OKC makes final statement before the break, 105-89 over the Grizzlies
The Thunder climb to three games over .500 for the first time this season and take control of 9th place in the West with a 105-89 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Grizzlies came in having won 14 of its last 16 games, but couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced Thunder. Kevin Durant finished with 26 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocks. Russell Westbrook registered 24 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists.
Sans Steven Adams, the Thunder’s bigs did an outstanding job defending Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph who finished a combined 7-25 from the floor for 24 total points. Related: Nick Collison was outstanding — 15 points and nine rebounds in 28 minutes and was just a rebound away from his first double-double since Dec. 29, 2012.
“He’s a vet. He’s a pros pro. That’s why we have him here. That’s why he signed his extension. Showed tonight, that’s why we need him, ” Durant said. “He’s one of those guys, he always stays ready. Much more than what he did on the basketball court, it’s just a joy playing with a guy like that. He’s so selfless and all he wants to do is help the team win. It was fun seeing him go out there and have a big scoring night for us.”
Serge Ibaka went bloodied to the locker room after taking the Zach Randolph “Elbow of Death” to the nose. He returned to the game with 6:30 minutes left in the second quarter with the Thunder leading by three, 43-40. Oklahoma City would rattle off a 23 to 8 run, and take a 66-48 lead at halftime. Serge didn’t post some eye-popping stat line (7 and 7 with 3 blocks), but he was extremely effective tonight — a +25 in 22 minutes of play.
After Adams went down there was a lot speculation as to how the team would do with Perkins back in the starting lineup. He even tweeted “How soon people forget! Smmfh” on Monday prior to the game in Denver. A pretty solid subtweet to Thunder fans, media and critics. His play the last two games has backed up his jab and he continues to prove his value against this Memphis team — a game-high +29 in 23 minutes.
The more the game went on the more noticeable KD’s limp got. His movement off the ball was great in the first quarter but began to favor his right foot in the second half. In the fourth quarter he had his right shoe off getting ice on it, but came back with under five minutes left and nailed his first shot back off of a side pick-and-pop action. Although the foot is sore, it doesn’t sound like anything unexpected.
“It comes and goes. It’s just part of the process,” Durant said. “We knew that going into the surgery. We’re treating it pretty well. Just keep icing it, doing my treatment, but we knew it was going to happen. It’s off and on.”
Despite the soreness Durant has committed to attending All-Star festivities, but isn’t sure how much he’ll participate.
“I’ll talk to Sam and Scott and them and figure it out, but I’ll be in New York City.”
Brooks on Durant, “We’ve been very proactive on our imaging and things like that. He is sore. But that’s part of that process. We wouldn’t put him out there if it wasn’t just being sore… I think he’s going to be fine.”
More Brooks on Durant, “We’re always proactive in everything we do. We never put our players in a position to be on the court if they’re not ready to play. It’s not about wins and losses, it’s about doing the right thing. And I believe in everything we do as an organization. He is a little sore. He’s going to have times he’s going to have that. We’ve been fortunate that for a long period, he hasn’t had that. We’ve been proactive on all our imaging, MRIs, X-Rays, and everything has come back clean.”
This win, and New Orleans’ loss has the Thunder alone in 9th and just .5 game back of Phoenix for the 8th seed in the Western Conference with 30 games remaining. That will obviously be closely monitored by media and fans as the season starts to wind down, but for Durant and the Thunder it’s about one day at a time.
“We try not to think about that. We’re just trying to play good basketball and that’ll take care of itself,” Durant said. “We’re excited to go into the break with a W, we’d rather go into the break beating a good team like Memphis, but we can’t look at the standings after every game. We’ve just got to play, and play good basketball and that’ll take care of itself.”
Next Up: Home against the Mavericks NEXT Thursday
Happy All-Star Break, everybody.
