Thunder Can't Overcome 2nd Quarter Stumbles, Turnovers
By Randy Renner, Senior Writer
The Thunder squandered an early 13-point lead, letting the game get away from them in the 2nd quarter and they were never able to get it back.
Toronto took advantage of 21 Oklahoma City turnovers and hot shooting by DeMar DeRozan but still had to hold off a late Thunder rally to win 112-102.
DeRozan led all scorers with 37 points on 13-for-22 shooting and the Raps scored 25 points off those Thunder turnovers.
It was a disappointing night for a team that had come in on a roll winning six of the first seven games.
“We had a great first quarter but the second quarter really dug us a big hole,” head coach Billy Donovan told reporters.
OKC started the game with a 12-0 run and led by a baker’s dozen at 23-10 a few minutes later. An 11-0 Raptors run cut that fat lead down to a stick man early in the second quarter and a Cory Joseph 3-ball moments later put the visitors in front.
“We got hurt on the glass tonight,” Donovan said, “and we turned it over too much. We kinda bogged down in the second quarter, their pressure kinda got to us I think.”
The Raps were credited with 10 steals in the game, half of those came in the second quarter when they outscored the Thunder 42-28.
“Our movement and our spacing on offense wasn’t very good,” Donovan pointed out. “We had a lot of trouble getting the ball to the open man.”
Many times the Thunder seemed to get confused by Toronto’s pick-and-roll defense as OKC’s bigs sometimes stayed too long with the screen, rolling to the basket a half step late. That led either to a turnover or a poor shot, usually from beyond the arc, as the 24-second clock ran down.
“We probably took too many threes tonight,” Donovan admitted.
Russell Westbrook took 12 of those threes, almost a third of OKC’s 34 attempts from deep, but hit just three. He finished with 36 points on 9-for-26 shooting, with seven rebounds and seven assists but also committed eight turnovers. Westbrook got to the foul line a whopping 18 times and made 15.
Victor Oladipo added 18 points and eight rebounds and Steven Adams cranked out a double-double with 14 points and 12 boards.
Toronto hit 11 threes (the most the Raps have made this season) and shot a season-best 42.3 percent. The Raptors came into the game as the NBA’s worst 3-point shooting team (26.2 percent).
Toronto’s overall shooting percentage (51.8) is the highest OKC has allowed. The Thunder came into the game allowing opponents to hit just 27.9 percent of their 3-point shots (best in the NBA) and their overall shooting percentage defense and their defensive rating were each ranked fourth.
Donovan had said after OKC’s Wednesday practice the defensive numbers were perhaps better than they really should be because several open shots didn’t fall for opponents in some games.
Tonight he looked like a prophet.
“I think the things Toronto does well, they did well tonight and we certainly had a hard time with it.”
The Thunder will have to quickly get things in order with former OU star Blake Griffin and the LA Clippers coming to town for a Friday night game. OKC beat the Clips in LA earlier 85-83, the only blemish on LA’s record.