Suns burned
Thunder regroups against Suns
Thunder scorches the Suns, 118-101.
Steven Adams crouched low, poking the ball away with fast hands. Jerami Grant went belly-first with max effort onto the floor. Paul George pounced on the rolling ball. It was a chain reaction that exemplified the Thunder at its best. Defense to offense.
The Thunder’s hustle turned into a threeon-none. All George had to do was decide if he wanted to dunk himself or log an assist. He chose an off-the-backboard pass to Grant for a punctuation dunk, the play started by the Thunder’s biggest strength.
Once the Thunder seized back control in the turnover battle, it ran away from Phoenix in a 118-101 win on Monday.
“That’s what this game is about,” George said. “A lot of times (turnovers) are our home run plays.”
For once, it wasn’t the Thunder’s shooting that was the problem in the Suns’ 35-22 third. The Thunder shot 9-of-20
(45 percent) from the field. While the Thunder secured its eighth victory in nine games, a stretch of six turnovers in the final six minutes of the third quarter gave the lottery-bound Suns life.
“The fact of it is we’ve got to take care of the ball, get good quality shots and not give extra possessions away,” George said.
While the Thunder has been one of the league’s best teams at keeping the ball this season, only committing 14.3 turnovers a game — 10th-best in the NBA entering Monday — OKC has had streaks dating back to last season where it hasn’t valued possessions. Such a streak did damage in the Thunder’s fourth consecutive game without Russell Westbrook, who is still recovering from a sprained left ankle.
By the end of the broken final six minutes of the third, a lead that was as big as 28 was down to 11. The Thunder’s third-quarter letdown sullied what was otherwise a dominant first 30 minutes, played at a pace and tenacity the Thunder wants to maintain this season.
George, who finished with 32 points, eight rebounds and six assists, was at the head of the blistering start.
Entering Monday, George was shooting a career-low 38.7 percent from the field. In his slow start to this season, George has particularly struggled from 3-point range, hitting just 32.7 percent before Monday’s explosion.
Against the Suns paltry defense, George had a five 3-pointers by halftime — his most in a game all season. Some of George’s explosion was pure shotmaking — a fadeaway jumper at an angle behind the backboard that would have impressed Larry Bird.
“Just finding rhythm,” said George, who finished 6-of-10 from 3. “Freeing myself, getting good looks, and being able to deliver.”
Yet, the Thunder’s defense and shot contesting is its heart. Dennis Schroder finished with 20 points, five rebounds and nine assists, but his four steals to just one turnover was just as important.
Keep the ball. Take it away. A simple formula that’s been the Thunder’s core with or without Westbrook this season.
“Sometimes it happens in short chunks of the game,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of the turnover streak. “That was certainly something that hurt us, allowing them to go on a pretty big run.
“But at the end of the game it was a positive for us.”