Thunder Begin Season With a Win

Derek Fisher’s final NBA season began, appropriately, with a contest that had all the intensity of a playoff game.

The Thunder survived a wire-to-wire battle in Utah, sneaking by the Jazz, 101-98, in their opening game of the 2013-14 season. D-Fish logged 17 minutes in the victory while recording four points, recovering three rebounds and notching two assists.

D-Fish and the Thunder managed a season-opening win on Wednesday night in Utah (Getty Images).

The closely contested game went down to the last shot and Fish was on the court for the the final 10 seconds. The Jazz pulled within one with 6.8 ticks to go, only to see Kevin Durant sink two free throws that pushed the Thunder lead back to three. Utah guard Gordon Hayward’s shot to tie the game with 2.9 seconds to go missed the mark, giving OKC the victory.

“We’ll take the win,” D-Fish said. “Anytime you can win on the road in this league, it’s a positive. Obviously one (game) into 82, we have a long ways to go in terms of getting better.”

As he was during Wednesday’s game, Derek is going to be a frequent flyer between the court and the sideline this season. D-Fish and his reserve teammates are expected to log serious minutes from the bench, especially while All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook recovers from a knee injury he suffered during last season’s playoffs.

It’s a role Derek doesn’t mind at all. He was substituted in on four separate occasions during the game and the Thunder reserve crew played well in relief of Kevin Durant and the starters. D-Fish, Nick Collison, Jeremy Lamb, Steven Adams and Perry Jones all entered the game at different points late in the first and passed their toughest test of the night in the second when, after allowing Utah to come back from down seven in the first, they helped OKC build a lead of nine points at halftime.

That lead bulged to double digits in the third quarter, at one point reaching as high as 15 points. But Utah rallied back in the fourth and the Thunder needed every one of Durant’s 42 points, 15 of which came in the fourth quarter, to secure the victory.

“By and large, the team that wants it the most that night and is willing to dig in the most, play with the most intensity and the most passion on both ends of the floor, they figure out a way to win games,” Derek said afterward “It was not pretty, but this is something that we can build on. You just have to figure out a way to win sometimes, and that’s what we did tonight.”

NEXT UP

The Thunder (1-0) are back in action on Friday night as they travel to Minnesota where they’ll face the Timberwolves (1-0).

Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT and the game can be seen on FS Oklahoma.

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