Thunder Beat Nuggets in Home Opener Despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's Shooting Woes

The Oklahoma City Thunder tipped off their home campaign with a 96-84 victory over the Denver Nuggets, overcoming an unusually quiet shooting night from franchise cornerstone Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.

Jalen Williams paced the hosts with 21 points, while Chet Holmgren ruled the paint, posting an impressive double-double with 12 points and a commanding 17 rebounds.

Coming off a 32-point showing in Tuesday's rout of San Antonio, Gilgeous-Alexander was held to 17 points on 6-of-19 shooting, failing to hit the 20-point plateau for the first time in 141 games.

The superstar guard missed all seven of his field goal attempts in the opening 24 minutes as Oklahoma City fell behind by as many as nine points. A pair of free throws prevented his first scoreless half since his 2019 rookie campaign with the Clippers, marking just the fourth time in 450 appearances for the Thunder that he went without a field goal in a half. He finally broke the drought from the floor in the third quarter, cutting the deficit to 46-48.

In their regular-season opener, Denver were led by Aaron Gordon's 20 points, while Nikola Jokic and DeMar DeRozan contributed 13 points each.

A driving finish from Mitchell put OKC ahead 64-62 for their first lead since early on. Back-to-back triples from Alex Caruso and Gilgeous-Alexander established a 70-64 cushion heading into the final frame. Oklahoma City sealed the win when Shai drained another three to make it 93-76 with 1:44 remaining, before subbing out during the ensuing timeout for the night.

Up next, Denver host the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday night, while Oklahoma City stay home to face the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday.