Durant strikes again as the Thunders bring down the soaring Hawks with a 103-94 rout
If anybody thought the Oklahoma City Thunders were going to fall into a trap after beating the New Jersey Nets in their last game, then those people were wrong. The Oklahoma City Thunders put in a dominant performance as they thrashed the visiting Atlanta
Hawks 103-94.
Oklahoma City had a better balance with five scorers in double figures. Kevin Durant rounded out his big night with a game-high 33 points in the Thunders 23rd victory of the season. Russell Westbrook continued to play like an MVP (Most Valuable Player),
and finished with a triple-double scoring 23 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists for Oklahoma, who finished their four-game home run with a 3-1 mark. James Harden ended with 15 points.
Durant said after the game, “It was so much fun just to kind of transform into a different team, a different identity and be known as a team that can win basketball games."
Jamal Crawford came off the bench and scored a team-high 19 points and 20 rebounds, but wasn’t able to help the Hawks avoid their 14th loss of the season. Josh Smith scored 23 points and pulled down nine rebounds. Joe Johnson continued his mid-range
shooting display, finishing with 16 points and 11 assists for the Hawks, who saw a brief two-game winning streak come to an end. Al Horford contributed 14 points, seven assists, and six rebounds.
Game Story
At the end of the day though, it was Atlanta’s inability to alter their offence which saw them struggle. The Hawks are a rather gifted team offensively, when they don’t allow themselves to continue just settling for shots. That was evident from the Thunder’s
victory.
Oklahoma realised the long ball was not going to work and decided to mix things up a little bit. They kept the Atlanta defence guessing, and kept catching them off balance to control the game. The Thunders controlled the game from the beginning, leading
33-24 after the opening quarter and 60-53 at half time.
In the first half, Atlanta's Josh Smith and Jamal Crawford combined to score 33 points on 12-for-15 shooting. While the rest of the Hawks roster in the first half combined to score 20 points on just 6-for-21 shooting.
The biggest cheer came on Harden’s three-pointer at the horn, which gave Oklahoma an 83-79 lead heading into the fourth.
Atlanta erased the third quarter advantage, and opened the final period with Zaza Pachulia's lay-up. However, Oklahoma City controlled every aspect of the final one and responded with a 16-6 run to put the game out of reach.
"I thought we played a very good team tonight. They're a physical team, they rebound, they defend as well as anybody we will play this year. I thought we did a good job of matching their strength of being physical, as physical as they were," Thunder’s head
coach Scott Brooks said after the game.
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