Bench Sparks Fourth Quarter Run, OK3 Carries Thunder Past Clippers Down the Stretch

The Thunder was locked in a tug-of-war match for much of Thursday night’s game in Los Angeles. Oklahoma City was down by three after the first quarter, tied the game by halftime, then watched as the Clippers re-gained that three-point lead headed into the fourth. Right on cue, the OKC bench sparked the run that broke the contest wide open.

The Thunder started the fourth quarter on a 12-0 run, taking a 106-97 lead with 7:56 remaining. Raymond Felton, Jerami Grant and Patrick Patterson scored 8 points on 4/4 shooting during burst, then handed it off to the OK3, who took over and carried the Thunder to a 127-117 victory.

Full Highlights:

Russell Westbrook wrapped up the night with his thirteenth triple-double of the season, posting 29 points, 12 rebounds, and 11 assists on 11/24 shooting. Paul George dropped a cool 31 points on 12/16 from the field. Carmelo Anthony had himself another fine outing, contributing 22 points on a 9/12 clip. All five Thunder starters scored in double-figures.

The win pushes the Thunder to 22-17 on the season and completes a successful — and high-scoring — trip to the west coast. Back in action on Sunday night in Phoenix.

Now for some notes.

Numbers

53.7: The Thunder shot 53.7 percent from the field — (51/95).

15: The Thunder hit 15 three-pointers and converted on 44 percent of its attempts.

64: The Clippers had their way in the paint, outscoring the Thunder 64-44 down low.

105: The Thunder starters combined to score 105 points — the second night in a row the group has eclipsed to 100-point plateau.

13: The Clippers’ largest lead of the night was 13 points.

10:09: The Thunder took its first lead at the 10:09 mark of the third quarter. There would be six lead changes from that point forward.

14: 14 turnovers for OKC, compared to 10 for the Clippers

The OK3

Russell Westbrook, Paul George and Carmelo Anthony combined to score 65 points last night against the Lakers. Tonight, on the same floor, they followed that up with an 82-point encore on 32/54 (59 percent) shooting.

Their final stat lines:

George: 31 pts, 6 reb, 12/16 FG, 5/8 3P, +10

Westbrook: 29 pts, 12 reb, 11 ast, 11/24 FG, 2/2 3P, +6

Melo: 22 pts, 4 reb, 9/12 FG, 3/6 3P, +12

Outside of cleaning up some of Westbrook’s shot selection, things couldn’t have gone much better for the Thunder’s star trio. George and Anthony were especially lethal — combining for 53 points on 21/28 (75 percent) shooting. Melo deserves a lot of credit for how he’s looked recently.

Highlights

With this first quarter jumper, Carmelo Anthony passed Patrick Ewing for 21st on the NBA’s all-time scoring list:

Jerami Grant absolutely punishes a lay-up attempt from former Oklahoma State point guard, Jawun Evans. Nearly KO’d the referee with the basketball:

Notes

Ferg. A night after dropping a career-high 24 points on 6/9 from downtown, Terrance Ferguson looked more like a 19-year-old rookie against the Clippers. He wrapped up his night with 11 points on 4/12 shooting — going 3/10 from long range. He changes the Thunder offense by being a threat to shoot — which he did often — but don’t even start with the “He should start!” stuff. Certainly earning favor over Alex Abrines (out again with a groin injury) for the minutes behind Andre Roberson when he returns.

Steven Adams. The big man finished with 12 points and 9 rebounds, shooting 5/11 from the floor. He was a plus-9 in 35 minutes and had his hands full with the Clipper bigs all night.

Big Daddy Ray Ray. Raymond Felton came off the Thunder bench to score 12 points on 5/11 shooting. His 21 minutes were most among OKC reserves and he keyed the run that broke the game open in the fourth quarter.

The Other Guys. DeAndre Jordan finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds, Lou Williams came off the bench to drop 26 of his own, and Blake Griffin posted 24 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. The Clippers shot 45 percent from the floor as a team.

Teodosic. Clippers’ starting point guard Milos Teodosic left at halftime with a sore plantar fascia. Jawun Evans replaced him to start the second half and manned LA’s ship the rest of the way. The OSU product finished with just 4 points on 2/8 shooting.

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Carmelo Anthony is doing his post-game interview like a gentleman. Russell Westbrook runs by, dumps water on his head, then Melo says some very bad words on live television. NSFW.

Charles Barkley discusses the OK3 during the TNT halftime show. Says Paul George “doesn’t make an impact defensively” in one of his more asinine comments to-date.