By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder took down the Los Angeles Lakers 114-90 in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night. The Thunder didn’t look sharp in the opening half before dominating the Lakers in the second half in root to their third consecutive win. The Thunder now move to 25-20 on the season and have a few days off before a tough road game against LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Here are tonight’s five observations from OKC’s blowout victory.
1. Second Half Defense Strikes Again
The Thunder used to blow games in the third quarter, but over this three game win streak the Thunder have used the third quarter to suffocate their opponent and it has propelled them to wins. The Thunder did it again tonight as they held the Lakers to just 36 points in the second half total. They only allowed 32 to the Hornets and 36 to the Kings. The Thunder have been excellent on that end of the floor in the second half over the last three game. Yes, OKC hasn’t played good teams over this stretch. The Hornets, Kings and Lakers aren’t exactly world beaters. But the Thunder needed to build towards this after their poor play last week. We’ll see if the Thunder can use the defensive momentum they’ve built in Saturday’s game.
2. Melo’s Big Night
Carmelo Anthony hasn’t had too many games this season where we’ve seen his offensive prowess. We did tonight in what might have been Melo’s best offensive game of the season. Melo scored a game high 27 points on 10-15 shooting and he went 4-6 from deep. Melo was able to get going in catch-and-shoot situations and then he was able to score from anywhere he wanted. He really had his turnaround jumper on display tonight. As many times as Melo’s shots completely frustrate me, nights like tonight are great reminders of just how potent of a scorer Melo can be.
3. 2nd Chance Points
The Thunder dominated the Lakers in second chance points, outscoring LA 26-4. A big reason for that was Steven Adams ability to gather up seemingly every offensive board he can. Adams, who had a great game, scored 21 points on 10-12 shooting and gathered 10 rebounds. Adams has been a beast on the offensive glass this season and he was again tonight. Steven brought down seven offensive boards and had his hands on several others that he guided into the hands of other Thunder players. Adams has been really good over this three game win streak but his offensive rebounding has been next level stuff over this stretch.
4. Roberson’s Return
Andre Roberson returned tonight after missing the past eight games with a knee issue. OKC’s defense has been a problem since he has been out, especially over the three game losing streak OKC went on last week. So Dre’s return to the lineup is a welcome one. Dre played just over 17 minutes and scored four points, grabbed four boards, had two assists and three steals in his first game back. Dre joked about getting a little winded in his first game action since December 29th, which is to be expected. It’ll take a few games to get his legs back underneath him, so I’d bet Billy Donovan will up his minutes little by little of the next week or so.
5. Bench Rotation
Now with Dre back in the starting lineup we will have to see what Billy does with the second unit as far as rotations. Tonight, Billy went with Terrance Ferguson first off the bench. Ferguson did a nice job, making hustle plays and defending at a good rate. There aren’t enough minutes to go around between Ferguson, Josh Huestis and Alex Abrines. So I would bet by between now and the trade deadline Billy will really try to find an order in which one of those guys will get the majority of those extra minutes.
The Thunder now turn their eyes to a Saturday afternoon tilt with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Tip is set for 2:30 p.m. inside Quicken Loans Arena.
