Thursday Bolts – 3.19.15

Darnell Mayberry: “Westbrook made up for off an off shooting night (8-for-26 from the floor and 1-for-6 from the 3-point line) by getting to the free throw line 22 times, which tied his career high, and making 19 of his attempts once there. He atoned for a game-high seven turnovers by dishing a team-high 10 assists and coming up with five steals. In that game-changing third quarter, Westbrook worked his way to the foul line 10 times, making eight, and produced two steals. His lone turnover in the period, a bad pass at the eight-minute mark, was his final giveaway in the game.”

Andrew Gilman of Fox Sports Southwest: “So, don’t worry about it. If the Thunder do, they’re done, so just worry about about winning. Everything else is just context. The Thunder aren’t at the “must-win” stage of the season, but they can see it from where they are now. So, while Enes Kanter left the game twice, the first time for a wrist injury and the second time for an ankle injury, he still pitched in with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Westbrook carried the day. The Thunder won again.  And isn’t that the only thing that matters now?”

What I wrote last night for ESPN.com.

Ben Rohrbach of WEEI.com: “With OKC pairing Kanter and Steven Adams (14 points, 13 rebounds) in the frontcourt, the C’€™s camped Olynyk and Jonas Jerebko beyond the arc, and the stretch forwards made them pay early. Olynyk and Jerebko hit their first three 3-point attempts, leading a 58.3 percent first-halt shooting barrage from the perimeter, but the Celtics couldn’€™t sustain the hot streak while OKC punished them inside.”

Last chance to get in the DT bracket.

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider: “Rough news out of Oklahoma City: Serge Ibaka will be out four to six weeks, which should sideline him for the rest of the regular season. The silver lining is that it’ll be fun to watch the Thunder try to score 150 points per game with the defenseless Enes Kanter in Ibaka’s place. The Thunder give up 101.6 points per 100 possessions as a team, but that balloons to 107.6 points with Russell Westbrook and Kanter on the floor, per NBA.com data. Because of various injuries, we’ve barely gotten a glimpse of Durant-Westbrook-Ibaka this season. Across the 2012-13 and 2011-12 regular seasons, no trio saw more on-court time in the NBA than that three-headed monster. This season it doesn’t even rank in the top 150 (616 minutes).”