Oklahoma City Thunder romp to a 111-85 win over Utah Jazz - NBA Recap
To compete against the best in business having played back to back games is not the best of settings for a struggling team, in this case, the Utah Jazz.
James Harden and Kevin Durant led the way as Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder handed over a massive 111-85 defeat to the Visiting Utah Jazz on Tuesday evening.
Jazz who were playing their fourth game in five nights were worn out and Thunder didn’t resist to cash this opportunity, as they tightened the defensive screws on them reducing them off to just 35.6% shooting rate.
This victory turned out to be the seventh consecutive win for Oklahoma City while Jazz have lost seven of the last nine games.
James Harden was on song for OKC, as he led all scorers with 22 points while Kevin Durant netted 21 points. With 16 points and 10 rebounds Serge Ibaka recorded a double-double and Russell Westbrook played his role with 16 points
in a rather comfortable win for Thunder.
Thunder shot 71.4% as they attempted 30 0f 42 in the red, while Utah could only manage 44.7% in the glass – the deferential indicative of Oklahoma City’s supremacy. Jazz had a poor shooting rate of 32.7 percent in 1st
half and 39 in second half, finishing with 35.6 percent for the game. They could only shot 4 points in the first seven minutes of the opening frame as Oklahoma sprinted to a huge 16-4 run from the jump-ball with 05:12 remaining.
However Al Jefferson singlehandedly started a 9-3 Jazz run, to slash the double digit deficit and by the time the first quarter ended, Utah were trailing by just six points, 25-19.
They continued to push in the 2nd segment and managed to make a 6-0 run early, narrowing the deficit to 31-28. However Oklahoma City answered back with a 9-0 run of their own stretching their lead further to 40-28. They
added 13 more points before going into the half time to go ahead of visitors with a 53-39 lead.
Jazz pulled off a 9-2 run with 07:34 left in 3rd frame, but this didn’t inflict any dent on the mammoth deficit, 64-52, as Utah netted 24 in comparison to 26 from Thunder. The game entered into its decisive quarter with
Oklahoma City in the lead at 79-63.
Oklahoma City then finally shut the lights out with a 16-7 run late, as they augmented their lead to 107-80. They added 4 more points by the end of final period and handed Jazz a 111-85 defeat.
With 15 points centre Al Jefferson remained the high scorer for Utah while Derrick Favors netted 13 points. Paul Millsap along with Raja Bell and Alec Burks had 10 apiece.
Jazz head coach Ty Corbin blamed tiredness for this defeat.
"It's the third night of a back-to-back-to-back, everybody's a little tired and we just ran out of gas. We just couldn't slow them down. We'll get ourselves back together, get some rest and we'll be fine."
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