The Thunder Rallies Behind Westbrook and Abrines To Defeat NOLA

By A. Suave Francisco

Unlike the previous game, the Oklahoma City Thunder turn up the offense in route to a 121-110 win over the New Orleans Pelicans Wednesday night on the road. The No. 1 player remained the same with Russell Westbrook, but the surprising narrative happened to be OKC's bench production. 

Westbrook was the clear star of this game, as he's been for the first 29 games of the season. Although he didn't get his normal triple-double, a few of the Thunder's supporting cast stepped up to the point where it didn't matter. Westbrook finished with 42 points, 10 rebounds, and 7 assists on an improved 46.2 percent shooting. 

The story of the game, though, was Alex Abrines and the Thunder bench that combined for 52 points. More impressively, Abrines, who averages 4 points per game, finally found his shot from the Spain league and tallied 18 points on 5-of-11 shooting from three to lead the bench. He also included his name in the Thunder record books for the second most threes made in a game as a rookie, behind that guy that wore No. 35. 

Enes Kanter was the second guy on the bench to have a great game. With New Orleans only having Anthony Davis to depend on in the post, it opened up a lot of opportunities for both Kanter and Steven Adams to do what they do best. After last game, it's great to see Kanter finish with a double-double of 14 points and 14 rebounds. Steven Adams even added 12 to that total but didn't rebound the ball as well with just 4. 

The third and final bench player that scored in double figures was Joffrey Lauvergne who racked up 10 points and compiled a total of 6 rebounds in 25 minutes of play. Not to mention, something many don't think too much about for a big man, steals. Lauvergne had 2. 

Andre Roberson played how we all expect him to play but offensively looked a lot more fluid, ending the game with 9 points, on 4-of-7 shooting from the field. 

Moving forward, it is essential for the Thunder to perform at this level more times than they don't. This is the type of basketball this team has to play to be in the upper-echelon of the Western Conference, or basically to stay afloat. The team improved to (17-12) on the season, placing them just a half game back of the Utah Jazz for sixth in the conference and one game behind Memphis for fifth. Next up for OKC will be against the (16-12) Boston Celtics, a team they beat just over a week ago.