OKC Thunder youngsters key in defeat of Hornets: 3 takeaways

The OKC Thunder held off a late surge from the Charlotte Hornets and Kemba Walker to pull out an impressive fourth quarter win. TI dives in with the top three takeaways.

Entering gameplay Friday the OKC Thunder were coming off a huge road win over the Golden State Warriors. By night’s end, the OKC Thunder had defeated the Charlotte Hornets 109-104 and vaulted up the seeding ladder.

For the second time in a few weeks, the OKC Thunder managed to just slip by Kemba Walker and the Charlotte Hornets in a 109-104 contest on Friday night. Led by Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder, the Thunder figured out how to overcome an off-night from Paul George and still pull out the win in the end.

OKC managed to hold a pretty sizable lead for a decent chunk of the game but started to fall apart in the fourth quarter. The Hornets got within striking distance right at the very end of the game, down 107-104, but Walker missed an open look from three to tie it up before Russ sealed the outcome with two free throws from a “Hack-a” foul.

Overall, it was a strong showing across the board from Oklahoma City. The Hornets aren’t a great team by any measure, but Walker’s been going supernova over the past couple of weeks here and almost single-handedly winning games for Charlotte.

This could have very easily been a Kemba take-over game where he overpowered the Thunder and came away with the W, but OKC did a good job staying with him throughout the night and making sure he didn’t go off.

With all that said, here are my three biggest takeaways from the contest.