Oklahoma City Thunder 111 — Houston Rockets 107
With so much going on in the world yesterday it was hard to write a recap last night about a basketball game, but better late than never.
OKC’s Thunder won their fifth straight game by make making the plays it had to in the fourth period and doing just enough to beat the Rockets in what was an entertaining game from start to finish. I wouldn’t call it a great win or a great performance, but it was encouraging from the standpoint Russell Westbrook scored 14 of his 21 points in the fourth period and got to the rim when the Thunder needed him to for some big baskets when it mattered.
For Westbrook it was another triple double with him going for 21 points, 13 rebounds, and 15 assists. It marks his 15th triple double of the season with eleven games remaining. Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game.
But it wasn’t just Westbrook. Kevin Durant had 23 points along with 7 rebounds. Serge Ibaka had a line of 15 points, 8 rebounds, and 3 blocked shots. Enes Kanter double doubled with 10 points and 10 boards. In essence, OKC got 69 points and 38 rebounds from its top four producers. Not bad.
Dion Waiters was excellent. He had 17 points and did some things defensively. It was by far his best game since the death of his brother. It was one of those Dion games where you wish he could he could bottle it and bring it to the team three out of every four nights instead of one out of every three. If OKC got that consistently from Dion Waiters they’d be more of a threat to win a championship.
Randy Foye played 24 minutes and didn’t score a point, but I’m not going to gripe about it because he’s given the team some good things of late.
I like what Donovan is doing of late in making sure both Morrow and Payne get some minutes. Even if they both only get around ten minutes, it’s good to see them contributing and staying involved within the flow of the team. I’m hoping this continues.
OKC improves to 49-22 and with the fifth straight win there’s some optimism the team can find itself and hit post season with a stride. But in the end it will all be about defense and finishing fourth quarters. Can OKC be good enough in these two specific areas to win four games against the Spurs in the second round?
But I’m not going to dwell on it today. The skies are much brighter in Thunder Nation today than they were on March 11th when they lost at home to the Timberwolves. The gloom and tragedies have somewhat abated for the time being.
Eleven games remain in a regular season which could possibly be Kevin Durant’s last season in Oklahoma City. But it’s more of a time to embrace the season with some renewed hope and see if the Thunder can grow as a team as they hit the goal achieving portion of the season.
Mike Jackson