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OKLAHOMA CITY — Chet Holmgren had seen enough of the Jazz's upset bid on Wednesday.
Holmgren scored 18 points in the fourth quarter as the Thunder ran away from Utah for a 119-107 victory at Paycom Center.
Holmgren finished with 35 points (coming up a point short of his career-high) and added 14 rebounds. But he needed a grand finale to shake off the pesky Jazz.
Utah — playing without Lauri Markkanen (injury management) and Jordan Clarkson (groin) — was within 2 points going into the fourth.
But once the final frame started, the Thunder stopped messing around.
Oklahoma City opened the final frame on an 18-6 run; and just like that, the Utah Jazz's upset bid was finished.
"We played like 42 good minutes tonight," Jazz coach Will Hardy said. "I was really proud of the team's effort and competitiveness. I thought the first half was probably as good a half of basketball as we played in a while, which shows some growth and maturity from the team."
One example of that growth? The team took more corner 3-pointers than they had in a month. Even if they made just 4-of-15 of those shots, Hardy still was pleased with the improved spacing and passing to get those looks.
Another? Collin Sexton.
The Jazz have brought Sexton off the bench for the last three games. Some of that is to help balance out rotations (he still played 30 minutes, even with the Jazz throwing in the towel late), and some of that is to see if he can play at the same level he off the bench.
Sexton had 25 points, seven assists and five rebounds on Wednesday. Bench life seems to suit him just fine.
"I think he's made such big strides this season, in terms of his reading of the defense and understanding of how he's being guarded and how the team is being guarded," Hardy said.
The Jazz coach said Sexton has been focused on making adjustments in between games. He watched film to break down what should happen on a possession, and now he's starting to be able to do that in real-time during games.
"I think that's the next level for him," Hardy said. "He's really coachable. He sees the clips at halftime. He listens during the timeouts and he's really shown the ability to apply on the fly."
To Sexton, it's pretty simple.
"If the game says shoot, shoot; if the game says pass, pass," Sexton said. "Just go out there and do those things. Like everything else will take care of itself."
Hardy admitted that while there was clear progress from his team playing together, the Jazz were lacking (outside of Sexton) some individual performances that may have helped them keep pace with the Thunder late.
Sexton was one of just two players (John Collins and Taylor Hendricks being the others) who reached double figures.
So when the Holmgren show started in the fourth things quickly got out of hand. Holmgren went 6-for-6 from the field in the fourth and did a little bit of everything. He drove the paint for dunks, stepped for a 3, and got to the line six times, too.
"That's a good team we just played but I think there are far more positives for tonight's game than negatives," Hardy said. "We just had a stretch of the game and got away from us."
