Thunder loses at home
The Pelicans left town with a win, beating the Thunder 114-100.
Anthony Davis had the hood on his dark gray sweatshirt pulled so tight it almost masked his signature unibrow.
At his team’s shootaround Friday morning, the Pelicans star — even at a towering 6-foot-10 — looked built for stealth. It turned out, he had an ambush planned for the Thunder later that night at Chesapeake Energy
Arena.
“We have a job to do — try to go out here win, knowing that they played last night, been on the road for a while and their flight got in a little late,” Davis said at shootaround. “We’ve been sitting here waiting on them.”
And when the time came, the Pelicans pounced on a Thunder team that for most of Friday night looked defenseless, pulling away for a 114-100 win behind Davis’ 43 points and 10 rebounds.
Playing a game less than 24 hours after a 127124 loss in Denver — and playing for the sixth time in nine days — Oklahoma City surged to a 16-point lead in the first half, then fell victim to fatigue and a superstar showing from Davis.
“We ran out of gas, and I’m not making excuses for our guys,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “I just
thought in the second half we really struggled, certainly to make shots and execute on both ends.”
There were moments — even as New Orleans surged in the second half— when it looked like the Thunder might fight back, times when the home crowd got charged and a momentum play looked within its reach.
Inevitably, though, OKC made a mental error or a defensive breakdown or the Pelicans buried a big bucket. Or both.
His team down seven midway through the fourth quarter, Russell Westbrook barreled into the frontcourt and surveyed the floor — only to throw the ball away. Rajon Rondo’s steal turned into a Davis dunk and a 102-93 cushion.
The Thunder had 10 of its 16 turnovers after halftime.
“My mistakes,” said Westbrook, who had nine turnovers to go with 16 points, 10 rebounds and 14 assists.
Westbrook declined to pin the blame for those mistakes on fatigue, despite a difficult week. The Thunder played in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, then in Denver on Thursday and at home on Friday.
But while the Thunder looked flat early, it got some second-quarter life that indicated it might end a brutal week with an impressive win.
When Jerami Grant threw down a dunk with 10:37 to play in the second quarter, OKC’s lead was 38-22. It led 52-40 with 4:06 to play in the first half before a 14-6 Pelicans run whittled that margin to 58-54 at halftime.
That run continued into the third quarter. It ballooned to 34-12 — and a 74-64 Pelicans lead — by midway through the third quarter.
The Pelicans — who rank in the bottom 10 in the NBA offensive rating and defensive rating in the third quarter — controlled that period and took command of a game that turned into Oklahoma City’s third straight loss. They outscored OKC 36-25 in the third and hit 14 of 22 shots in the period.
And in the fourth, each time the Thunder tried to make a run, New Orleans had an answer. Often it came from Davis. He scored 16 points in the fourth, just one fewer than the Thunder as a team. He made 6 of 9 shots in the period and 2 of 3 3-pointers.
At the end, he had energy to spare. The Thunder was running on fumes.
During its six games in a nine-day span, OKC changed time zones between each game. There’s a “wear and tear” that comes with that sort of grind, forward Paul George said, a mental and physical fatigue to overcome.
“But we got to be better than that,” said George, who had 15 points on 4-of16 shooting. “That’s no excuse. Every team has a schedule like ours. So it’s no excuse.”