He had 25 on 8-of-11 shooting in just 28 minutes as Oklahoma City cruised to a 117-93 win over Denver on Sunday, the Thunder’s first easy result after needing fourth-quarter rallies to dispose of San Antonio and Orlando.
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Russell Westbrook has made a living and become a star with the Oklahoma City Thunder obviously because of his huge talent, but also because of the ferociousness that he plays with whenever he’s on the floor.
The Oklahoma City Thunder look to remain undefeated while picking up their second road win. Coach Donovan is experimenting with new lineups which should prove useful as the season progresses, Durant and Westbrook are playing like the healthy Durant and Westbrook would, and the Thunder are undefeated so far in the season, life for a Thunder fan should be good so far. Last season they lost their first five games and ended up with their worst ever record (21-61).
The Thunder will play the Rockets in Houston on Monday, one day after their home victory over the Nuggets. Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay had six points on 3-of-14 shooting.
Westbrook’s dunk over Gallinari came in the middle of the Thunder’s dominant third quarter where they outscored the Nuggets 37-20. The Nuggets struggled to get up good shots. Westbrook flirted with a triple-double before settling for15 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. I thought they got a lot of those loose balls, those 50-50 balls. “They have great length, great athleticism, and when they are able to set their defense they make it very tough to score against (them)”.
Despite all that went wrong the Nuggets were only down eight points at halftime, a positive considering how poorly they played.
Two of those 8-0 runs came early in the third quarter.
“He knocked down the open shot, blocked shots for us and ran the floor very well”, Durant said. We have not played well in the first three games, ” coach Kevin McHale said. Oklahoma City led by 25 at the end of the quarter and benched their starters the rest of the game.
No player illustrated that better than Ibaka, who followed one volleyball-style spiked shot in the second quarter by showing the crowd a thumbs-down motion that simultaneously summarized the Nuggets’ night.
Albeit in a double-overtime game, the Magic had an alarming 56 points in the paint against the Thunder on Friday – 38 in the first half alone.
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“You can tell Serge has a sense of pride, we all do as basketball players”, Durant said.
