Kevin Durant nets 29 to lead the Thunder over the Spurs
It was a balanced attack for the Oklahoma City Thunder (3-2) as they defeated the San Antonio Spurs (3-3) 111-102 in a pre-season game last night in San Antonio. In a game where every
Thunder starter scored in double figures, it was Kevin Durant who led the way with 27 points and nine rebounds.
The rest of the starters contributed to the win, with Jeff Green adding 27 points, James Harden scoring 18, and Russell Westbrook posting 17, while Serge Ibaka chipped in with 12. Westbrook
posted a game-high nine assists.
But even though the Thunder got the win, they were disappointed with their performance in the first half, when they allowed the Spurs to a take a 10-point lead into the third quarter.
"We can learn a lot from our mistakes in the first half," Durant said. "I think we had some breakdowns in giving them layups in transition.”
But the Thunder battled back in the second half, outscoring the Spurs 28-14 in the paint and outrebounding them 28-13. They outscored the Spurs by nine points in the third quarter and
by 10 in the fourth.
“The second half, I think it was two different teams you saw on the defensive end,” said Durant. “Everybody helped each other. We scrambled. We played harder. And we came up with stops.
That's what type of team we are."
Tony Parker and Manu Ginobli scored 17 points apiece for the Spurs, with Ginobli going 5-7 from behind the three-point line. DeJuan Blair and George Hill each finished with 12 points while
Tim Duncan scored 10 points in only 12 minutes of play in a game where the Spurs rested their starters far more than the Thunder.
“Coach Pop didn’t play their guys,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “We knew going into the game we were going to play our guys extended minutes. This is exhibition season and I have
a lot of respect for coach Pop. He’s one of my favorite guys, and the way he handles everything, I admire. They didn’t have their guys in the fourth quarter and that made the difference.”
Thanks to some hot shooting by Parker and Ginobli, the Spurs managed to lead 61-51 going into the second half.
"They were running, and we were getting a little winded for some reason," Brooks said. "They (Spurs) did a good job of executing that in the first half."
Westbrook echoed Durant’s sentiment that this team needs to get off to better starts in games.
“The closer we get to the season, I feel we are coming together defensively,” he said. “Now, we just got to learn how to start the game a lot better.”
"We got to put two halves together," Durant added.
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