Thunder thump the Raptors, 119-100

BOX SCORE

TORONTO — Rewind almost a month ago, to the night the Thunder blew a 17-point lead to the Clippers in LA and seemed to hit rock bottom for the season. An unusually animated Billy Donovan talked about being excited about the position the team was in. He didn’t say it directly, but the inference, at least in my mind, was that maybe the team would finally start listening to what he’s been saying. They’d been getting away with a lot of undisciplined, sloppy things, really, the last six years, but it was time to sharpen up.

The lull didn’t end there, though. They went on another few games, slipping to 4-8 out of the All-Star break. But the message was consistent from those within the organization: We’re playing well. We’re just not winning.

Well, now they’re doing both. Emphatically.

“That seems like so long ago, you know, right after All-Star break and we definitely hated that part of the season,” Kevin Durant said. “It was tough to go through, but what you gonna fold up and quit? We chose to go out there and keep fighting through it and knew at some point it we’ll start to figure it out.”

So, was it maybe a good thing in the long run?

“I tried to tell you guys that when we were going through it, but it was kind of blinded with the fourth quarter losses and back to back losses, but I tried to tell you guys,” Durant said. “Glad you see it now. It was good to kind of figure ourselves out and what we need to do. It was kind of like a splash of water on your face, just knowing you’ve got to wake up and know the second half of the season is important.”

Billy Donovan put it this way:

“I think sometimes you’ve got to go through some wounds and some scars and some hurt. You’ve got to get calloused a little bit. I think as you go through a season you’ve got to get calloused. Sometimes the harder and the more difficult the struggle the more calloused you get, the more hardened you get. I think the more you have a chance to learn and grow, I’ve said this about this team, I don’t think it ever needs to be easy for them. It’s got to be hard.”

With the way the Thunder have played lately, punctuated by maybe their best road win of the season, a 19-point stomping of the East’s number two team, there appears to be some validity to it. That’s eight straight wins, seven against playoff teams, by an average of 17.1 points a game. The way they manhandled the Raptors tonight was nothing short of impressive, starting with a swarming, suffocating 15-3 start, and hammered home with a dominant second half that saw the Thunder space out to a 25-point lead.

Granted, the Raptors sliced into it just a bit, and things got a tad tense, but behind some Durant daggering and Russell Westbrook remaining nonsensical, the Thunder put everything to bed nicely.

Donovan, though, had an excellent point to make after the game about this turnaround.

“I think the great challenge for our team right now is certainly Toronto is a terrific team, and they’ve played very, very well,” he said. “Do we lose sight and focus and think we’ve got it all figured out now because we’ve played as well as we did tonight and say, ‘OK, we’ve got it.’ Or do they come back tomorrow with the same kind of focus and mental preparation and understand it was the work they put in to play like that and you can’t take it for granted. Because I’ve said this before, it’s very fleeting. It leaves you very quickly. It’s an every day, conscious focus.”

It’s not that beating the Pistons is a must, or that a loss unwinds everything that was done in these last eight wins. But it is about progressing and pushing, maintaining the building on the momentum into the postseason, and seeing where it takes you.

NOTES:

Donovan was clearly a little worried about the lead. The Raptors scored the first four points of the fourth quarter, and he immediately called timeout. Instead of subbing Westbrook in for Durant to stick with the normal staggering early in the fourth, Durant stayed in when Westbrook checked in.

It was a really good start. A REALLY good start. Up 15-3 after five minutes with the defense completely keyed up. Then Kyle Singler came in and everything kind of started slipping from there.

I mean, in a 19-point win, Singler was somehow a minus-19. I can’t even.

You know how Westbrook said the Raptors better send a third guy? They could’ve sent the entire province of Ontario and it probably wouldn’t have mattered.
So that’s 16 triple-doubles for Westbrook, tying him with Fat Lever for second-most in a season in the last 30 years. And with eight games to go, he needs one more to tie Magic Johnson for the most.

One Toronto reporter asked Donovan, Westbrook and Durant about the way the team warmed up, wondering if it’s like that every game or if they were a little extra fired up tonight. Durant responded, “What do you mean?” Because Westbrook and Durant specifically actually do warm up like that every game. It catches a lot of outside observers off guard, and it’s a big reason the Thunder are who they are.

Was it just me or did Kyle Lowry look oddly complacent tonight? He had his elbow drained after the game, so maybe it was something with that.

The Raptors’ halftime show was just a DJ playing music with two cheerleaders dancing next to him. I couldn’t decide if it was the worst halftime show ever, or the best.

The Raptors have the most descriptive PA guy in the league.

You know who is playing a lot better lately? Serge Ibaka. He’s protecting the rim, and playing with some serious confidence on the offensive end. Stepping into shots, not hesitating as much, and as Donovan said postgame, moving the ball well.

Dion Waiters, trending up tonight. He had 15 on 6-10 shooting, including 3-4 from 3, plus three assists. Let’s see what happens tomorrow.

Andre Roberson has quietly hit eight of his last 16 3s. And once again, high level defense played tonight on DeMar DeRozan.

Kevin Durant had 34-8-8. His playmaking in the last few weeks has been superb. Yeah, he turned it over some, but it was in an effort to make some plays and now it’s paying off. He’s averaging almost seven assists in March.

That play Westbrook made on the putback. As Enes Kanter would say, unbeleebable, man. Unbeleebable.

Durant on it: “That was unreal. You’ve got to time that right and you’ve just got to be as athletic as him. There’s only a few — Well, I don’t know if there’s anybody in the league that can do that. You’ve gotta make the free throw, but I’ll take the two points and the acrobatic play instead. But yeah, he’s a freak of nature, man.”

I like how Donovan put it: “I’ve said this before, but I’m more impressed the way he jumps in the morning than I am at any other point in time in the day.”

Next up: At the Pistons on Tuesday