OKC Thunder 114 — Washington Wizards 98
While most of the nation had an eye to Iowa’s presidential caucus, OKC’s Thunder easily handled the underachieving Wizards by a 114-98 count on Monday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
OKC came out fast, led early, and was never really in danger while improving to 37-13 overall and 34-9 in games Kevin Durant has played.
This is a Washington team most picked to be top six team in the East, my guess is there will be a coaching change at some point this season or at the conclusion of the season. I would think Randy Wittman’s days are numbered.
Russell Westbrook had his seventh triple double of the season and eighteenth in the last two seasons. Again, the type of line which makes me want to believe OKC can possibly get where they want come April…. 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game.
Kevin Durant went 29, 8, and 4 was just basically Kevin Durant playing against inferior talent.
Serge Ibaka was functional with a double, double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.
Dion Waiters had an off shooting night going 3-11, but grabbed 6 rebounds, dished 3 assists, and had 3 steals. But keep this in mind, even when Waiters is missing shots he’s doing something Andre Roberson will never do with the starters…namely–spacing the floor because he can’t be left alone by opposing defenses. And I don’t care how many white guys who never played basketball and have twenty thousand gazillion versions of plus/minus say otherwise. Against elite competition your shooting guard has to BE ABLE TO SHOOT THE BALL OR AT LEAST CREATE THAT ILLUSION.
OKC’s bench was good scoring 32 points. Enes Kanter led the bench with 14 points, while Cam Payne returned to action and had what I thought were 13 minutes of serviceable play.
My takeaway is simple, OKC won the game, played well, took care of business like professionals, and hopefully got showered in time to watch four different presidential canidates claim they won the Iowa caucus, thankfully none of which were Donald Trump. Note to the Big Donald—don’t skip any debates in New Hampshire.
Orlando Magic in town on Wednesday night.
Mike Jackson