{"id":390688,"date":"2026-01-06T07:30:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/390688\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T07:30:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T07:30:16","slug":"hornets-torch-thunder-in-okc-bring-talk-of-historic-season-to-screeching-halt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/390688\/","title":{"rendered":"Hornets torch Thunder in OKC, bring talk of historic season to screeching halt"},"content":{"rendered":"

A 24-1 start to the season sparked chatter of history for the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A 6-5 run since then muted that talk. A stunning home loss to the previously 12-23 Charlotte Hornets on Monday night dropped the Thunder to 30-7 and should officially put to bed their quest for a 73-win regular season.<\/p>\n

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After a 33-33 first quarter, the Hornets rode a 34-17 second quarter to a 67-50 halftime lead in Oklahoma City. They never looked back en route to a 124-97 win<\/a> that’s arguably the most stunning result of the NBA season.<\/p>\n

“From the get, it just seemed like they were ahead of us on both ends of the floor, offensively and defensively,” MVP Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander said after the game.<\/p>\n

Are the Thunder OK?<\/p>\n

The loss is the second straight for the Thunder after Devin Booker iced a Phoenix Suns win Sunday night with a last-second 3-pointer. Oklahoma City has now lost six of its past 12 games. Three of those losses have come to the San Antonio Spurs.<\/p>\n

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A stretch of .500 basketball and a single bad loss isn’t cause for panic in Oklahoma City for a Thunder team that remains the favorite to win the NBA title. But the Thunder look much more vulnerable now than they were during their scorching start to the season.<\/p>\n

Hornets controlled both ends of the court<\/p>\n

The Hornets outplayed the Thunder in virtually every facet of the game. They outshot them from the floor (53% to 37%), from 3 (51% to 28%) and from the line (92% to 67%).<\/p>\n

They secured a 52-34 rebounding advantage and moved the ball better while assisting on 25-of-41 made field goals, compared to 18 assists on 34 made field goals for the Thunder. Charlotte did this on the third leg of a three-game road trip.<\/p>\n

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Oklahoma City’s only notable advantage in the game arrived where expected. The Thunder forced 20 Hornets turnovers while committing just eight of their own. But their ball-hawking defense wasn’t enough to overcome a Hornets team that shot the lights out when it held on to the ball.<\/p>\n

Starting Thunder center Isaiah Hartenstein sat for a fourth straight game with a calf injury. Alex Caruso also was out. Otherwise, Oklahoma City featured its full allotment of starters, including Gilgeous-Alexander, All-Star Jalen Williams and Chet Holmgren.<\/p>\n

Gilgeous-Alexander led OKC with 21 points and 6 assists in an unusually inefficient effort while shooting 7 of 21 from the floor. Holmgren added 15 points and 6 rebounds, while Williams posted 16 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds. Aaron Wiggins (4 of 8) was the only Thunder starter to shoot 50% from the field.<\/p>\n

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Brandon Miller paced the Hornets with 28 points and 6 rebounds while shooting 7 of 10 from 3. Breakout rookie sharpshooter Kon Knueppel hit 5-of-7 3s en route to 23 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. LaMelo Ball got in on the long-distance party in a 4-of-7 effort from deep while tallying 16 points.<\/p>\n

The Hornets will return home to Charlotte to host the Raptors on Wednesday night. The Thunder, meanwhile, will look to regroup for a home game against the Jazz on Wednesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A 24-1 start to the season sparked chatter of history for the reigning champion Oklahoma City Thunder. A…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390689,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[64],"tags":[119098,32235,74193,11949,16733,36057,23687,21976,7625,9891,22487,25179,355,12205,6402,6415,18431,2116,6407,99,32233],"class_list":{"0":"post-390688","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-aaron-wiggins","9":"tag-alex-caruso","10":"tag-brandon-miller","11":"tag-charlotte-hornets","12":"tag-chet-holmgren","13":"tag-devin-booker","14":"tag-golden-state","15":"tag-isaiah-hartenstein","16":"tag-jalen-williams","17":"tag-jazz","18":"tag-kon-knueppel","19":"tag-lamelo-ball","20":"tag-nba","21":"tag-oklahoma-city","22":"tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","23":"tag-phoenix-suns","24":"tag-raptors","25":"tag-san-antonio-spurs","26":"tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","27":"tag-sports","28":"tag-the-thunder"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}