Washington Wizards Showered By OKC Thunder Storm 121-112
The Wizards have never beaten the Thunder in OKC. This meeting was, unfortunately, not going to change that. It was my first opportunity to see the newly constructed Thunder with Carmelo Anthony and Paul George so there was an upside. On the downside, this game brought Coach Brooks closer to his inevitable ulcer.
Statistics:
Washington Wizards: Beal: 41p, 12r, 7a, 2stl; Wall: 21p, 1r, 12a, 2stl, 1blk; Morris: 20p, 9r, 2stl, 1blk.
Oklahoma City Thunder: Westbrook: 46p, 6r, 6a, 2stl; George: 18p, 2r, 4a, 4stl; Anthony: 13p, 8r, 1a, 1st.
Notable:
At the start of this game I did not know that the Wizards had never beaten the Thunder in OKC. I had hope. The Wizards were wearing their throwbacks, and the Thunder had on some of the freshest unis I’ve seen in a minute. The teams have really outdone themselves with the unis this year.
Heading into this game Russel Westbrook led the league in assists. John Wall was 2nd. The start of this game the Thunder looked very synchronized and aware of their teammates. It reminded me almost of synchronized swimmers. Adams is, and was, really strong in the paint. He had 8 of the Thunder’s 12 points at the beginning of the 1st. I don’t think the death knell for the role of the big man in the NBA has tolled yet.
The Wizards didn’t look terrible, but they didn’t score until the Thunder already had 10 points. Paul George and Carmelo Anthony look like they are fitting in nicely. Reggie Miller had a few nice things to say about Terrance Ferguson and when I learned he skipped college to play in Australia, I wished I had of been paying a bit more attention to him. BUT, this IS Wizards’ coverage so he and I will have to catch up on another night.
Wall had a nice block on George with approximately 6minutes left. He makes some big blocks for a guy his size. Satoransky and Mahinmi saw some playing time in the 1st; Mahinmi had a nice put back. At the end of the 1st Thunder led 25-22.
The 2nd is where things started to get out of hand for the Wizards. The Wizards had almost double the Thunder’s turnovers, and most of those were being converted to points. They were shooting 29% mid-way in the 2nd.
Things improved in the 3rd starting with back to back 3s by Beal. Shooting struggles, turnovers and poor defense continued though the Wizards were able to bring it up to 67-68. Felton came into the game with some nice shots for the Thunder, Carmelo had a sweet walk in basket, Roberson looked good, and Westbrook continued to ball out. Beal really started to turn it up in the 3rd, which continued into the 4th.
If basketball was a 1 man sport, Beal would have brought home this win. He really was putting in effort and trying to keep them in the game. He ended the game with 41 points, 18 in the 4th quarter alone. The earlier issues of poor team shooting, defensive leakages, and Westbrook just gassing it the whole game, were too much. The OKC Thunder took this one 118-112.
Next up: Saturday, January 27th against the Hawks in Atlanta.
