HOME TEAM WINS
OKC battles back to beat Brooklyn, 109-108.
Before Russell Westbrook bulled his way past the Nets, Raymond Felton screamed up at the same corner section of Chesapeake Energy Arena that Westbrook ran toward in pregame.
This time, early in the fourth quarter, Westbrook was chasing him out of the timeout, yelling and pumping fists in the reserve guard’s direction. The Thunder had surged back.
With 3.3 seconds left, Westbrook drove, absorbed contact and scored at the rim to put the Thunder ahead for good in a 109-108 win.
The night came full circle for the suddenly resilient Thunder, who trailed by as many as 15 points. The Thunder couldn’t buy a basket at the rim or the 3-point line through three quarters before catching fire against the Nets in the final 12 minutes.
Trailing by 11 entering the fourth quarter, Thunder coach Billy Donovan
called it one of the team’s best wins of the season.
Said Donovan of why a one-point win against a now-18-30 team ranked so high: “The resiliency and the toughness to make plays we had to make plays that we had to make, because they scorched it from the 3-point line.
“From a statistical standpoint, you just don’t normally win a game like that.”
The Thunder was 2-of17 from 3-point range entering the fourth quarter to the Nets’ 13-of-32. The Thunder had turned 14 offensive rebounds into just 12 second-chance points.
OKC then hit 5-of-7 from 3-point range to surge back from that double-digit deficit and set the stage for Westbrook’s heroic turn.
Felton was the spark with 10 points in the first 2:13 of the fourth. Patrick Patterson hit two more 3’s. Josh Huestis added another. Suddenly, Westbrook checked in and banked in a jumper from the left wing. Tie game 95-95, and the Thunder was ignited after three quarters of missed putbacks, missed defensive assignments and missed 3-pointers.
Paul George had 28 points. Felton added 14 points of the bench, and Adams had 14 rebounds, nine on the offensive boards. Westbrook scored 10 of his game-high 32 points in the final 6:50 of the fourth.
For all of the Thunder’s offensive rebounding dominance, converting that dominance into points was the problem against Brooklyn.
At halftime, Adams looked exasperated as he walked toward the Thunder locker room with seven offensive rebounds but only four points. Adams missed his first five shots in the paint, clenching his fists and stomping after missing a putback and getting fouled in his scoreless start.
This wasn’t a one-game occurrence. For the season, the Thunder entered Tuesday’s game 19th in the league in field goal percentage in the restricted area, or within five feet of the basket — 60.9 percent. The Thunder missed 14 shots in the restricted area against the Cavaliers in a blowout win on Saturday.
If OKC would have been better around the rim against the Nets early, the Thunder wouldn’t have had to claw back so hard in the fourth Tuesday night.
But the Thunder did, shooting 13-of-23 in the final period — the pinnacle coming on Westbrook driving the right baseline and finishing.
He walked coolly to the huddle after the play. Andre Roberson was able to defend the final 3-point heave from the Nets. The Thunder escaped with a fifth-consecutive win.