In a game that was relatively close for the first two and a half quarters, it ended as a demoralizing blowout loss for the OKC Thunder.
The Thunder went down early into the first quarter, with the Rockets going up 14-7 in the first four minutes. But Oklahoma City responded with an 8-0 run to take the lead. The first quarter was a back and forth, ending with the OKC Thunder holding a 29-27 lead.
The Rockets would respond in the second quarter, scoring 32 points to take a 59-54 lead. And not without cause. Though they were 3-16 from 3 in the first half, they scored 21 second chance points to the Thunder’s ZERO and had 42 points in the paint. They also dominated the rebounding with 28-21 edge on the boards in the first half.
Rockets outrebounding the Thunder 28-21 and have outscored OKC 42-24 in the paint. Houston 21-0 in second-chance points.
— Brett Dawson (@BDawsonWrites) April 17, 2017
The Rockets would expand on their lead in the third, outscoring the Thunder 30-20 to make it a 15 point game with 12 minutes to go. It was more of the same in the fourth, as the Rockets extended their lead rather quickly to make it a 20 point game with 8 minutes to go.
They could not miss at all, as they expanded on their already large lead to stretch it to 32 with under 4 minutes to go. They would hold on to win by 31 and take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Final takeaways from the game
Honestly, there were no positives in today’s game. It was an all-around capitulation. The Rockets shot 49.5% from the field, while the Thunder shot 37% from the field. The Thunder were getting killed on the boards and inside, giving up 62 paint points and 56 rebounds. 14 of said 56 were offensive rebounds.
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Russell Westbrook was downright awful, shooting 6-23 from the field. He also turned the ball over 9 times while only garnering 7 assists.
James Harden had his way with Andre Roberson and shot 46.4% from the field and ended the game with 37 points, 9 assists, 7 rebounds and a mere 2 turnovers in 34 minutes of play.
The Thunder players just weren’t there on either end of the court, allowing the Rockets to score at will. Their shooting was also rather abominable as well. Credit is due for Roberson though, as he scored 18 points on 70% shooting from the field and 4 made threes.
Otherwise, it was a shambolic game overall.
The Oklahoma City Thunder look to tie the series in Houston on Wednesday at 8 PM ET before heading home to OKC to host the Rockets for games 3 and 4.