Flat early, Thunder surges to beat Knicks

Russell Westbrook let a hard-charging Carmelo Anthony go by. He sidestepped into a fourthquarter 3-pointer that swished, and he slapped his own head in a signature celebration.

The Thunder had come to finish what it couldn’t start.

Westbrook got plenty of help along the comeback trail in Wednesday’s 116-105 win against the Knicks, but with 38 points, 14 rebounds and 12 assists — his 27th triple-double of the season, the third-most ever in an NBA season — he did the heavy lifting out of an early hole.

The Thunder entered the game — its last before a nine-day All-Star break — hungry for a win after blowout losses to Golden State and at Washington. So desperate was Oklahoma City that Westbrook at Wednesday’s shootaround had practically scoffed at the suggestion that it might be a challenge not to look ahead to the layoff.

“No,” Westbrook said. “Not if you got your a — kicked two times in a row.”

Asked about the thirdquarter issues that had plagued his team in losses to the Warriors and Wizards, Westbrook said that his team needed to set a first-quarter tone, that “We get to the third quarter, we’ll figure that out.”

But the Thunder opened hardly a hint of desperation.

The Knicks made 16 of 22 shots in the first quarter. Anthony had 19 points on 7-of-8 shooting in that quarter, making all four of his 3-point tries. Late in the quarter, he buried a 27-foot 3-pointer even as Andre Roberson fouled him. The four-point play put the Knicks in front 33-18.

New York led 39-27 after the first quarter and by as many as 17 points early in the second.

And then the Thunder, seeking to straighten out its starts and smooth out its third quarters, split the difference. It settled into a rhythm in the second, and the game turned.

Oklahoma City made 5 of 6 3-pointers in that 12 minutes — it had averaged 7.3 per game in the nine games leading up to Wednesday — and turned its defense into offense. The Thunder held New York to 38.1 percent shooting in the second quarter, and the stops helped Oklahoma City get out in transition. The Thunder scored nine fastbreak points in the second quarter.

The Thunder outscored the Knicks again in the third quarter, 26-20, and took an 88-80 lead into the fourth when Victor Oladipo beat the buzzer with a 3-pointer, part of a longdistance barrage from Oklahoma City.

Westbrook got scoring help from Oladipo, who scored 21 points by sinking triples attacking the rim, and from Jerami Grant (13 points), Steven Adams (11) and Roberson (10).

OKC hit 12 of 23 3-pointers in the game. Oladipo hit 3 of his 6 tries. Westbrook was 3 for 5. Grant went 2 for 2.

The Thunder had shot a league-worst 27.4 percent from 3-point range in a nine-game stretch leading up to Wednesday’s game. It made 7 of 12 in the first half against New York.

The 3-point shooting aided in the Thunder’s comeback, and it was all but iced by Westbrook’s two fourth-quarter triples. But there was resolve in it, too, and defensive intensity. The Thunder won’t play again until Feb. 24 and won’t practice again until two days before.

The energy wasn’t there to start, but it checked in just in time to win before it clocks out.

“I thought the beginning of February all the way to the All-Star break was as difficult as any point in time of our schedule, in my opinion,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I think our guys probably need a little bit of a break, as probably everybody around the league does. So I’m excited about that for them.”