By A. Suave Francisco

Saturday night, Dec. 31, as known as New Year's Eve was a cake-walk for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Not too often have we seen these types of games in the 2016-2017 season, but the Thunder demolished the Los Angeles Clippers 114-88 for their second win in this season series of four.

Despite a scoreless first two minutes of the game, the fate of the outcome was never in doubt. We all knew OKC would win this game when the score was 33-12 at the end of the first quarter. Following that, the lead continued to increase and at times, the Thunder flirted with a 30-point lead.

Russell Westbrook may be the biggest headline of this game, only because he did what he's been doing all season, with the quickness. Unusually quick honestly, earning a triple-double in 18 minutes, one minute shy of the all-time record set by Jim Tucker. Westbrook finished the game late in the third quarter with 17 points, 14 assists, 12 rebounds.

This time, Westbrook wasn't the only contributing player. Victor Oladipo finally returned after missing nine games due to a sprained wrist and if his value to this team was questioned before, it's not anymore as he scored 15 points in 29 minutes, shooting 4-of-9 from the field.

With Blake Griffin out, the Clippers were very weak in the post. Granted, they had DeAndre Jordan, but the Thunder have Steven Adams and Enes Kanter. That would be a tall order for the Clippers to contain both of them, and they didn't. Kanter finished the game with 23 points, and 8 rebounds, while making it all look easy. Steven Adams didn't have a shabby game either, scoring 11 points and pulling down 5 rebounds while playing sound defense on Jordan, who finished with only 9 points in 27 minutes.

The team chemistry may be at an all-time high right now, and they reserves are playing like it. It seems like more times than not, there's always one or two reserves that really stand out. Tonight, it was Alex Abrines, who left the game with a suspected concussion. He lifted this Thunder team with 12 points in 11 minutes on 4-for-5 shooting from three. He's solidifying himself as the Thunder's knockdown three-point shooter off the bench, a position they've had a hard time filling in the past 10 seasons.

Oklahoma City defeated Loss Angeles for the second time in three tries and will jump into a tie for fifth place in the Western Conference with the Utah Jazz and the Clippers and just a half-game out of fourth. Next up will be on the road against the (15-16) Milwaukee Bucks. The Thunder improve to (21-13) on the season.

Thunder Throttle Clippers On NYE