OKC’s Thunder basically pissed off every single one of my pre-game cliché warnings and opted to play some really uninspired basketball for the first thirty-six minutes on Friday night in Orlando against a young Magic team. So bad the Thunder found themselves trailing by 18 points heading into the final period of play.
Serge Ibaka was bad enough he left Billy Donovan with no other option other than basically sitting him down and tinkering with other lineups. A curious lineup of Kanter, Durant, Westbrook, Waiters and Augustin was what changed this around and created a change of flow which gave those of us in Thunder Nation some of the most dramatic twenty-two minutes of basketball in recent memory as ‘this thing’ unwound before our eyes.
OKC shot 15-21 from the field in the 4th period and still it took a make on No. 21 on a half court bank shot from Westbrook to send it to the first overtime. For those not keeping track–OKC scored on three separate possessions in the last 21 seconds of regulation…. I think. This is when I called my brother and father and asked, “Are you watching this shit?” Don’t lie—I know many of you were doing the same to a friend or loved one.
Fast forward to the end of the first OT with OKC leading by three with a handful of seconds left and the Magic inbounding from the side in their offensive zone. Andre Roberson was all over Victor Oladipo–but still while falling into seats from the corner, Oladipo hit nothing but net as time expired. Double overtime. More phone calls.
OKC controlled the second OT, but it still took Durant blocking two shots from the baseline corner in the final seconds to seal the win for OKC and finally subdue this talented, yet inexperienced Magic team. Orlando will be pretty good once they learn how to close games and has a nice core in Oladipo, Payton, Vucevic, Harris and Gordon to build upon. I have no idea how many games these guys will win this season, but the fans in Orlando are going to have some fun down the road with a couple of vet additions added to their bench.
But back to the two ‘older guys’ playing for OKC. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook were simply amazing the final twenty-two minutes of this game. This is why the Jordan-Pippen talk surfaces and doesn’t go away. Combined they scored 91 points on the night with 62 points coming after halftime. Westbrook had a gaudy 48 on the night, Durant with a ‘quiet’ 43. Epic stuff even if it came in the second game of the season against a team still learning how to close games.
Russell Westbrook was clearly the No. 1 star of this game and Kevin Durant said as much in his post game comments. But Durant scored 43 points in 54 minutes of play and blocked those two shots at the very end to finally seal it for OKC.
In the end, this is exactly what Billy Donovan was supposed to steer the Thunder away from this season as he puts his own individual coaching brand on the Thunder, but on nights like this–a smart coach just said go to his two future Hall of Famers and it was a beautiful thing to witness.
MJ