Oklahoma City Thunder cruise past Phoenix Suns 114-96: NBA Recap
Oklahoma City Thunder ended 2012 on a high note as they eased past the Phoenix Suns 114-96 here at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, improving to 5-0 in New Year’s eve games.
Kevin Durant led all scorers on the night with 30 points; guard Russell Westbrook had 24 points, nine assists and seven rebounds while Serge Ibaka finished off with 16 points for the winning cause.
“When you see blood, you don't know what to do," Durant said of Westbrook who took an elbow to his face and has to leave the court with blood all over his face. He got stitched up in the locker room and made it back in the second
half to carry with the same energy and speed. "I was glad he came back here and got stitched up and was able to play again. He came out there with a lot of anger and it showed on both ends of the floor. He pushed us over the top."
Suns were led by Luis Scola who was a major obstacle in Thunder’s way on the night as he finished off with 24 points, going 10 of 17 from the floor. Goran Dragic had 16 points and 8 assists under his belt while Marcin Gortat posted
a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds for the night.
Five Thunder players made it into double-digit scoring figures on the night. Oklahoma City are 13-0 when that happens. Thunder handled the ball pretty well; they committed only 5 turnovers, the lowest in the Oklahoma City Era of
franchise.
"That's a good team win, just five turnovers, a lot of guys did a lot of good things tonight and the defense really turned it up in the fourth quarter. We locked in and did what we needed to do."
Thunder Coach Scott Brooks on his team’s performance.
Thunder maintained a sufficient distance between the Suns for most part of the game. Oklahoma City were up by 4 by the end of the first period but Phoenix cut the lead down to 1 at halftime. The turning point came when Westbrook
made a steal, ran all the way down the court and set up Ibaka for a deuce with just 5 minutes to go in the game. Suns could not comeback after that as Durant and company kept scoring buckets later in the fourth period to extend their single digit lead to 17
points with 1:42 on the regulation.
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