Kevin Durant drops 28 as physical Oklahoma City Thunder thump Miami Heat 103-87: NBA Recap
Nearly three months after the NBA season started the first contest between Miami and Oklahoma City Thunder - two of the strongest contenders for the NBA championship this year - took place at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma
City.
Surprisingly though, the game failed to live up its billing as Oklahoma City dominated the undersized Miami Heat and thundered to a 103-87 romp.
The night belonged to one Kevin Durant.
The OKC henchman dominated all the star players on the court and finished the game with a game-high 28 points, nine rebounds and eight assists.
Durant’s brilliance was expected, but what Miami did not see coming were the powerful performance from Thunder’s front court duo front of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins. Ibaka pitched in with 19 points on an 8-of-10 shooting
from the floor and also grabbed 10 rebounds while Perkins pounded a season-high 16 points with 6 boards.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks was happy for the performance his bigs gave;
"We played about as physical as we can play, our bigs were really good, they were great on both ends of the floor. "
Russell Westbrook only added 13 points, but Thunder received good support from James Harden who came off the bench with 19 points on 6-for-7. Harden has six assist as well but gave away 7 of the 16 OKC turnovers.
Miami struggled to find their groove. One reason for that was that LeBron James struggled to get it going, but the other and more significant was the 21 turnovers that Heat gave away – 15 of them coming from the Big Three.
Dwyane Wade led Heat with 22 points and six dimes; Chris Bosh added 18 points while James only chipped in with 17 points, 7 assists and 2 rebounds. Shane Battier also added 10 points off the bench and Udonis Haslem posted 8 points
and 9 boards for Heat.
There was nothing to separate the two teams till the middle of the second quarter as OKC led by a slender 41-38 advantage. A 14-4 Oklahoma City run however changed the momentum of the game and entering the last two minutes of the
first half, Miami were staring at a 55-42 deficit. They responded with a 7-2 spurt, but a Durant three ensured that the Thunder took a double digit lead (60-49) into the locker room.
Miami went cold in the third quarter, allowing to Thunder to lead by as many as 15 on their way to a 80-69 edge, entering the fourth quarter. OKC made some quick shots at the start of the 4th and extended their cushion
to 16, before Miami bounced back to pull within 8 points midway.
Heat had a chance to rally back at that point, but OKC turned the screws on the D, forcing the Heat on the perimeter. Once out of their comfort zone, Miami dismantled completely, missing 11 of the next 13 attempts at the rim as
the Thunder cruised away.
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