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| Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images |
The Thunder dominated the glass in the first quarter, out rebounding the Hornets 15-3, scoring six second chance points off five offensive rebounds. Russell has continued his offensive rhythm since the All-Star break. He played the entire first quarter and he was on fire. Scoring 18 points on 5-8 shooting and going perfect from the line, making all eight of his free throws.
Ryan Anderson made his first three field goals, scoring seven points for the Hornets, but seemed to have vanished for the rest of the quarter. Despite the rebounding differential, the Thunder allowed the Hornets to score twelve points in the paint in the quarter. Oklahoma City ended the first quarter on a 12-6 run to take a 30-21 lead going into the second quarter.
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| AP Photo/Alonzo Adams |
Westbrook cooled off in the second quarter, missing all four of his shots, but managed to go 2-2 from the line, and was able to facilitate exceptionally well - dishing out two dimes. Derek Fisher made his first appearance of the season with the Thunder. He only played six minutes, going 0-2 from the field - both his shots being threes. Fisher was playing the two guard with Reggie Jackson still on the point, a good small ball line up when the Thunder want to play small with their bench.
Kevin Martin had twelve points coming off the bench in the second quarter, going 5-5 from the field (2-2 from 3-pt) and helped the Thunder extend their lead back up to seventeen after the Hornets went on a 9-3 run to cut the lead to four.
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| AP Photo/Alonzo Adams |
The Thunder led NOLA 62-45 at half time, and that was as close as NOLA was getting to the Thunder for the rest of the game. KD Dished out his tenth assist to Russell Westbrook for three, for his third career triple-double, all three of which have came this season. It's really a testament to his improvement this season, as he's averaging career highs in nearly every category this season.
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| AP Photo/Alonzo Adams |
Oklahoma City out scored the Hornets 34-15 in the third quarter, leading by as many as thirty eight. The turning point in the third was at the 7:53 in the third where the Thunder went on a 24-10 run to make any hopes the Hornets had of making a come back a distant memory. Westbrook had nine of his twenty nine points in the third, shooting 3-5 from the field. Serge Ibaka tagged on six points after shooting a perfect 3-3 in the quarter. Oklahoma City really opened things up inside as they out scored NOLA 16-6 in the paint.
Ronnie Brewer made his Thunder debut in the fourth quarter, where he played all twelve minutes. He helped the Thunder's bench extend the lead to as many as forty five points, scoring five points himself on 2-4 shooting. In Brewer's brief time of play he got, he showed a little promise. He was super energetic, attacking the offensive glass aggressively, scoring a basket with an offensive put back on one possession in particular.
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| AP Photo/Alonzo Adams |
Derek Fisher played a total of 20 minutes in tonight's contest, six of them coming briefly in the second quarter. Though he was ineffective on the stat sheet, going 0-4 from beyond the arc, and only racking up one assist, his energy was felt on the court. He has a presence he brings with him that has a calming effect on other players, and not in a bad way.
Thunder Essentials:
Second chance points - B
Oklahoma City allowed the Hornets to score twelve second chance points off seven offensive rebounds. Twelve second chance points is still a lot, but the Thunder blew this one wide open despite of this and held the Hornets to just 35.1% shooting. The Thunder's perimeter defense was spectacular tonight, or else this would've been a graded little lower.
Turn overs - A+
Tonight the Thunder turned the ball over just eleven times, and allowed just seven points off of these turn overs. Their ball movement tonight was exceptional as well, dishing out twenty seven assists tonight as a team. Whoever had the ball in their hands was finding the open man and making the extra pass. This could be the result of a lot more than just one game if the Thunder played this well all the time.
BBB(Big Bad Bench) - A+
Big Bad Bench was awesome tonight, even though the two new bench players in Derek Fisher and Ronnie Brewer combined for five points on 2-9 shooting. Oklahoma City's bench score 46 points in the blow out win. Reggie Jackson had a new career high fourteen points on 6-10 shooting to go along with his three assists, trying to prove he his the back up for Russell and it's going to stay that way. Perry Jones had a big nine point game himself, seven of which came in the fourth quarter - to help the Thunder extend the lead to forty five at one point. Great bench production combined with two of the best scorers in the league in Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant = success. It's just a matter of if they can do it consistently.
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