Adams and Kanter come together in big win over Portland
By Addam Francisco
Who would have thought Steven Adams and Enes Kanter would be the two star players in tonights game? Well they were as the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Portland Trailblazers 106-90 to extend their winning streak to six games in a row. Also, they had six players in double figures.
With a depleted Portland roster, this was an expected win for OKC but no one expected the complete dominance in the paint over a team that may have had the best front court in the league just a year ago. This is Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum's team now with no question and Oklahoma City did a great job of stopping them... Well, containing them.
Russell Westbrook backs down defender. (Torrey Purvey/InsideThunder.com
48 points in the paint? 23 of those coming from Kanter and Adams. Also, holding Portland to just 90 points too. That's a great sign to see considering that earlier in the year defense and production in the post were the two biggest problems. Oh yeah, not only did our two post players score the ball but they combined for 24 rebounds as well. The way these two players are coming together sends a message to teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors that they are for real and fans and critics are starting to see that as well.
Kevin Durant had his average game, scoring 24 points off 8-of-14 shooting with 7 rebounds, while Russell had an "off" game with just 13 points and 5 assists off 33.3 percent shooting. That clearly didn't matter though, especially considering the fact that Dion Waiters scored 18 points off the bench on 6-of-10 shooting. Serge was the sixth player in double figures with 13, but the story of this game for him was the blocks, with 4.
Although Lillard and McCollum scored a combined 44 points, they also shot a combined 15-of-38 in the process which is well below their season average in field goal percentage. Those two were responsible for a huge chunk of Portland's offensive production besides Mason Plumlee who scored 14 points off fourteen attempted shots.
Oklahoma City will get on a plane tonight in route to visit Lebron James and the Eastern Conference leading (16-7) Cleveland Cavaliers tomorrow night at 7 p.m. The Thunder will be in search of their seventh straight win with a (17-8) record on the year.