Brooklyn Nets break Oklahoma City Thunder home winning streak with a 110-93 win: NBA Recap
Kevin Durant was ejected for the first time in his NBA career as Brooklyn Nets dropped the Oklahoma City Thunder 110-93 here at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday night, snapping the Thunder 12-game home winning streak.
Nets pulled ahead to a 23 point advantage early in the game and then survived a late surge by the Thunder to emerge victorious.
Joe Johnson led the Nets with 33 points and 5 rebounds. Guard Deron Williams posted a double-double with 19 points and 13 assists, going 3 of 4 from the three point land, while Brook Lopez added 25 points for the winning cause.
"Deron ran the team unbelievably and scored points and created opportunities for other people. Joe was a monster and I thought Brook was great."
Nets interim head Coach P.J. Carlesimo commented.
Kevin Durant contributed 27 points before he had to leave for an early shower after receiving his second Technical foul of the game when he argued with lead official Danny Crawford in the closing minutes of the game about a foul
call. Russell Westbrook had 26 points and 10 assists but he turned the ball over 6 times while Serge Ibaka finished off with 14 points and 8 rebounds for the night.
Nets had a fast start to the game and Lopez made two back to back jumpers to push their lead to 23-9 midway around the first quarter. Brooklyn were in no mood for respite and were leading 33-19 by the end of the first period.
Game was slipping out of Thunder hands as the Nets kept on piling the lead. Brooklyn led by 61-45 at halftime but Oklahoma City started crawling back in the game in second half. Durant and company upped their scoring as Thunder
started slashing the deficit furiously and tied the game on 85 with 7 minutes left on the clock. However, Nets having led for most of the game went for a game defining 10-1 spurt that pretty much sealed the deal. Thunder despite the loud chanting by the home
fans could only score 8 points in the last seven minutes of the game while the Nets added 25 points to extend the winning margin in the end.
Joe Johnson was all praise for his defence. He said
“Our defense tonight was where it was earlier in the season. We had a tough practice yesterday in San Antonio and P.J. jumped on us about a lot of things especially on offense with our ball movement and defensively helping one
another and to be honest it helped. It translated to the game."
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