Monday’s home loss to the Hawks was a game the Thunder probably should have won. Tonight’s game in New Orleans with OKC catching the struggling Pelicans on the second night of a back to back is a game the Thunder needed to win. OKC played their fifth straight game without Victor Oladipo, but on this night it didn’t matter as OKC’s bigs, Alex Abrines, and Russell Westbrook hit on all cylinders in a 121-110 Thunder win.
I thought Billy Donovan was awful on Monday night, as basically he coached a game where he allowed Atlanta to dictate the terms, the pace, and the matchups. Not so tonight. Donovan addressed everything I picked at in my recap of in the Atlanta game.
Let’s start with the bigs. In Monday’s loss, Adams, Kanter, and Lauvernge seemed to be Billy Donovan chalkboard afterthoughts. Combined those three players attempted 11 shots. Tonight? The ball moved and at times it was moving from big to big in some beautiful interior playmaking. Try this on for size–Adams, Kanter, and Lauvergne went a combined 17-29 from the field and hauled in 28 rebounds. All told, OKC scored 56 points in the paint and to me this is tonight’s number one storyline with Alex Abrines’ breakout game coming in second.
It’s not really fair to say Abrines has been a disappointment because he hasn’t been a regular member of the rotation. On Monday night, Abrines scored 9 points and showed a pulse for the first time in a month. Tonight, it was Abrines’s 18 points and five threes which turned a Thunder 87-84 lead entering the fourth into a relatively easy 11 point win on the road. Abrines played heavy minutes and was a major reason the Thunder won on the road tonight. Hopefully, this kick starts his confidence and he can get it going.
Another thing, as of late, Donovan has been screwing with Lauvergne’s minutes. Note to Billy Donovan–“Please stop this.” Unlike the two previous games where we saw Kyle Singler get significant minutes and run around doing some track and field nuance things, Singler didn’t see the floor tonight. Lauvergne played 25 minutes scoring 10 points and grabbing 6 rebounds. Plus, his interior passing game with Kanter was beautiful. I understand Kyle Singler can run, I get that. But let’s make sure we don’t dick with Lauvergne’s role on this team. This is basketball, not track and field. Sometimes…overthinks are the worst things and they just drive me crazy.
Russell Westbrook was the best player in the NBA tonight, and depending how seriously you feel LeBron James takes November and December games—Westbrook has been the best player in the league so far this season. Westbrook scored 42 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, and dished 7 assists. Yawn.
OKC improves to 17-12 and plays the Celtics in Boston on Friday.
Even though it’s going to be 60 degrees in OKC on Christmas Day I need some warm weather Christmas music on here to get me going.