The Oklahoma City Thunder (7:4) have won their seventh victory in a row and defeated weak Houston Rockets (4:6) with 98:80. Steven Adams dominated the game under the boards, while Houston did not go well.
The OKC Thunder had to give up their franchise player Russell Westbrook again. He was nevertheless involved at the side margin, took Schröder and George aside again and again and supported head coach Billy Donovan during the time-outs.
On the Houston side, Guard Eric Gordon and Nene were missing and were sorely missed. Carmelo Anthony returned to the Chesapeake Energy Arena for the first time since his engagement with the Thunder.
The Thunder start the game much better. Steven Adams is served after switches of the Rockets in the post office and scores six fast points. Further buckets from Schröder and Paul George bring the Thunder into the lead with 12-2. James Harden led his team back with strong drives and a stepback threesome, but the Thunder ran the ball well and earned free triples, which Ferguson executed twice, but were otherwise left lying piteously. Since Harden already had three fouls on his account, the beard had to take a seat on the bench. The Thunder used this for a 10-0 run at the end of the quarter. 29:19.
The Rockets come with their best occupation strongly from the quarter-pause. Houston starts against the Bank of Thunder with a small run. PJ Tucker meets two open three from the corner, Gary Clark follows from the same spot. It is difficult for the Thunder to create offense in this phase.
This is also due to Schröder, who throws the ball away three times within a short time. Tucker scores easy points in Fastbreak – the Rockets lead for the first time. However, Paul George, who has been inconspicuous to date, has an answer ready: With eight fast points, he brings the Thunder back into the lead, which they extended. Ferguson and George add two more triads, the Thunder hit their last eight throws of the quarter: OKC leads at halftime with 59:45.
After the break tea the same picture: The rockets are not running very well in the front, Houston scores only 15 points. On the other side, Adams continues to rage on the boards, but OKC cannot preserve the strong end of the first half. George only hits one of ten litters. In the collective, however, the Thunder are further expanding their lead, also because Schröder comes into play better. At the end of the quarter OKC has already accumulated a cushion of 20 points, 80:60.
In the final section, both teams move in step. The rockets cannot press the distance below 17 points. Three minutes before the end Paul takes a technical foul, because he hits the ball on the ground out of frustration. Harden throws a brick, Adams hits in return by And-One, 24-second-Violation of the Rockets, Adams scores after a Pick-And-Roll with George: 96:73 – the game is finally through.
Topscorer of the Thunder was Paul George with 20 points. From the field, however, he only scored well in the second quarter. The best OKC player that evening was Steven Adams, who scored 19 points on the scoreboard and dominated on the boards with 6 offensive rebounds (a total of 10 rebounds). Dennis Schröder got into better gear after a weak first half and delivered a solid 14 points (6/12 FG), 5 assists and 6 rebounds. Weak: He also recorded 6 turnovers. They got support from Ferguson (14, 4/9 threes).
With the Rockets nobody ran up except Tucker (13 points, 3/5 threes) in normal form. Together with Clint Capela (17, 7 boards) and Harden (19, 8, 5 assists, 5 turnovers) he scored 49 of the 80 points. Chris Paul caught a used day, scored only 10 points and threw the ball five times away, but also recorded 6 steals. On his return to Oklahoma Anthony was a total loss: 2 points, 1 of 11 from the field. Isaiah Hartenstein was unhappy: He was allowed to enter the field for a short time in the first field, but was cleared directly in his first action. He started his second quarter with an offensive foul. In the end he had 3 rebounds, 1 turnover and 2 fouls in 6 minutes.
Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Houston Rockets 98:80 (BOXSCORE)
Steven Adams. The Australian was simply not to be held by the Rockets. He dominated on the boards and scored in the mail or in the pick-and-roll. In addition, he always found free players with his back to the basket. In the strongest phase of the Rockets, at the beginning of the second quarter, George had the appropriate answers and countered the small high of the guests.
CP3. Chris Paul caught a more than used day. As in the last two games he was without points at the break. After the break he took off his right Armsleeve, but that didn’t really help. Also unusual for him: CP3 threw the ball away five times.
After the switches of the Houston Rockets, the Thunder often served Adams isolated in the post office, which went to work against Harden. Either he scored himself or found a free player in double teams. With these throws the Thunder had a further advantage: Adams had advantages under the basket against Harden with the Rebound. For these reasons, Mike D’Antoni used the more robust Harden instead of Paul against Schröder, but during the game he found no answer.