Oklahoma City Thunder overpower Boston Celtics 119-104 - NBA Recap
Oklahoma City Thunder have been the team to beat so far this season.
The Thunder have lost only 7 games so far and on Wednesday night, they put up yet another solid performance to down the slumping Boston Celtics 104-119, augmenting their record to 26-7.
And once again it was the star duo of Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant that led the team to victory.
Westbrook marshalled the team with a game high 31 points, knocking down 8 for 9 from the charity stripe, 5 boards and 6 assists while Durant tallied 28 points, pulled down 9 rebounds and dished out 6 assists.
"We knew this team was going to keep fighting us. Giving up is not in their character and they have a great coach and a great group of guys," Durant said. “We knew they were going to come out and fight. We knew they were going
to make a run. That's what happens in this league. But I think we did a good job of staying composed and pulling it out."
James Harden and Daequan Cook both played the supporting role to perfection by amassing 17 points each.
Thunder were accurate with their shooting and netted 50% from the floor. Celtics dearly missed their star performer Rajon Rondo, who was serving a two game ban due to disciplinary issues.
In his absence, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett took charge by registering 23 points each and also had 18 rebounds between them. Ray Allen also scored 21 points while Mickael Pietrus pounded 16.
Celtics started the game well with a 22-12 burst however failed to maintain their dominance in the ensuing passage. OKC started a 17-3 spurt, to turn the momentum and ended the frame with a 10 point lead 35-25.
In the second quarter, things got even worse for Celtics. Within 5 minutes, the lead was into 20’s and after that Thunder kept on attacking to ensure they maintained their grip on the game by the end of first half. They were ahead
by 23 points 72-59 at the interval.
The C's put up a good fight in the remaining two quarters but the massive deficit never allowed them to actually challenge the Thunder. Whenever they pushed and it looked like they would come back in the game, Thunder would respond
with small yet significant runs.
It ended with a comfortable victory for OKC at 119 – 104.
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