The big surprise of the night, however, was Patrick Beverley.
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Head to head, the Thunder are 1-6 ATS in the last seven meetings in Houston and 1-10 ATS in the last 11 meetings overall.
Every way a person can positively impact his team on a basketball court, Beverley did it in Game 1. I made some shots, but I just try to make the right play.
After every game – win or loss, hot shooting or cold – the Thunder guard reviews film, first watching his own possessions, then the game as a whole. Soon after, Westbrook hit the bench as there was nothing else he could do.
Westbrook had 22 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists, but made just six of 23 shots and had nine turnovers. In particular, there was the much-debated tendency of the team to leak out, allowing Westbrook to corral uncontested defensive rebounds (and pad his counting stats into triple-double range), but also help the Thunder move from offense to defense even quicker.
Beverley refused to take credit for slowing Westbrook down. But part of the reason Harden has turned himself into one of the leading candidates for MVP playing in Mike D’Antoni’s pace-and-space system this season is that he has learned to do so many other things so well. Coming into the fourth quarter, the Thunder trailed by 15 points, which marked the beginning of the end for OKC.
Outside of Andre Roberson’s 18 points, the Thunder were almost hopeless on offense.
The game also exposed certain players on the Thunder roster that have played pivotal roles in getting Oklahoma City here.
The Rockets, who went into the half with a five-point lead, began to run away with the game midway through the third quarter, shortly after Adams set a hard screen on Beverley to set up a wide-open three for Roberson, which brought the Thunder within two. When Kevin Durant left Oklahoma last summer, Westbrook received the ultimate green light.
Thunder coach Billy Donovan raved about Beverley.
“All we need to do is communicate better”, center Enes Kanter said.
“The second half came down to mentally locking down our reads”, Adams said. “That’s where he really did a great job”. It’s why he’s one of the co-favorites for MVP along with Thunder guard Russell Westbrook. The Thunder’s offensive rating on plays guarded by Beverley was a meager 66.7. Harden took over from there, scoring 13 points in the period as the Rockets hit four treys and 10 of 10 free throws.
Meanwhile, Beverley scored 21 points, grabbed 10 boards and had three assists and two steals.
Al Horford had 19 points, eight assists and seven rebounds for the Celtics. The Rockets finished with a 31-4 advantage on second-chance points.
Thunder centre Steven Adams on Oklahoma City’s performance: “We were just trash on the reads, on the pick-and-rolls”. We won’t know for a few months who actually won.
So Oladipo looked over film in the locker room and again later Sunday night, he said, searching for clues as to why his jumper went awry after a regular season in which he made 46.8 percent of his shots in four meetings with Houston.
And there was a lot to work on.
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“We were so locked in all week”, Butler said.
