Oklahoma City Thunder rout the Memphis Grizzlies 99-72; Take a 3-2 lead in the series -Part 2
The second half saw a complete takeover by the Oklahoma City (OKC) Thunder. The Grizzlies completely seemed exhausted and out of ideas as they were just run over by a scoring avalanche. All of them seemed beaten and unfocused coming
out of the interval, except perhaps Marc Gasol, who had 9 of his 15 points in the third period.
Kevin Durant started off the third with a dunk after getting the feed from fellow All-Star Russell Westbrook. Westbrook was all over the Grizzlies in this quarter as he got to the line, set up his teammates and even slammed home
a highflying dunk after stealing the ball. The Thunder reeled off a 10 – 2 spurt in the 7th minute that put daylight between them and Memphis. It gave them a 19 point lead at 46 – 65, the highest in the first three quarters. OKC ended the period
with the same margin at 71 – 52.
The fourth quarter saw more of the same as OKC strolled around and tore the Memphis defence apart. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook spent all 12 minutes on the bench - all the starters did and Memphis still got outscored in the
quarter 28 – 20. A three pointer by Daequan Cook brought the scoring to a close at 99-72, finally putting the Grizzlies out of their misery.
The game was incredibly one sided. The dominant play of the Thunder matched only by the lack of effort and slackness of the Grizzlies. The OKC bench alone had two players in double figures compared to one in the whole Memphis
team. The Memphis starters also got outscored by the Thunder bench 53 – 45.
Their coach Lionel Hollins said his team will come back in the next match and judging them on this game alone would not be fair, adding that they simply have to win from now on, "I still believe in our team. It's a one game series
now we have to win in Memphis Friday if we don't there won't be a game for us on Sunday."
It is hard to find any positives in the Grizzlies performance. They were poorer from the field with 35.9 percent to OKC’s 47.4. The Grizzlies also struggled from beyond the arc with a low 25 percent success rate. Their lack of
hustle was visible from the fact that OKC out-rebounded them 50 – 33.
Hollins needs to address a number of issues before game-6, but there is no such concern for OKC’s coach, Scott Brooks. Brooks was very pleased with the effort and performance of his team, especially against a team that took them
to triple overtime just 44 hours ago. After the game he heaped praise on his players, "You beat good teams by really executing very well and with good effort, and we did both of them tonight."
The Oklahoma City Thunder now have a chance to wrap up the series and advance to the Western Conference Finals with a win in game-6. On the evidence of their performance tonight, they can certainly make it happen.
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