5 Observations from OKC’s 108-91 Victory over Golden State

Posted on November 23, 2017

The Oklahoma City Thunder take down the mighty Golden State Warriors Wednesday night 108-91 in dominating fashion. The Thunder got off to another hot start, but we have seen that song and dance before. OKC gets up on an opponent by double digits. Then the Thunder find a way to blow the lead and lose the game. The Thunder had done that six times already this season. So, against the best team in the NBA, the Thunder would surely do the same, right? No. Not tonight. OKC found ways to slow Golden State’s runs. Tonight was an important win for the Thunder, OKC fans and Russell Westbrook. Here are my five observations from tonight’s surprising Thunder win over the evil empire.

1. OKC Holds Double Digit Lead

It has been an issue all season long. The Thunder have had no issues with jumping out to early leads. And not just any leads. They’ve jumped out to huge first quarter or first half leads. The Thunder issue has been finding ways to keep leads. So when the Thunder jumped off the another fast start, it was more than acceptable to think that we’d see the Thunder blow another early leads, especially against Golden State. OKC took a 65-48 lead to the half and I think the thought going through all Thunder fans heads was the same. How are the Thunder going to blow this? But the Thunder didn’t blow it. They held onto the lead and ran the Warriors out of the Peake. The Thunder held a double digit lead from the four minute mark of the second quarter all the way to the closing minutes of the game. As crazy as it might sound, but maybe this is exactly what the Thunder needed. Maybe the Thunder needed an elite team like Golden State to force them to stay focused for all 48 minutes of the game and close this game out. Maybe this will be the turning point for the Thunder moving forward. They proved how good they are tonight. You don’t beat a team like the Warriors and it not mean something, especially in blowout fashion. But OKC can’t settle. As Carmelo Anthony said after the game, there can’t be any “slippage” from this game tonight to the next game. Hopefully we can look back at this game as the turning point for the Thunder season.

2. Russell Westbrook’s Best Game of the Season

We saw a different Russ tonight. He was MVP-like tonight and we’ve not seen that level Russ so far this season. You knew the passion and tenacity would be there for this game from Westbrook. We just didn’t know if that would be a good or bad thing for the Thunder. It ended up being a great thing for OKC. He was making plays all over the court and that even includes the defensive end. Russell was in attack mode from the get go. He was attacking the rim, he was in rhythm with his midrange jumper and he was active in the passing lanes, grabbing four steals leading to easy makes at the other end. Westbrook scored 34 points on 13-27 shooting from the floor. He also brought down 10 rebounds and had nine assists. This was the Russell the Thunder have needed. He shot well from the floor. He got after it on defense. He went out and just played. He wasn’t thinking. He wasn’t overly concerned to get others involved. He was just going out and playing and it was easier for everyone else to play off him. This is the Russ the Thunder needs and hopefully this is who he will be moving forward.

3. Paul George is Really Good 

There were times tonight that PG did things that made my eyes widen in amazement. His energy was at another level in this game. He was all over the place. He was diving out of bounce saving balls, soaring out of nowhere for rebounds, getting his hands in the passing lanes and really just caused problems for the Warriors all night. He impressed me in those areas more than he did on offense, and he had a nice game on the offensive end. PG finished with 20 points on 8-19 shooting and he connected on four of his ten three-point attempts. He maybe played the most complete game from a Thunder player in a long, long time. His fingerprints are all over this game. He scored. He defended, gathering four steals and had two blocks. He rebounded well as he nabbed 11 boards. I can’t stress just how good he was tonight. He was a huge difference in this game.

4. Thunder Melo

There has been lots of talk about which Carmelo Anthony the Thunder needs to succeed. Is it Olympic Melo? Or Hoodie Melo? The Thunder don’t need New York or Denver Melo. We knew that, but sometimes we’ve seen that version of Melo. But what we saw from him tonight? That’s the Melo OKC needs. Melo was available for many catch-and-shoot shots. He was spotting up at the three-point line or from midrange and he was able to step into shots and knock them down. He had fewer iso shots (I would still would like fewer of them) and he was really good in his spot up role. This is the Melo we thought was coming to OKC. You can see how little lift Melo has. He doesn’t have the explosion off the floor to really finish at the rim. The Thunder really put Melo in positions tonight to be successful and he thrived in this role. That’s the guy we thought the Thunder were getting. He hit his shots and that was huge for this team. Melo scored 22 points on 8-17 shooting and he nailed three of his seven three’s. This is the best way to use Melo and hopefully this type of performance from him becomes a more regular thing.

5. How About That Thunder Defense? 

OKC held the Warriors “Big Four” to just 58 points tonight. The Warriors had a very off night shooting as they shot 43.1 percent from the floor and 10-31 from behind the arc. Sure, the Thunder had something to do with it, but the Warriors missed some open looks, too. The Thunder forced 22 turnovers leading to 34 points. The Thunder also grabbed 15 steals, outrebounded the Warriors 50-39 and outscored Golden State 33-10 in fastbreak points. The Thunder, lead by Paul George, used their defense to really get after the Warriors. The Thunder really used their length to get in the Golden State passing lanes and force turnovers. It helped them all get in attack mode and the Thunder defense propelled the Thunder to their first win over Golden State and Kevin Durant since the breakup of 2016.

The Thunder hope to use this big win into some momentum going into their next game. OKC will host the Detroit Pistons on Friday night. Tip is set for 7 p.m. inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

With such a big win, and it being Thanksgiving, I’m in a giving mood. Here are some overtime observations from tonight.

So, just another game, right? Not so much.

Steven Adams had a great game. He scored 14 points, went four-of-eight from the field and knocked down six-of-eight from the free throw line. He grabbed 12 rebounds, six each on offense and defense. He was great on defense and was the glue for this Thunder team.

Did it seem like Steve Kerr pulled the Warriors starters early in the fourth? I’m glad the Thunder won, but it seemed like he wasn’t real happy with his team and was sending a message pulling them midway through the fourth.

Let’s just remember Jerami Grant’s two beautiful blocks on KD.

Was this the best Thunder performance since Kevin Durant left? I kind of think so.

If OKC can dig in on defense like this, they have the potential to be a special group on defense. It’ll be hard to buy in like that night in and night out though.

Anyone else see Steven Adams throw a no look pass to Westbrook before Russ did his euro-step? I couldn’t find the pass, but this is still great

That is it for this game. Thank you so much for those who read this. Honestly, it means a lot. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and we’ll be back at it Friday!

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