Oklahoma City Thunder overcome J.R. Smith to down New York Knicks 95-94 on the road: NBA Recap
Oklahoma City Thunder visited Madison Square Garden on Thursday night and came up with a close 95-94 win over the Carmelo-less New York Knicks, despite J.R. Smith’s big night.
Kevin Durant led the visitors with 34 points, eight rebounds and six dimes. Guard Russell Westbrook added 21 points and grabbed 6 rebounds while Kevin Martin chipped in with 16 points for the Thunder, who won their 3rd
in a row after a rough patch last month.
J.R. smith came off the bench and top scored with 36 points and 3 rebounds; Raymond Felton had 16 points while Tyson Chandler fell one point short of a double-double and finished off with 10 rebounds and 9 points for the Knicks.
It was an action packed game throughout the 4 quarters, with both teams keeping each other in check for the most part.
Thunder got off to a decent start and they connected their shots early in the first quarter to go in front. They kept shooting well from the floor throughout the period, resulting in a 9 point advantage by the end of the first
quarter.
Knicks tried to comeback hard in the second period and they outscored the Thunder 30-24 in the quarter to negate their lead. Things started going the Knicks way as they limited Oklahoma City to just 16 points in the third quarter
to take a crucial 6 points advantage into the final quarter.
However, the final quarter was Kevin Durant’s time as he started cutting into the Knicks lead early in the fourth quarter. He made some tough jumper later down the stretch to make it a one point game at one stage, and Smith had
the opportunity to take Knicks in front with just about 5 seconds remaining on the clock. But he could not make the shot resulting in a close one point win for Thunder.
However their coach was still pleased with his team efforts, Knicks coach Mike Woodson said,
"The play was for J.R. And I thought once he actually caught it, he looked up at the clock and he caught it and faced. He could've just gone with it. He could've ripped through and gone to the rim but he didn't and he settled...It
was a helluva game and they played their hearts out against one of the best teams in the league."
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