Thunder Rout Rockets in Playoff Opener

The Oklahoma City Thunder began the defense of their Western Conference title and what they hope will be a run back to the NBA Finals on Sunday night by sticking with what got them there last year.

Led by stars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City overwhelmed the Houston Rockets offensively in a 120-91 Game 1 victory. Durant tallied 24 points in 33 minutes and Westbrook nearly tallied a triple-double with 19 points, 10 assists and 8 rebounds. Derek Fisher added nine points on 3-4 shooting from behind the arc in just under 12 minutes off the bench.

Derek scored nine points off the bench in the Game 1 win (Getty Images).

But perhaps the most encouraging part of the game for the Thunder was their defense. OKC limited Houston the NBA’s highest scoring team, to 91 points, 15 points below their regular season average and forced them to shoot just 33 percent from the field, 10 percent below their regular season percentage.

“That’s the way you beat this team is to impact their ability to score the ball, to score in excess of 100 points, to shoot the ball well from the perimeter,” Derek said.

“We were trying to be solid on the defensive end,” Durant added. ”We knew they were a great scoring team. We just tried to pack the paint and get out to their shooters. We had to make the second and third efforts, and I think we did that.”

As a part of that defensive effort, the Thunder held former teammate James Harden, in check all night. Harden tallied 20 points on a sour 6-of-19 shooting and was limited to just three points the entire second half.

“They’re explosive and can beat you lots of different ways but I thought we were really locked in and played about as good as you can play,” OKC coach Scott Brooks said. “Everybody has defensive responsibilities we can’t have four guys playing and one guy watching and I thought all five guys were locked in tonight.”

The OKC defense was at the forefront as the Thunder blasted past the Rockets on a 13-2 run after the opening tip. In the process, Oklahoma City kept Houston from scoring their first field goal until the 5:27 mark in the first quarter. The Rockets fought back, but the Thunder carried a seven-point lead into the second.

It was in that second that Derek got on the board for the first time as he buried his first trey of the game just a few minutes into the second quarter. The three answered a brief run by Houston and put the Thunder up by five, 36-31. However the Rockets followed with another spurt and had the game tied at 40 with 5:23 left in the first half. Undeterred, OKC responded to the Houston surge with a 14-1 run of their own to end the first half ahead by 13.

“We knew they would make a run but then we caught fire in the last five minutes of the second quarter,” Brooks said. “I thought our ball movement was just outstanding.”

Fish’s two threes over a 30-second span in the fourth sealed the deal (Getty Images)

The Thunder didn’t miss a beat after the break and started the second half on a 14-5 run to pull ahead by 20. They led by 23 after three and D-Fish made sure to put the game away in the fourth. Derek knocked down back-to-back treys 30 seconds apart from each other as a part of a 13-3 OKC run to start the fourth and stake the home team to a 33-point lead.

D-Fish noted after the game that with Westbrook and Durant controlling the offense, it’s important for role players like him to find the place where they can help the team be successful and he believes they did that on Sunday.

“Your volume shooters are going to get shots anywhere they want to. For the rest of the guys, it’s important that the offense is moving a certain way, the ball is moving a certain way, you’re executing, there’s timing, there’s rhythm to the game.

“That impacts everybody else’s ability to score the ball, to play good offense, to positively impact the team. For me and the rest of us, that’s extremely important, in terms of us being successful. And if we can be successful, then the whole team can be successful.”

Oklahoma City cruised from there as Houston never managed to develop an offensive rhythm. They shot a lowly 36.3 percent from the field and 22 percent from beyond the arc. The Thunder had a lot to do with that as they got their hands up in Houston players faces to contest the shot every time a Rocket tried to shoot. OKC also finished the game with nine blocked shots compared to just one for Houston, another clear sign of the Thunder’s defensive prowess throughout the night.

While the Rockets struggled to find rhythm offensively, it was never a problem for the Thunder. OKC shot 53 percent from the field and 41.7 percent from three-point range and everyone contributed in both the scoring column and through passing, as Oklahoma City ended the game with 28 assists, showing their balanced attack.

“Tonight we did a really good job of moving the ball,” Durant said. “The ball was going through the rim for us and we were able to get back and get our defense set. You have to give credit to everybody for just helping each other out.”

NEXT UP
After establishing control of the series in Game 1, the Thunder will be looking to extend that edge when the two teams take the floor for Game 2 on Wednesday night in OKC.

In order to be successful, Derek noted that the Thunder must find the delicate balance between building from Game 1 while not letting how they played and the ease with which they won impact how they approach Game 2.

“If we want to win the series then we’ll ask ourselves to keep doing that,” Derek said. “Reasonable expectations are to ask more of yourself, ask more of the team in the sense of not believing you can just call that up again and duplicate that type of game. You really have to take the good and the bad of what happened and learn from it. Play Game 2 as though Game 1 never existed.”

Tip-off of Wednesday’s Game 2 is scheduled for 6 p.m. CDT and the game can be seen nationally on TNT.

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