No. 5: Durant goes down but Thunder hangs tough in Big D
With about four minutes left in the first quarter, the state of Oklahoma was almost sucked into a vortex because of the collective gasp when Kevin Durant went down clutching his ankle. I feared the worst. Busted ankle, out for the season, surgery, maybe he’ll be back for camp this year. That’s the way I am though. Turns out it was just a little sprain. But he wasn’t able to return to action against Dallas. And that left Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green to pick up the slack.
Westbrook took 32 shots (!!!), scored 33 points and dished out eight assists. Uncle Jeff had 28 points and 12 boards. In his first meaningful action as a new Thunderman, Thabo Sefolosha chipped in 12 points and played some terrific defense down the stretch. And it was all looking to be enough but Dirk scored 12 of his 41 in the final four minutes to put Dallas up 95-90 with 20 seconds left. But after he was fouled on a 3, Westbrook made his first two, missed the third, got his rebound and drained a 3 to force OT. Just an amazing play.
But the momentum didn’t hold up in overtime as the young Thunder ran out of gas, while Jason Kidd scored all 10 of his points in the extra frame. The loss dropped OKC to 3-17 in games decided by six points or less. But even still, it was quite a game, especially since the Thunder was sans KD.
