Wednesday, December 12, 2012

Postgame 22: Close, But Not Close Enough

Thunder Wins! 92-88

Leaders of the Night
OKC- Kevin Durant (35 Pts, 9 Reb, 3 Ast, 2 Stl)
NO- Ryan Anderson (14 Pts, 7 Reb, 5 Ast, 1 Stl, 1 Blk)



Wow, gotta say that one had me a little puckered up at the end. Anyone else?

With a man I have seen as very stubborn in his rotations, Scott Brooks saved the game tonight. By placing sophomore Reggie Jackson into the Thunder lineup for the fourth quarter, the OKC head coach lit a fire that had been flickering on and off all night. Reggie infused energy into the boys and gave the team life when no one else was providing it.

Once the roll started, it never really stopped. Everyone from Kevin Martin, to Kevin Durant, to even Russell Westbrook started to feel the rhythm and miss barely anything.

The Hornets didn't go quietly into the night, however. Players such as Brian Roberts and Greivis Vasquez made big threes late, pushing the Thunder to the brink and testing the mettle. Thankfully OKC is as hard as iron and as cold as steel. KD showed his All-Star talent and put it away when no one thought it would be done.

The Hornets were close to ripping the rug right out from under OKC's feet tonight, playing hard from the opening tip. Players like Austin Rivers, Brian Roberts, and Ryan Anderson all stepped up their scoring early for New Orleans. outscoring Oklahoma City in both of the opening quarters. KD and the boys would wake up eventually though, going to outscore the Hornets in the next two quarters and securing the win tonight. This takes the Thunder to a 9-game winning streak, equaling their best streak ever from 2010. They go on to play the Kings and then their southern rival, the San Antonio Spurs.


Analysis: Bout time the Thunder got tested. Oklahoma City has rarely been behind in any game in this 9-game winning streak, and if they wanted to continue it, they were going to have to get tested at one point in time. When you lose to the Wizards, you are gonna come out the next game and play extremely hard. Hornets came out and did as such. Thankfully, we have players that are clutch and just take over in the the 4th quarter, and the Thunder showed it. Time now to start the revolution, and Take out the Kings!( I know, bad joke).

Player of the Game: Easily, this goes to Kevin Durant. The team rarely loses when Kevin Durant scores more than 35 points in a game, and they weren't gonna start tonight. 

Stat of the Game: 35. Its always cool when a players scores the same number as the number on his jersey. Thankfully KD is 35. If he switched numbers with Russell, I would start to be worried.


Next Game: Sacramento Kings (Future SuperSonics) @ 7 PM CT. 


(Credit: ESPN Stats and Information, NBA.com)

2 comments:

  1. Anonymous10:12 PM CST

    Great minutes by Reggie. Hope we see more of him.

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  2. Anonymous10:15 PM CST

    I would almost say it was Reggie for PotG. Yeah, yeah, KD had his 35, but he produces that almost every game. We needed someone else to step up, and that someone else was REGGIE! I give it to him tonight.

    Tron

    ReplyDelete