Thunder showing championship habits again with gritty win over Knicks

The Oklahoma City Thunder did not dominate Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden.

They survived it.

Sometimes, that’s the better sign.

The defending champs slipped past the New York Knicks, 103-100, in a game that easily could have flipped the other way in the final seconds. New York had two good looks to tie it in the closing moments. Both missed.

Chet Holmgren understood how thin the margin was.

“We made enough plays down the stretch on both ends to close it out,” he told reporters. “They made some plays, too. They just didn’t quite convert.”

That is the NBA sometimes. And frankly, that is championship basketball.

This Thunder team does not look quite like the one that rolled through the league last season. The offense has been a little less explosive. The injury list has been a lot longer.

Jalen Williams has appeared in only 26 games because of a hamstring strain. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander recently returned from a nine-game absence. Alex Caruso and Isaiah Hartenstein both left Wednesday’s game with injuries.

Still, Oklahoma City just keeps winning.

“We’re a pretty deep team,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “With the injuries we’ve gone through this year, for us to still be in the mix for the top seed in the league and in the West is pretty impressive.”

And the role players continue to deliver.

Cason Wallace swiped four steals while chasing Jalen Brunson most of the night. Kenrich Williams drilled a big fourth-quarter three that helped quiet a Knicks run.

That’s the part contenders understand.

You don’t win every game pretty.

Sometimes you just win it anyway.