Thunder Come out of the All-Star Break Smokin'
After eight days off for the All-Star break, the Thunder could have returned to the court and slogged through a game with the second place Nuggets. Instead, Oklahoma City came out and got maybe their most impressive win of the season with a 113-101 victory.
Billy Donovan stressed the importance of playing sharp to his team over the past 48 hours. Donovan says that the Thunder went without much contact on Wednesday when they got back to practice, Thursday was a day for scrimmaging and banging around. However, Donovan got Oklahoma City to focus; it worked.
Seven players finished the night in double figures, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who was one assist and one rebound away from a triple-double. His stat line isn't for the faint of heart. Gilgeous-Alexander's night is a testament to hanging tough when things aren't going your way. Billy Donovan says, "Shai didn't have a great game, but I thought at the end of the third and the beginning of the fourth, he really started to play well."
Gilgeous-Alexander says of his playmaking ability, "I just wanted to take what the defense was giving me and be aggressive."..."That turned one thing into another."..."That's just my mentality going into every possession."
If Gilgeous-Alexnder didn't have a "great game," the same couldn't be said for Steven Adams. Adams 19 points 17 rebounds, and four steals came on a night where he had to defend arguably the NBA's best center in Nikola Jokic. Adams wasn't too concerned with his numbers; he was "just happy we got the win."
Ever the competitor, Adams felt that both he and Nerlens Noel could have defended Jokic (32 points) "a lot better." Adams says that Jokic was able to get to his spots, and while the plan was to get him to go one on one, they still would have preferred it be more difficult for Jokic to score.
Favorite stat of the night, the Thunder had 25 points off 19 Denver turnovers. Chis Paul wasn't impressed much by those numbers as in the post-game scrum; he pointed out that he had seven himself.
The best sequence of the night came with 6:02 left in the third quarter when Lou Dort stole the ball from Jamal Murray then finished in transition with a monstrous dunk. Now is the time where I remind you (and Sam Presti) Dort is still on a two-way contract, and the Thunder have a roster spot open. If you're wondering, Dort scored 11 points and had three steals.
The Thunder host the Spurs Sunday at 6 pm, catch the action on Fox Sports Oklahoma.
