke scored a career-high 27 points on 13 for 19 shooting off the bench, and Jonas Valančiūnas added 24 points (18 in the paint) and 9 rebounds on 11 for 16 shooting. Morant had 22 points and 7 assists. Clarke scored 14 of his 27 points in the fourth quarter. The Grizzlies had 3 20-point scorers.
The Thunder shot 54.8% from the field to the Grizzlies’ 50.5%. The Thunder outscored the Grizzlies 23-6 in 6 minutes with Schröder, Adams, Nader, Ferguson and Gilgeous-Alexander on the floor together.