Oklahoma City Thunder cool off the streaking Miami Heat 96 – 85
Led by Kevin Durant’s 29 points, the Oklahoma City Thunder cooled off the Miami Heat 96 – 85 and rolled onto their fifth-straight win in doing so. Miami struggled at home against the Thunder, and had their own three game winning streak snapped at the American
Airlines Arena.
The Heat’s big three of Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and LeBron James combined to shoot a miserable 21 of 69 from the floor; one of their worst performances of the season. Bench scoring hounded the Heat again, as their reserves could only offer 23 points to assist
the Big Three. Mario Chalmers went scoreless, while Eric Dampier could only manage to score a single point in the game.
The Thunder played an awesome defense to cause all sorts of problems for Miami, causing them to shoot a season-low 29 percent in the second half.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "Our defense was as good as it could possibly play,"
Oklahoma City controlled things from the start and extended their lead to 13 points with an Alley-oop dunk by Durant at the 05:40 mark in the second quarter. Dwyane Wade slammed-down two points over Kendrick Perkins, as Miami answered back with a 17 – 4
run to even it out, late into the second quarter.
Oklahoma led 46 – 45 at the half-time break.
Russell Westbrook chipped in with 18 points and five assists for the Thunder.
On a night where the referees allowed a lot of physical contact, big-man Serge Ibaka had three blocks to go with his 12 rebounds, as the Thunder defence suffocated Miami into some tough shots. The Thunder hammered Miami with a 24-10 disparity in second-chance
points, and also dominated them in the rebounding battle 51 – 40.
"We have some of the best attackers in the game. They usually go over the top," Spoelstra said. "They were being met at the rim. They forced us into some tough opportunities. Regardless of whether we feel there was contact or not, you have to give them credit
with their defense."
Wade sunk two free throws to cut the deficit to five points early in the fourth period, but Oklahoma City immediately countered with a turnaround jumper by Nick Collison; Daequan Cook followed it up with by a three-pointer and Durant added a jumper to extend
the Thunder lead back to 12 points.
From there on, it was all Oklahoma City.
Chris Bosh led Miami with 21 points and 11 rebounds, Wade also added 21 points, and James had eight rebounds to go with his 19 points.
Mike Bibby with 10 points was the only major contributor off the bench for Miami.
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