Mitchell's Career-High 35 Powers Short-Handed Thunder Past Grizzlies 128-97

There are nights when a team just decides it is not going to lose, no matter who is missing. Friday night in Memphis was one of those nights for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Ajay Mitchell scored a career-high 35 points, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander added 28, and the Thunder beat the Memphis Grizzlies 128-97 in their NBA Cup group-stage opener at FedExForum. Oklahoma City led by 22 at halftime, never let the lead slip below 20 in the second half, and stretched it to 32 early in the third quarter. It was the Thunder's third straight win, and their 16th in a row over Memphis, a run that includes last season's four-game first-round playoff sweep. What made it remarkable was who was not on the floor. The Thunder were already without three starters — Chet Holmgren, recovering from a right knee injury, Jalen Williams, following left ankle surgery, and Cason Wallace, after left shoulder surgery. Jaylin Williams, Thomas Sorber and Nikola Topic were sidelined too. Look down that bench, as Jared McCain put it, and there simply were not that many players left. Mitchell made sure nobody noticed. The 24-year-old scored 21 of his points in the first half alone, shooting 9 of 11 before the break, and finished 14 of 20 with four three-pointers and five assists. He attacked the paint, and Memphis never found an answer for him. "I was just trying to be aggressive out there," Mitchell said. "See what the defense was trying to give us and play the game. That's really it. Every night is going to be different, so I just go into every game with the same mindset, which is just going out there and playing and not worrying about anything else." Mitchell has now topped 20 points in five of his past six games and is averaging 26 a night during the winning run. Next to him, Gilgeous-Alexander was his usual unhurried self with 28 points on 11-of-22 shooting. McCain had his own story to tell. After making just one of his previous 22 three-point attempts across four games, he rediscovered his shot with a season-high 21 points and a career-high four steals. His teammates kept feeding him through the slump, and on Friday the trust paid off. "He was good," head coach Mark Daigneault said. "The shots obviously fell, and that's kind of inevitable with a guy like him who's that accurate of a shooter." Oklahoma City shot 55.4 percent, made 16 of 35 from deep, outscored Memphis 62-32 in the paint and turned 18 Grizzlies turnovers into 30 points. Memphis, which came into the night leading the league in three-point percentage, shot just 22 percent from beyond the arc. Ty Jerome led the Grizzlies with 21 points, Zach Edey added 14, and rookie Cameron Boozer pulled down 12 rebounds. A week ago the Thunder had just lost two games to Dallas and Houston by a combined 45 points. Instead they have responded with three straight wins, the last two of them over Cleveland, in which Gilgeous-Alexander scored 43 and 42. Now they have walked into Memphis, against a 6-2 team, and won by 31. "It's crazy because you look down the bench and it's like, 'Damn, we don't have that many players left out here,'" McCain said with a smile. "But we all look to compete, and everybody is trying their best and trying their hardest. We just go out there and compete." The Thunder, now 7-2 and 1-0 in West Group B of the NBA Cup, host the Washington Wizards on Saturday night. Memphis, 6-3, travels to Toronto on Monday.