Milwaukee Bucks fight back for 110–106 over-time victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder - NBA Recap
The Milwaukee Bucks overcame a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to beat the Oklahoma City Thunder in a 110-106 over-time victory in Oklahoma City on Wednesday.
The Bucks recorded eight players in double-figures and forced the Thunder into turning the ball over 24 times during the course of the game to record the win.
Brandon Jennings led the way with 16 points and seven assists followed by John Salmons with 15 points. Ersan Ilyasova put up 14 points and snatched nine rebounds to round out the substantial contributions for the Bucks.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks only played his All-Star tandem of Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook for a small part of the game. They started the game off and retreated to the bench after the giving the Thunder a comfortable lead. Westbrook added 20 points
while Durant chipped in with 14.
What the Thunder coach did not anticipate was how hard the Bucks wanted to win, as he saw them fight-back in the fourth quarter to force an over-time period. The Bucks played hard in the five-minutes of over-time to snatch the win away from Oklahoma City.
A win against the Bucks on Wednesday and a loss for the Dallas Mavericks would have made the Thunder the Number two seed in the east, but coach Brooks was still happy with his team’s performance in the National Basketball Association season and awaited the
play-offs with enthusiasm.
"It's not the way we wanted to finish the regular season but we're excited about the playoffs and hosting the first two games. We're one of 16 teams that have a chance to win a championship. You play the game for this type of opportunity," Scott Brooks said.
OKC raced out to an early 19-12 lead in the first quarter behind a jumper by Durant. Milwaukee countered with a couple of jumpers to cut the lead to five points going into the second quarter. Russell Westbrook scored 10 points in the first eight minutes
of the game to lead the Thunder charge.
Daequan Cook buried a 3-pointer with 5:16 left on the clock in the second period to give OKC a 42-31 lead. The Buck punched back by firing off a 15-1 run to take a 3-point lead heading into the half-time break.
Re-energized by their starters in the third period, the Thunder outscored Milwaukee 31-18 to regain control of the game. Westbrook and Durant accounted for 21 of those points.
With OKC’s starters out of the game for good in the final quarter, the Bucks picked up the slack and took their fight to the Thunder as they erased a 13-point deficit to tie the game with John Salmons’ three free-throws. In the over-time period, Jennings
scored 10 points to stamp his and the Bucks name all over the game.
Durant ended up as the NBA scoring champion for the second straight season, but being the selfless star that he is, he shared the honour with his team-mates by lauding their efforts.
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