Westbrook, Oladipo trade big 3s, Thunder top Magic in 2OT
The Oklahoma City Thunder entered this season looking to reverse the fortunes of an injury-plagued 2014-15 and re-establish their positions as one of the NBA’s best and most fascinating teams. Their first two contests have done nothing to suggest they are not fit for the task.
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Two days after outlasting the San Antonio Spurs in a thrilling opener between championship contenders, OKC traveled to the Amway Center to face the Orlando Magic and struggled to give up 67 points in the first half. Down 93-75 after three quarters, the Thunder looked set for their first loss of the season, and a disappointing one at that.
Yet the Thunder dominated to start the final period on a 23-11 run over 8:07 to cut the lead to just six points and set up a competitive final few minutes. OKC completed the comeback with 12 seconds remaining in regulation when Kevin Durant knocked down this straightforward three-pointer to make the score 114-114 with 13 seconds on the clock:
Yet that shot proved to be just the first in a series of dramatic moments. Magic guard Victor Oladipo answered out of the ensuing timeout by knocking down a devastating step-back three over Andre Roberson to put his team back in the lead, leaving the Thunder with a mere three seconds and no available timeouts to advance the ball. Then Russell Westbrook did the sort of thing he does with alarming regularity:
The excitement didn’t stop with the end of regulation. Westbrook scored the opening two baskets of the extra period to stake the Thunder a lead and hit a jumper at the end of the shot clock with seven seconds remaining in regulation to turn a 124-123 lead into a three-point margin. Except Oladipo was ready to supply heroics one more time:
The game-extending shots finally ended there, although the Magic had a chance to tie it with a three once again with seven seconds left in the second overtime. However, Durant blocked attempts from Evan Fournier and Oladipo off consecutive out-of-bounds plays to lock up OKC’s 139-136 win.
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This performance was a mixed bag for the Thunder, who have planned to diversify their offense under new coach Billy Donovan after so many years of relying on Durant and Westbrook to save them with individual brilliance. That plan worked well against San Antonio but ran into some issues against Orlando — Westbrook (48 points on 17-of-36 FG, 13-of-16 FT, 11 rebounds, eight assists, six turnovers) and Durant (43 points on 15-of-30 FG, 10-of-11 FT, 12 rebounds) accounted for 65.5 percent of their scoring, 60 percent of their field goal attempts, and 71.1 percent of their free-throw attempts. Those are absurd ratios regardless of a duo’s talent, and it would be fair to expect the team to hope for more balance when they host the Denver Nuggets on Sunday.
On the other hand, it’s pretty nice to have a dual fail-safe like Durant and Westbrook when things aren’t going especially well. It’s also not as if other players were totally without meaningful contributions — Enes Kanter scored nine of his 10 points in the opening four minutes of the fourth quarter to help the Thunder back into the game.
The Magic will understandably not look at this result very positively after blowing an 18-point lead with 12 minutes to play. But there was a lot to like about their performance outside of Oladipo’s clutch shot-making. Nikola Vucevic very productive inside with 26 points on 10-of-14 shooting from the field, teaming with Tobias Harris (30 points on 9-of-19 FG and 10-of-12 FT) for strong frontcourt play. Aaron Gordon had his second good game of the season, too, putting up 15 points in 18 minutes (although he was limited due to five fouls). Scott Skiles has a useful core in place.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
