KD’s Career-High 54 Points Renders Last-Minute Westbrook Heroics Unnecessary

It was the season series finale that had Thunder fans salivating, while simultaneously slightly worried. The first two games in the Thunder-Warriors series literally came down to the last second.

Kevin Durant celebrates the “and 1”. Durant’s 54 points established a new career high.

The Nov. 14th contest saw Russell Westbrook supposedly steal a win for the Thunder with 2.3 seconds left, only to have Andre Iguodala hit a game-winning jumper as the clock expired.

And in the Nov. 29th match-up, the 48 minutes provided by regulation was not enough to decide a winner. Even with an additional 5 minutes granted, it came down to the final tenth-of-a-second in OT as Westbrook’s game-winning 3 was hit with too little time for the Warriors to respond.

With both contests coming down to the wire, and each team looking every bit like the other’s equal, most Thunder fans I knew (me included) were confident that we were going to get another down-to-the-wire game, with the winner being a true coin toss.

Serge Ibaka turns back a Marreese Speights shot attempt. Ibaka finished with 21 points, while Speights threw down 13 from the Warriors bench.

The thing I’ve also noticed about this series is the offensive production in these games, by both teams. The first two games saw both teams combine for 225 points or more. The first game was a 116-115 Warriors victory, with both teams combining for 230 points, while the second was a 113-112 Thunder victory that saw both teams combine for 225. The final regular season showdown between these two teams was no exception, as both teams combined for their highest total yet: 248 points.

David Lee tries to back down Ibaka. Lee finished the game with 13 points.

So naturally the 1st was an offensive explosion at both ends. The largest lead for either team was the 7 the Thunder were taking into the 2nd, as the first ended 39-32.

Klay Thompson ended his night with 26 points.

The 2nd quarter saw a quick Thunder bucket extend the lead to 9 (41-32), but that would be the largest lead of the first half for either team. Both offenses were still rolling, as they both scored 30+ for the second straight quarter. Once the buzzer sounded, the Thunder found themselves taking a 71-65 lead into halftime. Just one night after allowing the most points in a half, allowing 73 from the Rockets at Toyota Center the night before, their 71 establishes a season-high for points scored in a quarter.

Kevin Durant shoots over Draymond Green. Durant’s 54 points establishes a new career-high, while Green contributed 10 from the Warriors bench.

As expected, the Warriors continued to stick around. They even pulled within 3 (82-79) with 6:25 remaining in the 3rd. Then a 17-7 Thunder run extended the lead to 13 (99-86) with 47.5 left in the 3rd, and the quarter ended with the Thunder up 101-91.

Jeremy Lamb looks for an outlet pass. Lamb put down 12 points from the Thunder bench.

The Warriors tried as hard as they could to chip away at the cushion, but just couldn’t hold off the hot hand of Kevin Durant. With the score 113-101, and 6:40 to play, Durant started an 11-3 run of his own against the Warriors. A sexy Durant 3-ball off of a Reggie Jackson assist kicked it off, only to be answered by a Draymond Green step-back jumper off of an Iguodala assist. Durant drains another 3-ball off of a Serge Ibaka assist, then Ibaka fouls David Lee at the other end. It turns into a good foul as Lee only hits the back-end of his free throws, only to be met with Durant’s 48th, 49th, and 50th points of the evening, these 3 off of a Jackson assist. Durant even gets back to get a block at the other end, which ends up rebounded by Thabo Sefolosha, and finishes his run with a turnaround jumper off of a Jeremy Lamb assist. This brought the Thunder lead to 17 (121-104), which pretty much sealed the deal with 4:53 left in the game. Although the Warriors were able to finish the game on a 10-2 run, the damage was already done, and the night ended with a 127-121 score that gives the Thunder a 2-1 victory for the season series. This win puts the Thunder at 30-10 for the season, while dropping the Warriors to 25-16. (The Warriors are currently 26-16 with last night’s victory over the Pelicans.) The 127 points scored are also the Thunder’s season-high for a game this season.

There’s that look from Durant that I like to see.

The interesting thing about Durant’s 54 are that he pulled it off with so few touches. With 54 points and six assists on 67.9 percent shooting (19-for-28), Durant becomes the first player to score at least 54 points on at least 65-percent shooting while handing out at least five assists since Michael Jordan pulled it off over 15 years ago on April 3, 1988. According to SportVU, Durant scored those 54 on just 68 touches. When he starts doing things that no one has pulled off since the great MJ, an NBA Championship begins to look like an inevitability in Durant’s future.

The thing about this victory is that, despite Durant’s career-high 54 points being the trending topic of social media yesterday, he didn’t do it by himself, as the announcers would have led you to believe. Ibaka contributed 21 points of his own, while Jackson dropped 14 points, and Lamb chipped in 12 from the Thunder bench. Even Kendrick Perkins played well, pulling down 12 boards.

Ibaka shook that flu off well.

Rare are the games where you score 121 and can’t pull off the victory, because you don’t score that high without excellent performances. Stephen Curry had a 37-point, 11-assist double-double. He currently leads the league in 30-point, 10-assist games with 5 for the season. Klay Thompson dropped 26 points, while Lee posted 13. Plus, Marreese Speights and Green combined for 23 from the Warriors bench (Speights: 13, Green: 10).

Stephen Curry goes one-on-one with Reggie Jackson. Curry’s 37 points and 11 assists weren’t enough to seal a Warrior win. Jackson threw down 14 points of his own.

The Thunder got their rest last night, as I had way too much going on to be able to sit and write a coherent postgame yesterday. Tonight they welcome the Kings to Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder took a 97-95 victory over the Kings back on Dec. 3rd, and three games remain in the season series. This one tips off at 6pm CST, and will be broadcast via Fox Sports Oklahoma, WWLS The Sports Animal, and NBA League Pass.

Thunder Roll To A 7th Straight Victory, And Have Now Won 15 Of The Last 16 Games.

I’m not going to lie to you. I’ve noticed that most of the Thunder games lack drama this season.

Russell Westbrook before the game. He finished with 21 points and 13 rebounds by game’s end.

Last season, and the season before, while the Thunder were still an amazing squad, the games would still usually come down to the final minutes. Or, at the very least, their opponent would still be in the game in the 4th. It gave the Thunder fanatic hope though. Those close games usually show your team what they’re made of, and shows the team how competitive they can be with the game on the line against a quality opponent. Those close wins gave the Thunder fanatic hope that they could be competitive in the NBA postseason against anyone they happened to draw.

Kevin Durant before the game. Durant finished with 30 points, marking the 12th time he’s dropped 30 or more this season. That stat is tops in the NBA at this time.

Fast-forward to this season. While it didn’t start off well, as the Thunder were sitting with a 5-3 record after the Nov.14th contest at Golden State that saw Andre Iguodala bury the last second shot to steal the victory for the Warriors, the Thunder have since rattled of 15 victories in their last 16 games to put their current record at 20-4 for the season. This is their best start since the Supersonics’ ’93-’94 season, when they started 21-3 in their first 24 games. This season, the Thunder have gone ahead by so much, they can usually play on cruise control by the 4th quarter. Last night’s contest against the Nuggets was no exception.

Serge Ibaka with the nasty jam past J.J. Hickson, as Kenneth Faried watches from behind, and Wilson Chandler watches from behind Kendrick Perkins. Ibaka finished with a 17-point, 10-rebound double-double. Hickson had a 20-point, 14-rebound double-double, while Faried and Chandler added 13 points apiece.

Simply put, the Thunder outscored the Nuggets in every single quarter last night. After 1, they were up 29-24 (4-point lead). By halftime, they’d gone up 52-44 (8-point lead). After 3, it was 75-65 (10-point lead), and it ended with a final score of 105-93 (12-point win).

KD with the one-handed floater as a trailing Ty Lawson looks on. Lawson finished with a 17-point 13-assist double-double.

Russell Westbrook double-doubled once again for the Thunder, posting 21 points and pulling down 13 boards. Serge Ibaka had a double-double of his own (17 pts, 10 rebs). And Kevin Durant doesn’t need double-doubles when he scores 30 for the game.

Westbrook skys for the sick one-handed throw-down as Evan Fournier watches helplessly.

J.J. Hickson and Ty Lawson posted the double-doubles on the Nuggets’ side of things. (Hickson: 20 pts, 14 rebs. Lawson: 17 pts, 13 assts). Wilson Chandler and Kenneth Faried dropped 13 points apiece, and Nate Robinson was the only bench player for either side to hit double digits in terms of points, finishing with 12.

Former Thunder bench player Nate Robinson attempts to drop the lay-in over Nick Collison. Robinson was the only bench scorer on either team to manage double digits, finishing with 12.

Now the Thunder head back to OKC to play the Chicago Bulls this Thursday, who are once again without Derrick Rose. Rose will miss the remainder of the season following surgery on his right knee. Tip-off is scheduled for around 7pm CST and will be featured as the first half of TNT’s double-header, with the Spurs-Warriors contest on the back end. The contest will also be broadcast via WWLS The Sports Animal if you find yourself unable to make it to a TV screen. Or, you can always recap the action right here at Thunder In The Post if you happen to miss it.

Westbrook’s Game-Winner Holds Up. Thunder Get Revenge By Stealing The OT Victory.

Russell Westbrook’s shot, and the huge cluster of bodies scrambling before it went up, ended up being so big, NBA.com had no choice but to name it their play of the day.

NBA.com’s Play of the Day for 11/29/13

Here’s a view of NBA.com’s Play of the Day from a courtside perspective:

I think all of the hoopla at the end of that video perfectly captured the atmosphere in Chesapeake Energy Arena following that beautiful 3-ball. Although Thabo Sefolosha deserves some credit himself for making a beautiful recovery that made Westbrook’s shot possible in the first place.

Thabo Selfolosha: The man who’s rebound set up the game-winner.

Last night marked the second meeting of the season between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Golden State Warriors, and this meeting was just as dramatic and “edge-of-your-seat” as their first encounter.

Russell Westbrook led all scorers last night with 34 points.

The Thunder opened the game with a 6-0 run, but a lot of back-and-forth saw the Thunder’s lead extend to a max of 7 (30-23) with an even 1:00 on the clock. The Warriors, however, managed to cut the lead to 4 (32-28) to end the 1st quarter.

Kevin Durant ended his night with 25 points and 13 rebounds.

In the 2nd quarter, the Thunder set the cruise control. I understand that it’s impossible to go all-out every second of the game, but the Thunder may have had cruise control set for too long in the 2nd. Because even though the Thunder had reclaimed their 7-point lead (52-45) with 1:16 to go in the first half, the Warriors actually outscored the Thunder by 1 to end the 2nd period. This allowed the Warriors to rest on a mere 3-point deficit (54-51) heading into halftime.

Serge Ibaka (seen here with Westbrook) posted 18 points and 13 rebounds of his own.

Unlike the Spurs game back on Wednesday night, the Thunder came out of halftime looking flat. The Warriors even started a 25-14 run at the 9:07 mark of the 3rd quarter that extended their lead to 9 (80-71) with 1:39 to go in the period. The Warriors had even outscored the Thunder by 9 in the 3rd to take a 6-point lead (82-76) going into the 4th quarter.

Harrison Barnes goes against Westbrook. Barnes dropped 26 points for the evening.

Of course, anyone who watches Thunder games on a regular basis knows just how hard it is to get the Thunder to lie down and accept defeat. The 6-point lead that the Warrior’s took into the 4th would not be built upon at all. Not only that, but the Thunder opened the 4th on a 7-0 run that had stolen the lead back from the Warriors (83-82). The 4th quarter was a back-and-forth struggle that saw 6 lead changes and 7 ties. However, things were not lookng good at the 3:45 mark, when an 11-6 run by the Warriors had extended their lead to 5 (99-94). The Thunder managed to hang tough, however. A 6-1 run of their own tied the game at 100 with 2:19 to play. The last 2:19 was evenly contested, and the score was knotted up at 104 apiece when the clock expired at the end of regulation. With OT on the horizon, fans at “The ‘Peake” had realized the the second chapter of the Thunder-Warriors saga would be every bit as enthralling as the first.

KD and Jeremy Lamb play to the OKC crowd.

And not to disappoint, OT turned out to have every bit of that nail-biting suspense I was expecting.

Air Durant skys again.

The back and forth that began OT was slightly disrupted when the Thunder went on a 4-0 run to claim a 110-106 lead halfway through the OT period. Much like the Thunder, however, the Warriors had no plans of rolling over and playing dead. They responded with a 6-0 run of their own to claim a 2-point advantage with a mere 45.1 seconds remaining. After some slight back-and-forth defense, NBA.com’s Play of the Day was set in motion.

Durant attempts to float one over the Warrior defense.

Kevin Durant’s floating jump shot missed with 11.9 left on the clock, but the Thunder responded with a team rebound. A subsequent jump shot by Serge Ibaka bricked as well, and the ball was headed out of bounds when Sefolosha made the biggest save of the game. His rebound and dish to Westbrook resulted in the 3-point dagger with one-tenth of a second remaining.

Sefolosha congratulates Westbrook after Westbrook buries the dagger on the Warriors.

This time, Westbrook didn’t leave the Warriors enough time to steal the win back, as it usually requires a bare minimum of three-tenths of a second to catch and shoot. All the Warriors could try was a last-second tip-in, which didn’t even come close. In the end, Westbrook’s 3-pointer was the Thunder’s dish of revenge, served to the Warriors ice-cold.

Ibaka displays an enthusiastic congratulations of his own for Westbrook.

Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka once again put up some impressive double-doubles. (Durant: 25 points, 13 rebounds. Ibaka: 18 points, 13 rebounds.) And although Westbrook failed to post a double-double, his 34 points led all scorers on the floor for both sides.

Westbrook puts on his best Jordan immitation.

Leave it to Stephen Curry to post insane numbers for the Warriors. His double-double (32 points, 11 rebounds) helped keep the game close. David Lee managed to respond with a double-double of his own (10 points, 12 rebounds), and the rest of the starting lineup for the Warriors managed double-digit points as well (Harrison Barnes dropped 26, Klay Thompson drained 16, and Andrew Bogut posted 14.).

Stephen Curry battles Westbrook, Sefolosha, and Kendrick Perkins for the loose ball. Curry finished with 32 points and 11 rebounds.

The Thunder move to 11-3 on the year with last night’s victory, as the Warriors fell to 9-8. The Thunder get to rest today before hosting the Minnesota Timberwolves, who currently sit at 8-9, tomorrow night. Revenge is once again on the agenda, as the last meeting in Minneapolis resulted in a 100-81 loss that still stands as the worst one the Thunder have been forced to stomach all year. Although, to be fair, this was the last game Westbrook had to miss because of his knee. I’m sure the Timberwolves realize they’re not going to have near as easy a go of it this time around. The game will emanate from Chesapeake Energy Arena at 6pm CST, and will be brought to you via Fox Sports Oklahoma, WWLS The Sports Animal, and NBA League Pass.