Oklahoma City got the rebound and Westbrook was fouled. And it was worth it for the uproarious fan reaction, one that’s to be expected on a dunk that effectively ends a four-game losing streak.
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The dunk and the timing – it sealed the game for the Thunder – were enough to make it a highlight play.
After a tough loss in OKC last night, the Rockets are back in action at home tonight. He gave the Thunder the lead for good during overtime with just over 7 seconds remaining. It was an uphill battle from that point on, and Detroit emerged with a 104-88 victory. Steven Adams was ineffective on offense but he played through a hand injury, and with the significant amount of tape on his shooting hand it was easy to understand why his shooting touch was a bit wayward this evening.
“I think there’d be a small group of guys that he would get on a plane and come and do anything for like that”, Rivers said. “Sometimes on back-to-backs you can’t put stock or onus on having a great offensive output, but you have to hang your hat on your defense”.
Fortunately for OKC, the Thunder was able to lock in defensively as Houston struggled to get going in the fourth quarter.
The Rockets could have used more points from Harden, but he admitted that his shot just wasn’t falling and that it had nothing to do with the defense of Andre Roberson. No player in National Basketball Association history has ever used more than 38.7 percent of his team’s possessions and qualified for the scoring title. The Rockets are coming off a 115-88 plastering of the Philadelphia 76ers. “We talked about it and came out in the second half the way we should have”. In the second half of Wednesday night’s 105-103 victory, the Thunder’s communication on defense was spot on – not too early, not too late, and nearly always the right call.
Patrick Beverley had successful surgery October 25 – it was a minor knee scope to clean up some the damage that had occurred from his injury.
He was watching the same Vine pretty much everyone else in the National Basketball Association world was: Russell Westbrook putting Clint Capela on a vicious left-handed poster. Westbrook ended up with a torn meniscus that cost him the rest of the postseason.
Kevin Love led Cleveland with 27 points and 16 rebounds, and Kyrie Irving had 24 points and seven assists.
Harden is averaging an absurd 30.3 points and 12.6 assists per game, and Westbrook is right there with 32 points and 9.9 assists a game. “He’s a very good catch-and-shoot player”, Donovan said. That’s about it. I don’t really pay too much attention to the game.
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We’ll have to see and I expect the Rockets to squeak this one out for a win. Ryan Feldman of ESPN Stats and Info did a deep dive into the analytics during the 2012 playoffs and found that any random open player was a better option than a covered superstar, and it wasn’t close: 54.2 percent shooting for open players vs. 41.8 percent shooting for a team’s go-to player. To be inducted into the Hall of Fame is definitely an honor, something I thought I’d never be able to do, especially growing up. If that’s not a “one-man show”, then nothing is.
