OKC Thunder Rout Lakers in Gibson, McDermott Debut
By Rich Condon
The OKC Thunder defeated the Los Angeles Lakers 110-93 on Friday night at the Peake.
The OKC Thunder used a balanced attack to defeat the young Los Angeles Lakers team in their first game back after the All-Star break. Tonight’s game was the debut of Taj Gibson and Doug McDermott for the OKC Thunder. The duo were acquired in a trade deadline deal with the Chicago Bulls on Thursday.
110. 149. Final. 93. 20
Gibson scored 12 points on 6-13 shooting with four rebounds. He played 21 minutes off the bench. McDermott, who like Gibson, came off the bench, added 8 points on 3-8 shooting and four rebounds. He played 19 minutes. It’s worth noting neither player has gone through a practice or a shootaround yet with the team.
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Russell Westbrook spearheaded the victory for the OKC Thunder, finishing with his 28th triple-double on the season. In 35 minutes, Westbrook scored 17 points (4-18 shooting), 17 assists, and 18 rebounds. Steven Adams also chipped in a double-double with 15 points (7-13 shooting) and 10 rebounds. Adams gave the Lakers defense fits in the pick-and-roll with Westbrook.
Alex Abrines made his first career start replacing Victor Oladipo who was out with back spasms. Abrines set a career high with 19 points on 7-13 shooting, including 5-11 from deep. Andre Roberson also set a career high with 19 points on 8-9 shooting, and a perfect 3-3 from three-point land.
Enes Kanter made his much awaited return after he broke his forearm losing a fight with a chair a month ago. Consequentially, Kanter had missed ten games with the injury. Kanter only had 4 points on 2-12 shooting in 19 minutes. However, he added 7 rebounds and played with a ton of energy. He’ll need a little bit more time to shake the rust off after a month on the shelf.
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For the Lakers, D’Angelo Russell led all scorers with 29 points (which was great for my fantasy team, in case you were curious). Russell added 6 assists and 4 rebounds as well. The OKC Thunder harassed Nick Young all evening, who only hit 1 of 9 shots for three points.
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The only other bright spot for the Lakers was Ivica Zubac. The 19-year old from Croatia scored 11 points on an efficient 5-9 shooting in 27 minutes off the bench. Zubac also had 6 rebounds.
Finally, as a team, OKC shot 45.4 percent from the floor and 41.7 percent from deep. Furthermore, they held the Lakers to only 39.6 percent from the floor and 20 percent from deep. A poor shooting night gets even worse for LA, who also only shot 42.9 percent from the free throw line. The OKC Thunder were able to capitalize on 17 Los Angeles turnovers to the tune of 28 points.
As a result of the victory, the OKC Thunder remain firmly in the 7th seed of the Western Conference. With the win, they improve to 33-25 on the season. OKC is now only a game behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the 6th seed in the Western Conference.
OKC is off tomorrow before a Sunday night match-up with the new Twin Towers: Anthony Davis and DeMarcus Cousins of the New Orleans Pelicans.