Kevin Durant's triple-double leads Thunder over Hawks

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Kevin Durant recorded his first triple-double of the season with 25 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists as the Oklahoma City Thunder earned a 107-94 victory over the Atlanta Hawks. It was the seventh triple-double of Durant’s career. The 10 assists marked a new-season high for Durant. The Thunder forward had dished out six assists on three previous occasions this season, including the team’s last game against the Memphis Grizzlies. An impressive note about the season-high total: Durant recorded his seventh assist with 4:27 left in the second quarter. While he scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, Durant was clearly in a facilitating mood early as he took just one shot in the opening quarter and had five assists.

“I was just trying to play the game and make it simple for myself,” Durant said. “I knew last time they were expecting me to be aggressive and score every time I got the ball. I just tried to switch the game up and get Serge open, get Russ shots, get Steven shots. I think it’s contagious when your top guys do that. Russell did a great job setting the tone, and I was able be aggressive and make some plays. It opened it up for me at the end of the game.”

Russell Westbrook shared the wealth as recorded 10 assists of his own in the victory for the Thunder. He also scored 23 points and pulled down six rebounds. Westbrook got going after a slow, maybe methodical start to the game. Like Durant, Westbrook looked to get his teammates involved in the game early as he didn’t take his first field goal attempt until the 3:06 mark of the opening quarter. He had four assists in the first quarter.

The victory against the Hawks marked only the second time ever both Durant and Westbrook dished out 10 assists within the same game. The other instance came on Nov. 13, 2013 in a loss against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“We had 24 assists and those guys have 20 of the 24. They’re very, very willing passers,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan explained. “I think what it also does is it helps Russell and Kevin be efficient players because now you’ve got to account for some other people on the floor and they’re maybe not always having to deal with such a crowd. I think both of those guys want to win. They work too hard not to want to win. I think they understand that in order to do that they’ve got make the people around them better. I think that’s what great players do. Great players make the other people around them better.”

For Atlanta, Kent Bazemore scored 22 points and Jeff Teague had 18. Kyle Korver added 12 and Thabo Sefolosha finished with 11 in the loss.

The Hawks came into town after earning a hard-fought 98-95 victory over the Dallas Mavericks on Wednesday night, meaning they were ripe for the taking on the second night of a back-to-back. The Thunder held a lead as many as 17 in the second quarter. Thanks to some hot shooting from 3-point range coming out halftime, the Hawks battled back to get within one with 2:42 left in the third quarter. The Thunder were able to withstand a Hawks parade to the free throw line in the fourth quarter to secure the victory. With the win, the Thunder collected their fifth straight victory at Chesapeake Energy Arena. OKC put a half to Atlanta’s streak of three consecutive wins against Western Conference opponents, which included a 106-100 home win over them on Nov. 30.

The biggest question going into Thursday’s game against the Hawks was whether or not the Thunder could build off their impressive road victory against the Grizzlies. The final deficit looks nice, but the Thunder had to sweat the game out a little more than they probably should have had to. Be that as it may, OKC adds another dimension to their offense when their stars create for their teammates.

“It’s a make or miss league. We did get the ball moving pretty well,” Durant said. “We got it on the second side and shifted their defense a little bit. We didn’t play total ISO ball, but I like when we play ISO ball because we’ve got two of the best ISO guys in the league in myself and Russell. Dion is pretty good, as well. We’ve got to have a good mix of playing both. We used our other side, which was getting the ball moving and guys were screening for each other. We were making the right plays.”

NOTES:

Serge Ibaka delivered for the Thunder. He finished with his third double-double of the season with 23 points and 10 rebounds. The Thunder had lost their previous two games this season when Ibaka recorded a double-double. The game against displayed how the Ibaka can be a huge factor when the stars get everyone else involved. Back-to-back or not, Atlanta is a tough team to tackle when you’re a big man. They’ve got versatile bigs in the form of Al Horford and Paul Millsap, but Ibaka was up for the challenge.

This is more of a macro point to be making, but the Thunder have an issue with their spacing when Andre Roberson is on the floor. Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Okay, don’t stop me. There were multiple instances where Kyle Korver or R0berson’s defender would show on him before sagging to help in the post or work to double Durant. It’s quite apparent at the moment that teams in the West are playing for the second seed. OKC might be one of the few teams that could maybe compete and run with the Golden State Warriors in a small ball setting. Roberson inability to be a legitimate threat could stifle the Thunder in that situation, though. That’s something to keep in mind for the rest of the season.

It was the Kent Bazemore show for Atlanta in the first half as he scored 18 points on 6-of-6 shooting from the field, including going 4-of-4 from 3-point range. He easily kept Atlanta in the game as the rest of the starting five scored just 22 points in the first half.

It’s a light night in terms of the NBA slate, so it’s safe to say that KD was in the running for the non-existent ‘Shot of the Night’ award with this beauty. He let out a big grin as he ran down the floor after it.

Dion Waiters shot the ball as if it was his birthday, attempting six shots in his first nine minutes of action. Oh wait, it actually was his birthday. #BirthdayShots. He ended up shooting 4-of-14 from the field. While he can be wildly erratic, Waiters is at least a threat to score and shoot when he’s on the floor. There’s much more to to take into account, but that point matters in the big picture when you look at someone like Roberson and playing small ball. Interestingly enough, Waiters ended up taking the same amount of shots as Durant in the game.

Donovan on Waiters taking as many shots as Durant: “That is an unbelievable level of sacrifice in terms of [Durant] making a commitment to the team, to himself and to everybody that winning is important.”

Next up: At Utah on Friday