{"id":396010,"date":"2026-01-06T20:33:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396010\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T20:33:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T20:33:10","slug":"thunder-humbled-by-hornets-at-home-in-second-straight-loss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/396010\/","title":{"rendered":"Thunder humbled by Hornets at home in second straight loss"},"content":{"rendered":"

OKLAHOMA CITY — Brandon Miller<\/a> scored 28 points, and the Charlotte Hornets<\/a> stunned the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a> 124-97<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

Kon Knueppel<\/a> added 23 points for the Hornets, who had lost three of four before handing Oklahoma City its worst loss of the season. It was a season-low point total for the Thunder, and the only time in 2025-26 they have failed to score 100 points.<\/p>\n

It was also OKC’s first loss to a team that entered with a losing record since Nov. 19, 2024 (Spurs<\/a> entered 6-8). The Thunder had won 45 straight games against teams below .500 and were 50-2 over the past two seasons.<\/p>\n

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander<\/a> scored 21 points for his 108th straight game with at least 20, the second-longest streak in NBA history. He made just 7 of 21 field goals — his lowest field goal percentage (33%) this season — and though he’s known for sitting out fourth quarters because the Thunder are far ahead, he sat out the fourth this time because they were so far behind.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander has now shot below 40% from the field in each of his past two games, the first time he has done that in consecutive games since a five-game stretch in 2021-22.<\/p>\n

It was Oklahoma City’s second straight loss<\/a> and second home defeat of the season. The defending NBA champions started 24-1 but are now 30-7.<\/p>\n

The Thunder were a 15.5-point favorite, according to DraftKings Sportsbook, and lost by 27. They became the first team in the past 35 seasons to lose by 20 or more points as a favorite of 15 or more points. The previous largest loss by a favorite of 15-plus points was by 17.<\/p>\n

Charlotte ran out to an early 21-9 lead, but the Thunder, led by Ajay Mitchell<\/a>‘s 10 points off the bench, tied the score at 33 by the end of the first quarter.<\/p>\n

Largest Loss As 15+ Point Favorite*DateTeamSpreadLost ByOpponentMon.Thunder-15.527Hornets2016Warriors-17.517at Lakers2002Trail Blazers-1617Nuggets*last 35 seasons
— ESPN Research<\/p>\n

Charlotte regained momentum in the second quarter and went up 67-50 at halftime. Miller scored 19 points before the break. Oklahoma City made just 8 of 15 free throw attempts in the first half. Gilgeous-Alexander, the league’s No. 2 scorer, was held to nine points on 3-for-12 shooting through two quarters.<\/p>\n

Early in the third quarter, Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball<\/a> caught a ball that was heading out of bounds, then made a circus shot from the corner with a foot on the 3-point line while standing on one leg to push Charlotte’s lead to 74-55.<\/p>\n

Miller’s 3-pointer as time expired in the third extended Charlotte’s lead to 99-71, and the Hornets remained in control from there.<\/p>\n

ESPN Research and The Associated Press contributed to this report. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OKLAHOMA CITY — Brandon Miller scored 28 points, and the Charlotte Hornets stunned the NBA-leading Oklahoma City Thunder…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":396011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-396010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=396010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/396010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/396011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=396010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=396010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=396010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}