Oklahoma City Thunders hold off a fourth quarter surge to beat the Warriors 114-109
The Golden State Warriors are among the top ten teams in the League when it comes to scoring points but they just forget to protect their own end.
On Sunday night against the Oklahoma City Thunders, they seemed to do everything right, outshooting their opponents from both within and outside the arc, but gave one too many charity throws as they slumped to their 12th
defeat of the season and fourth in a row at the Oklahoma City Arena.
After a frustrating knee injury lay off, Kevin Durant came back with a bang as he grasped the court to score 28 points, shooting 8 for 16. Russell Westbrook added 19 points, 13 assists and 7 rebounds as the Oklahoma City Thunder
held off a fourth-quarter charge by Golden State to beat the Warriors 114-109, Sunday night.
Stephen Curry was on fire for the Warriors scoring a season-high 39 points and ignited the Warriors' rally from a 21-point deficit to cut it to three in the final minute but Jeff Green and Kevin Durant hit two foul shots apiece
down the stretch to seal it for the Thunders in a nerve jangling encounter.
The Oklahoma City thundered off to a rollicking start as they busted open an 18-2 advantage within the first five minutes of the game. The Thunders completely outmaneuvered the Warriors defense in the first quarter and were relentless
in their execution with an array of pinpoint perimeter and free throw shooting.
The Thunders continued their up tempo game going into the second quarter as well. James Harden made a couple of triple pointers early and with the score at 40-27, the Thunders opened a 10-0 spurt to wrest a 23 point advantage,
their biggest of the match.
The Warriors though managed to peg back the Thunders a little as they pulled off a 15-4 run late in the quarter to slash the deficit to 54-42 going into the break.
Oklahoma City continued to have the upper hand as the Warriors piled up the foul count. They bestowed 20 free throws upon the Thunders in the third quarter alone as Oklahoma City rushed to a 90-70 advantage going into the final
quarter.
The fourth quarter marked the start of a vociferous comeback by the Warriors. With the score at 94-73 two minutes inside the quarter, Monta Ellis made a driving layup to start the rot. Stephen Curry followed it by 8 consecutive
points as Golden State started to rally back.
The Thunders who had not missed a free throw all night long, started to crumble as the Warriors offense started to make one final push. With 49 seconds left on the clock Russell Westbrook missed his second free throw and Ellis
took advantage by slipping in a layup and a three pointer to bring the Warriors within striking distance at 107-110.
With the match potentially in their grasp, the Warriors committed the same error they had done all night and it eventually proved to be their undoing. They fouled twice in the dying seconds to hand four free throws to the Thunders
and they responded in kind to seal the match at 114-109.
Monta Ellis scored 29 points to complement Stephen Curry but David Lee had an off-night as the Warriors failed to finish.
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