Thunder vs. Suns: OKC Wins in an Epic Overtime Battle
By Rich Condon
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. That’s the only way to describe Thunder vs Suns.
For the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday night, it was the exact opposite in the first half of their thrilling overtime home opening 113-110 victory over the Phoenix Suns.
The Thunder looked as if they had cinder blocks attached to their feet during a nightmare of a first quarter. Phoenix started the game on a 14-4 run, and then it got worse.
After 8 minutes, Phoenix had 31 points, and led by 18. They would finish the first quarter with 40 points on 69.6% shooting from the field. T.J. Warren was the stuff of nightmares for the Thunder, finishing the night with 30 points on 13-18 from the field.
The Thunder looked awful, accruing four travel calls and seven turnovers in less than 13 minutes of game action. They looked lost. The Suns were scorching hot, but the Thunder were playing lazy defense, giving them a lot of open looks.
But then something happened. Victor Oladipo (21 points 41%) started converting at the rim. The Thunder started playing stifling team defense, leading to easy buckets in transition for the hyper-athletic duo of Westbrook and Oladipo. Domantas Sabonis (8 points on 66% and 4 rebounds in 17 minutes) showed flashes of an NBA caliber game. The Thunder were hustling. They found their heart. After scoring 40 in the first, Phoenix scored only 13 in the second.
Semaj Christon only played 11 minutes tonight, shooting 1-4 from the field with two rebounds. Despite limited minutes, I’ve really liked what I’ve seen from Christon. I think he is continuing to carve out a role for himself in the Thunder rotation, even after Cam Payne returns from injury. I really liked the two-way presence of Christon, Oladipo and Westbrook, albeit it was a small sample size.
The Thunder went into the third down three, and tied the game soon thereafter. Phoenix stayed in the driver’s seat for a majority of the third frame, but make no mistake, it was the Russell Westbrook show in the second half. Westbrook was transcendent, putting up 23 in the third quarter alone, carving up the Phoenix defense at will. Westbrook’s 23 in the third tied a Thunder record for points in a quarter.
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Chesepeake ERUPTED when Westbrook took the Thunder’s first lead of the night on a 107 MPH Eurostep with 4:44 left in the fourth. Westbrook stole the show with his first triple double of the year and an epic offensive eruption in the second half, but this was still a true team performance from the Thunder.
Victor Oladipo, Andre Roberson, and Steven Adams came up with several key hustle plays down the stretch, and the three of them especially did all the little things that don’t show up in the box score but are crucial to winning games for your team.
That is until Steven Adams converted on an and-one after straight up ripping the ball away from Tyson Chandler during the overtime period, putting the Thunder up one. Then Roberson channeled his inner Lebron, swatting Devin Booker’s go-ahead attempt to help secure the win for the Thunder on the ensuing possession. Adams and Roberson combined for 18 points and 21 rebounds.
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Westbrook converted his final two free throws, putting the Thunder up three and sealing the deal for Oklahoma City. He finished with a mind-boggling, jaw dropping, heroic, insane, ridiculous 51 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. In just the fourth day of NBA action, Westbrook is the second player to score 50 points in a game. He’s the second player to put up a triple double, following Anthony Davis and Lebron James, respectively.
On the flip side, for some reason, Billy Donovan saw fit to play Kyle Singler in crunch time. Singler, in true Singler fashion, shot 2-6 from the field and 0-4 from deep in 33 minutes of game time.
After a lackluster performance against Philadelphia in the opener, Oklahoma City needed this kind of game. A gritty, blue collar test of who wants it more, a real slobberknocker, to quote Jim Ross. Both teams played their hearts out tonight, and Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder are now 2-0. They play the young upstart Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday at the Chesepeake.
What a wild ride.