OKC Thunder 128 — New York Knicks 122 OT
Even though the NY Knicks are a better team than the Brooklyn Nets, three things made me feel optimistic just before tip at Madison Square Garden. 1 Carmelo Anthony would not be playing, 2 Steven Adams would be playing, and 3 Robin Lopez isn’t nearly as skilled as his brother Brook who torched the Thunder two nights earlier.
If any of these three variables hadn’t fallen into place I’m not sure Kevin Durant’s 44 point, 14 rebound game would have been enough to save OKC’s Thunder from a second straight road loss to a sub .500 New York team though.
But on this January night circa 2016, the basketball gods inside Madison Square Garden smiled on OKC as Durant’s Thunder escaped with a thrilling 128-122 overtime win over the Knickerbockers. Tramelesque, eh.
This was not a piece of art by any means, but at this point in this season with this team you’ll take wins any way they come–if there’s some art attached, feel grateful.
Durant’s 44 points were his season high and he’s obviously my No. 1 Star of the Game as OKC was down by as many as 11 points with nine and a half minutes left in regulation. Blame Billy Donovan because he started the fourth period with a horrible floor combination of Payne, Singler, Waiters, Morrow, and Kanter. He should know better forty-seven games in. Seriously.
Two timeouts later–OKC had gone from three to eleven down in the blink of an eye before Donovan cleaned up his mistake. Reminded me somewhat of the way OKC opened the fourth period in Cleveland. Bad lineup. Except this time LeBron James wasn’t there to demonize Kevin Durant.
Anyway, the lineup was changed to Westbrook, Payne, Adams, Ibaka, and Waiters, and wouldn’t you know OKC quickly pulled back into it courtesy of a couple of big threes by Cam Payne, then eventually tied it with Durant doing his thing down the stretch after replacing Payne.
Durant hit 20 of his points from the beginning of the fourth period thru overtime. He hit a jumper with 16.2 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, then scored seven of OKC’s fifteen points in overtime to get his team a much needed win after the debacle against Brooklyn.
Westbrook was good as well going 30, 8, 10 one night removed from doing a shameless promotion of his trendy eye ware business on Late Night with Stephen Colbert. It would have been more interesting to hear Russell’s views on Blatt, Golden State, or his free agency in two years, but it was Late Night and Colbert had worn himself out with Donald Rumsfeld.
Steven Adams returned and was good to the tune of 9 points, 8 rebounds, and some priceless addition of basketball toughness and smarts. Steven Adams in my view is very close to catching Serge Ibaka as the third most important player on the team. Ibaka was good as well going for 11 points and 17 rebounds…. so for the time being they’re 3a and 3b, but Steven is closing fast.
Dion Waiters started for Roberson, played 43 minutes, scored 14 points and was solid despite what you might read from some of the teatherheads on the Daily Thunder message board.
Cam Payne only played 15 minutes, but was impactful hitting four threes and helping OKC come back from Billy Donovan’s disastrous lineup combination to start the fourth period.
As a whole, OKC’s bench only scored 21 points as Enes Kanter was just basically awful on both ends of the floor–as in unplayable awful.
OKC improves to 34-13 and plays in Minnesota tomorrow night.
The take here is simple if you’re paying attention to the entire thirty team league. There’s only one team which appears flawless at this point and they play inside Oracle Arena. The other twenty-nine have flaws, blemishes, and shortcomings. Currently, OKC is one of those teams, but unlike the others, they have Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook radiating hope OKC can find itself as a team and give the Warriors a run.
Mike Jackson