By Michael Doutey
The Oklahoma City Thunder made a statement to the NBA in a 148-124 blowout win over the Cleveland Cavaliers Saturday afternoon. The Thunder now have elite wins over Golden State, Houston, Toronto and now the Cavs. The Thunder dominated the game from the opening tip, leading from start to finish. The Thunder maintained a few Cavs runs and responded by going on runs of their own and extending their leads. Once again the Thunder showed up in a big way in a measuring stick game. Here are my five observations from OKC’s huge win.
1. Paul George is his best when the lights are brightest
I’ve felt that PG hasn’t played well the past two weeks. Since his last game in LA against the Clippers, Paul has looked off. He has had his moments but he just hasn’t been on his A game. But Saturday afternoon, PG was as good as it gets. He scored 36 points on 12-19 shooting and 5-11 from three. PG scored 25 points in the first half. He was running off screens and got clean looks from three. He was able to drive the basketball and get to the rim or pulled up from mid range. Paul had it going in all aspects on offense. Paul’s defense was really pretty good on LeBron James. James, who entered the game 25 points shy of scoring 30,000 career points, scored just 18 points on 8-17 shooting and 0-4 from three. Overall, this was one of the best games PG has had in OKC blue.
2. Steven Adams set the tone
To start the game, Adams was an absolute monster. Adams started the game owning the paint, getting great looks right at the rim or off the offensive glass. His physicality was unmatched by the Cavs and Adams flexed his muscles in another dominate game. Adams scored 25 points on an incredible 12-13 shooting from the floor. Adams also grabbed 10 boards, five of which came on the offensive end. Adams physicality to start the game set the tone for the Thunder and the Cavs had no one who was up for the challenge.
3. Thunder Big 4 Dominate
Russell Westbrook, PG, Adams and Carmelo Anthony all had huge games Saturday. PG had 36, which was a game high. Adams scored 25. Russ scored 23 and Melo added 29. But the Cavs defense is one of the worst in the NBA and the Thunder cashed in all game long. The Thunder’s Big 4 scored 113 points on a combined 44-68 shooting, which is 64.7 percent. The Thunder got clean and open looks and they knocked them down. It was a big day for the Thunder’s Big Four.
4. Russ Was Seeing 20-20
Russ was as good as it gets on Saturday. He scored 23 points on a respectable 9-17 shooting. But the stat of the day was his 20 assists. TWENTY. Russ had it going with everyone. He was able to find Adams easily in the first quarter. PG was running clean off screens and Russ fed him for open three’s. And when OKC got out in the open floor, Russ was looking for Melo who was trailing the fast break for open three’s in transition. It was something to see and Russ was just one rebound away from another triple-double. It was an incredible game from Russ.
5. Bench Depth still an issue
The Thunder bench was not great on Saturday. The second unit allowed a couple Cavs runs in their time on the court. Of course, Raymond Felton did his thing. He scored eight points, went 2-4 from three, grabbed six rebounds and dished out five assists in another solid outing from Uncle Ray. Patrick Patterson had a good showing, scoring six points on a couple made three pointers. He also had two assists and two steals. But outside of that, no one had very good games. Josh Huestis didn’t do much and neither did Jerami Grant. Terrance Ferguson scored nine points, but most of that was in garbage time. The Thunder will need to look to the trade deadline to help this bench. There isn’t much to help in terms of assets, but the Thunder need to add someone who can contribute consistently off the bench if OKC wants to make a playoff push.
The Thunder move to 26-20 on the season and will be back in action in OKC against the Brooklyn Nets on Tuesday. Tip time is 7 p.m. inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
