Oklahoma City Thunder trump Orlando Magic 97 – 89 – NBA Recap Part 2
Russell Westbrook scored 5 on the trot right after the game was restarted, leaving the Orlando Magic in a 19 point hole at 41 – 60 and 11:12 still on the clock. Jameer Nelson made some big plays in the ensuing minutes and got the
Magic within 10 points of OKC at 64 – 54, but that was as good as it got.
Their charge fell apart time and again and they couldn’t get the deficit down to single figures. When the third period ended at 81 – 63, both sides knew the game was only going to end one way.
Oklahoma City Thunder looked confident enough that the game was in the bag and bench players Eric Maynor, Daequan Cook, James Harden, Nick Collison and Nazr Mohammad all featured at the start of the final quarter.
Orlando had little moments of promise but OKC held them off quite easily in the end. A Ryan Anderson effort from downtown finally got Orlando within single digits, but by that time only 1:20 were left on the clock. The game petered
out to a close with two Magic free throws, bringing their final tally to 89, while Oklahoma City had 97.
Nelson had a good shooting night for Orlando with 7 of 13 made from the field, but the same couldn’t be said for his team. The Magic had a dismal shooting night, averaging just 37 percent from the field and 28.6 percent from the
three point line. In contrast, OKC were on fire from all over the court. They had a 47.2 percentage from the field and a devastating 52.6 percent success rate from beyond the arc, although they could have done better from the free throw line.
With numbers for rebounding and assists largely the same, accuracy proved to be the big difference on Christmas Day between the two teams.
Orlando Magic have been embroiled in a lot of speculation regarding the future of their prime asset, Dwight Howard, who wouldn’t have at all been pleased with the way things turned out in the season opener for his team and himself.
Dwight has demanded a marked improvement from Orlando if he is to stay, and he wouldn’t have seen it tonight.
On the other hand, OKC and their super star Kevin Durant have started the season just as they would have wanted to and would gain more confidence with such performances.
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