Winning on the road is tough. Winning on the road in the second night of back to back games is tougher. Doing that after playing the Lakers to the end the first night and beating the Suns the next is attention getting. OKC did just that. They beat a very very good Phoenix Suns team.
The stats were solid, but two stood out: only 11 turnovers and 16 offensive rebounds.
Westbrook had 5 of the turnovers but countered that by having 8 assist. So, the team moved the ball well last night. Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka both had 4 offensive rebounds. Ibaka is proving to be a very valuable commodity off the bench. Serge also went 6 of 8 shooting for 12 points. Nick Collison did his usual blue collar work with 3 offensive rebounds.
Durant had a huge night with 38 points followed by Westbrook's 19 and Jeff Green's 17. Durant gets to the foul line over 10 times a game quite often. This is a key trait that all top calliber teams have. They have a guy that gets to the line. This puts the opposing team in foul trouble. Kobe Bryant, Paul Pierce, Dwight Howard, Dwayne Wade, they all get to the line. Grant Hill fouled out last night and only played 25 minutes. That forced Jared Dudley to play extended minutes and he had to go against the Thunder's first unit. Here is the bonus for OKC: James Harden is consistently getting to the foul line as well. He shot 7 free throws in 28 minutes. Last night he didn't shoot it well, but went 7 for 7 at the line. This kid is really good in so many ways.
OKC also bettered themselves this week and got younger at the same time. They traded a 2002 pick who has never played in the NBA to Utah for rookie PG Eric Maynor, who has been playing well as a rookie this year. They also got injured Matt Harpring in the deal. His contract expires this year, so it isn't going to affect the cap at all next year. The Thunder had to release injury riddled Livingston and short term Wilkes, both point guards. Losing the point guards won't hurt any. Maynor has more potential and is playing better than those two right now. And, Kyle Weaver is back on the roster and had to do some of that last year. Maynor had 5 assist in 12 minutes of play last night. I think he is a perfect fit. Should Harpring recover from injury, he will provide experience and shooting off the bench. You can never have enough pure shooters to spot up.
Go Thunder!!!
