Thunder sting the Hornets (do you get it?), 98-75
This kind of win goes largely unnoticed in the grand scheme, a 23-point pasting of the now 10-20 Hornets. It’s what the Thunder should do on their home floor, the kind of dominating performance you’d expect from a team much better than one of the Eastern Conference dregs.
But let’s consider some circumstances. Second game of a back-to-back, coming off an emotionally draining win in San Antonio, while playing a fifth straight game without Kevin Durant. The Hornets are bad, but they’ve been playing better. Any win is valuable for the Thunder right now, but if we were grading this one, high marks across the board.
Here’s why:
The Hornets shot just 28.7 percent, didn’t score more than 24 points in any quarter, and were held under 20 three of the four.
- Al Jefferson and Kemba Walker: Combined to go 4-20 for 10 points.
- Russell Westbrook was fantastic, setting an early tone with 15 in the first quarter on 5-7 shooting. On the night, what’s become a pretty standard performance: 29 points on 11-21, five assists and two steals in 25 minutes. Yeah, he had six turnovers, but who really noticed?
- Serge Ibaka showed up everywhere: 13 points, a season-high 14 rebounds and four blocks in 25 minutes. You might look at his shooting numbers — 5-14, 3-7 from 3 — but something to note is he missed three putback tips in the first quarter (padding his rebounds, hurting his field goal percentage) and consecutive 3s on one trip after hitting three of his first five. Ibaka was outstanding.
- Did I mention the Hornets couldn’t score? The Thunder led 59-40 at halftime, and didn’t score for almost the first four minutes of the third. It felt like the Hornets were closing the gap on them, but I looked up at the scoreboard with 8:31 left — it said 59-45. That 5-0 run from Charlotte wasn’t nearly as explosive as I thought it was. Probably had to do with how impactful each bucket they scored seemed, because they were coming so infrequently.
“It was big,” Westbrook said of yesterday’s momentum-building win. “I mean, it was good that we didn’t come out flat, and came out with some energy, hungry and wanted to win more, and tonight you saw that.”
It was an unremarkable game that was still extremely impressive. The Thunder have closed the gap back to within a game of .500, with their opportunity to finally get there coming Sunday in Dallas. Durant may be available, as indications are he’s getting closer, but regardless of that, the Thunder have cleansed themselves of the two games to start the week, and moved on well.
It felt like those two losses were devastating, and they were hard to stomach, but the season remains long, and the Thunder just needed to bounce back. The win yesterday set a terrific tone to do that, and to follow it up with another strong performance is a major positive. With Durant’s return on the horizon, and the wins coming more frequently than the losses — they’ve still won 12 of their last 16 — the Thunder are back to climbing the ladder.
NOTES:
- I know I can’t be the only one, but I haven’t let go of the two games earlier in the week that the Thunder gave away. Win those, and they’re 17-14, sitting eighth in the West, and only a game behind the Spurs for seventh. That would be 14 of their last 16, with the two losses being Durant’s first game back, and the one he left at halftime against the Warriors.
- Steven Adams said this morning that Al Jefferson is his hardest cover in the league, saying “He just destroyed me [last season].” Jefferson in 23 minutes: four points on 2-7 shooting.
- This was Westbrook’s 11th straight game with at least 25 points, the longest streak of career, and the longest streak in the NBA this season.
- Westbrook’s postgame media session only lasted a couple minutes, with only a few questions. As he walked away, he said sarcastically, “Nice and short when we win, huh?”
- Westbrook let out a wry little sneer as he said it, almost like he was jeering the Thunder’s PR staff. I would like to point this out, though: He only talked for a grand total of two minutes and 46 seconds after the Pelicans loss.
- Good question I got tonight: Assuming he doesn’t sit any more games, Westbrook would qualify for the leading scorer list in the Thunder’s 47th game. You have to play in 70 percent of your team’s games to qualify. Right now, he’s at 55 percent.
- What was that play with Westbrook ahead on the break with Cody Zeller trailing? Westbrook, like, ran in front of Zeller and tried to jump at an angle and drop off a pass to Roberson. I have so many questions about this decision by Westbrook, the biggest of which, why the hell didn’t you go dunk the damn thing? It’s like Westbrook pushed the wrong button on the controller or something.
- Rebound flopping has reach epidemic levels. I think the league should actually consider adding a fourth official, with his job being on the baseline to ONLY watch for that.
- Steve Clifford talked pregame about the challenges in having an offense built around a guy that plays the post, like Al Jefferson. The game now isn’t built around that, and most players don’t grow up with that as part of it. So even simple things, like feeding the post, isn’t an innate ability anymore.
- Here’s a thought: The Hornets have maybe the best post-up guy in the league in Jefferson, right? You know what they’ve ranked in offense the last two seasons? 24th last season and currently 25th this season. So this “back to the basket!” thing doesn’t necessarily equal great offense. Because you know what the Thunder were the last two seasons? Seventh last season and second the year before that.
- Anthony Morrow is going to knock himself out on accident at some point this season.
- Thunder are now riding an impressive one-game home streak without a horrible brawl in the stands.
- Scott Brooks was asked a lot about Jeremy Lamb pregame, and did his best to shrug it all off. At one point, he even scoffed at it all, saying “What’s with all the Lamb questions?”
- Brooks on why Lamb lost playing time: “We just have to keep finding guys, and he has to just stay ready. We have a team full of players who are hungry that want to play and that gives us the best chance. And I have to continue to explore those opportunities. I think Ish has done a good job. We need guys that attack and move the ball, and the last two games he’s had five assists each game. So I like what he’s done. Jeremy hasn’t played the last two but it’s not permanent. He has to still be ready. I could see him playing the next few games.”
- Brooks on if it’s an attitude issue: “No, not at all. That’s the last thing. With Jeremy, we just want some consistency on both ends. He’s working on it. But attitude? No.”
- Brooks on the conflict of Lamb being inconsistent, but getting inconsistent minutes: “Yeah, you have to make choices. There’s 240 minutes in an NBA game and you have five players to play at one time. You have to make your decisions on what’s the best opportunity, the best rotation, what gives you the best chance to win. Sometimes there are five to six players that don’t play any given night, not just on our team but 29 other teams. And you have to be able to handle that as a player and you have to be able to make those tough decisions as a coach. And that’s what makes teams work.”
- Of course, Lamb checked in late in the first quarter. He did a few OK things, scoring six points with four rebounds and four assists, but for the most part was just kind of there. It did seem like he was trying to make it a point to attack the basket more, even weirdly passing up a wide open 3 to put the ball on the floor.
- Brooks after the game: “Could’ve played better. I’m glad he went in there and got an opportunity. But like I tell him and tell all our guys, you have to be ready. You have to be ready. Nick didn’t play last night. You guys didn’t ask about that. When you have a good basketball team, everybody can’t play 20 minutes, everybody can’t play 30 minutes. It’s not a league for that. It’s a league you have to earn your minutes and play them all hard and there will be nights you won’t play, nights you play more and nights you get subbed out quickly. And you have to be able to adjust and adapt and play well when you get the minutes.”
- Us reporters like to think we talked Brooks into playing Lamb tonight. To test the theory, we’re going to ask 20 pregame questions about Grant Jerrett’s playing time on Sunday.
- Jerrett got a few garbage time minutes, and he is not shy. He’s taken 17 3s in 10 career minutes. Even Kobe is like, whoa man, chill.
- Steve Clifford was pretty good in Capote, I thought.
- Brooks said Durant participated in part of shootaround this morning, which indicates he’s getting close. “I saw the workout this morning. Moving better. He’s improving, progressing day by day, getting much better.”
Next up: At the Mavericks on Sunday
