How appropriate. On the eve of Russell Westbrook being inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame he goes to the rim with an epic left handed dunk for the game winner in a thrilling 105-103 Thunder win over James Harden and his Rockets.
If the Westbrook dunk isn’t the epitome of Westbrook then I don’t know what is. Some might say he should have held the ball and taken the foul which was coming. But there was an opening to the rim and in true Westbrookian form he went to the rim with no conscious whatsoever and left with an epic game winning dunk. Hello Oklahoma Hall of Fame and Michael Jordan.
This game wasn’t pretty or a piece of art, but more to the point it was a must win game for this young Thunder team which hopes to be relevant and in contention for a No. 4 seed in the West come April.
Westbrook’s line went 30-7-9 with a 9-20 night from the field. Unlike the game in Detroit though, this time he got some offensive help from Victor Oladipo. Oladipo was outstanding in this ball game. This is the Oladipo the Oklahoma City Thunder need night in and night out. Oladipo double doubled with 29 points and 10 rebounds on a 12-18 shooting night from the field. A far cry from his 4-17 performance in Detroit. If OKC gets this version of Oladipo moving forward they will continue to be relevant for the No. 4 seed in the West, if it turns out to be the Detroit version it will be a long season.
Now to Andre Roberson. What do you say about this person/player? He absolutely sucks shooting a basketball, yet he’s clearly OKC’s most valuable defensive player. It was vintage Roberson against the Rockets as he did a stellar job on James Harden limiting The Beard to 13 points on a 4-16 night. Plus, and this is probably the key to this Thunder win more than the epic Westbrook left-handed Jordanesque dunk, Harden didn’t have his ass parked at the free throw line all night. Offensively, it was vintage Roberson as he went 0-5 from three, 2-11 overall, missed a critical gimme late game layup, then of all things made the bucket which gave OKC a 102-100 lead. If Dickens were writing this recap it would have started with it was the best and worst of Roberson all wrapped into one basketball game.
Steven Adams and Domas Sabonis didn’t do a lot offensively, but both played what I’d describe as overall efficient games in spite of single digit offensive nights. Especially Adams on the defensive end as his play with Roberson on the pick and roll defense of Harden was key to the Thunder winning this game.
Kanter played limited minutes because of the style Houston employs so it was one of those nights where Kanter was somewhat useless considering he’s getting around $17.5 million this year. On a bright side, both Jerami Grant and Alex Abrines had positive games with both hitting two threes and making a positive impact on the game. Like most young role players they both play better at home, so maybe this is what we’ll get from these two at home on more nights than not as we at some point in Oklahoma transition into winter.
But make no mistake about this, it was OKC’s effort, hustle, and defense which won them this basketball game. Houston scored a total of 13 points in the fourth period. Take away Eric Gordon’s three point make with one second left and the Thunder held the Rockets scoreless from the field in the game’s final six minutes. So having thought about this long and hard and ignoring his offensive output in this game, I’m making Andre Roberson my No. 1 Star of the Game and somehow I can’t believe I just did it, but I did and I don’t feel bad about it.
OKC improves to 7-5 with the New Jersey Nets coming to town on Friday night. It should be a win, but as the Orlando Magic game showed, nothing can be taken for granted or assumed with this young Thunder team.
Russell Westbrook being honored tonight by the Oklahoma Hall of Fame with one Michael Jordan doing the honors. Hope Michael enjoyed the left-handed dunk and the wink.