Durant daggers the Suns as OKC pulls away, 122-106
The main problem the Thunder had coming into tonight’s game was the possibility of letting the Warriors beat them twice.
And at times, they clearly looked unfocused with the Suns scoring at will in the paint, capitalizing on silly mistakes, bad mental lapses and lazy, pathetic defense. The Suns had 57 at halftime, and led 81-75 with 2:15 left in the third.
That’s when Kevin Durant, who was struggling, hitting just 5-of-15, knocked down a wide open 3 from the top of the key on an out-of-bounds set. If you’ve watched Durant for any extended period of time, you know he could be 1-of-26 in a game, but it takes just one shot going down for him to lock in. After that 3, he finished the game scoring 19 points on 6-6 shooting, to end up with 32 on 11-21. Which including two nasty daggers, one a deep 28-footer, and another heat checker on that patented strafing side-step move from the right wing.
After that 3 late in the third, the Thunder went on a 20-8 burst to take over the game. The Suns pulled it back to four in the fourth with 4:18 left, but the Thunder closed on a 16-4 run to coast in for a smooth landing. Russell Westbrook hit a jumper, then two free throws, then Durant his first dagger, Enes Kanter had a runout dunk, two more free throws for Westbrook, then another Durant dagger 3, and Cameron Payne capped it off. An inconsistent game that required four good closing minutes to win by 16.
The Thunder did what really good teams do in an NBA season — essentially just coast their way to a 16-point win over a team they’re better than. That doesn’t always happen (see: Nets, Brooklyn), but when there are at least bursts of focused play, that’s enough to do it. No question the lapses were eye-gougingly bad, but again, I think that was part of the mental challenge of playing this after that Warriors game.
One play as an example of the night: Third quarter, Alex Len missed a midrange jumper and with four Thunderers standing and watching, P.J. Tucker knifed in, grabbed the rebound and laid it back in. Pathetic effort. But it didn’t really matter. Because the Suns stink, and the Thunder don’t.
Not much to takeaway here, except it’s a win, the Thunder are now 39-14, have won 19 of their last 23, and with a winnable game on Thursday could post 40 wins before the All-Star break.
NOTES:
- Billy Donovan stuck with the same staggering rotation to start the fourth, with Durant beginning the quarter and then coming out for a short break after a couple minutes. It was big in keeping things moving as OKC scored the first six of the fourth.
- I don’t know what it is with the Suns, but man, they talk a bunch of trash. Markieff Morris is always after it, P.J. Tucker too, and of course Tyson Chandler. For a team that sucks, they don’t mind mixing it up.
- The Suns went 1-11 from 3.
- Steven Adams with the triple whoops late in the fourth. Missed both free throws, then fouled Archie Goodwin after the second to put the Suns on the line, and he made both. Another one of those mental lapses.
- Dion Waiters had a nice game. Played Devin Booker well (six points on 1-8 shooting), and has 15 on 5-11 plus four assists and three steals.
- Waiters paid off a nice bullet pass from Durant in the fourth that proved to maybe be the first of a series of daggers. Those type of shots are what’s important for him to hit semi-regularly.
- The Thunder have this bad habit of just accepting to trade buckets at times in a game.
- Cameron Payne bounced back nicely — 11 points, four rebounds and four assists.
- Westbrook with a straightforward, quiet 27-8-8.
- Morris got Serge Ibaka energized with some trash talk, and while Ibaka certainly showed flashes of his brilliance, he fouled too much and gave up a couple layups because of poor positioning.
- Hey, Kyle Singler had some good minutes.
- Mirza Teletovic had 17 on 6-6 shooting in the first half. He finished with 17 on 6-12 shooting.
- So many fouls in this game. So many.
Next up: Home against the Pelicans on Thursday
