Patterson flies high in Thunder victory
Patrick Patterson dropped from the rim and faced the Thunder bench. His teammates were already on their feet, hands thrown in the air.
Patterson side-shuffled past them, holding up his index finger. Russell Westbrook and Raymond Felton mirrored his gesture. Patterson had just thrown down his first dunk in a Thunder uniform.
“Hopefully there will be many more to come after that,” Patterson said after the game.
Patterson finished the night with 17 points, shooting 2-of-5 from beyond the arc, in the Thunder’s 117-110 win over the Suns on Sunday at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Thunder coach Billy Donovan had been adamant that Patterson’s shooting slump in the first three games of the season wouldn’t continue.
On Saturday, Patterson proved that his improved shooting at the end of the Thunder’s 101-95 loss to Boston Thursday hadn’t been a fluke.
Against Phoenix, Patterson’s standout performance started with a 3-point shot, the Thunder’s first make from beyond the arc on the night. The Thunder had missed four 3-pointers already in the first quarter, including one by Patterson.
“The thing that pleased me the most tonight with him,” Donovan said, “was his first 3 was a miss, and it got thrown right back out to him, he shot it right again.”
Patterson made his next two shots from downtown, first to put OKC within a point of Phoenix and then again to tie the game at 17 apiece.
The next quarter, Patterson made a splash that had nothing to do with his 3-point shooting. Nerlens Noel picked off a pass, turned and tossed the ball one-handed to Patterson. All alone in the paint, Patterson took one dribble and then went up for the two-handed dunk. He hung from the rim as the bench went wild.
Patterson added five more points in the second half.
“I think as long as my shot’s going in,” Patterson said, “my confidence is through the roof.”
Half-court hype
Paul George launched a shot from half-court just before the buzzer sounded the end of the third quarter. And he made it.
The arena erupted in applause, and George stood just beyond half court, where he had landed. Straight-faced, he looked side to side, before his teammates converged on him and he cracked a smile and joined their celebration. That long 3-pointer put the Thunder up 96-76 over the Suns heading into the fourth quarter.
First quarter shooting
The Thunder shot 13-of25 in the first quarter (52 percent) in the first quarter to give them an early lead over the Suns. OKC, which entered Sunday’s contest the worst shooting (39.1 percent) and 3-point shooting (24.1 percent) team in the league, also shot 7-of-19 from the 3-point line in the first quarter of Sunday’s game. They finished the game with season high-marks, shooting 50.6 percent from the field and 29.2 percent from beyond the arc.
Diallo inactive
Hamidou Diallo was listed as inactive for the game, after missing the Thunder’s walk-through earlier in the day.
The rookie played 20-plus minutes off the bench in the Thunder’s previous two games. He averaged six points and 2.5 rebounds per game in four games.
Thunder debutantes
Abdel Nader and Timo the Luwawu-Cabarrot got their first minutes with the Thunder. Nader entered the game in the final two minutes of the game, and Luwawu-Cabarrot entered for the final minute.