HOUSTON – An avalanche of three-pointers cascaded down on the Thunder on Sunday afternoon. Head Coach Billy Donovan’s job: sorting out what the Thunder’s defense could have controlled, and what was left up to the incredibly hot shooting of the Houston Rockets.
The Thunder fell 137-125 to Houston, one of the best offensive teams the NBA has to offer in this new age of pace, space and three-point marksmanship and they displayed all of it on Sunday. For sure, the Thunder’s defense was far from perfect, and Donovan addressed the issues he saw after the game. Some of the shots that dropped for Houston were difficult ones, but mostly Donovan assessed that his team’s energy needed to be more focused, consistent and coordinated.
“They’re a very, very good offensive team. I think everybody knows that. They have great shooting all over the floor,” Donovan began. “The controllable part for us was our concentration, our focus, our ability to start the third quarter to make multiple efforts on a continual basis is what you have to do.”
125 points is more than enough offense for the Thunder to win, and the team got contributions from players in the starting group and off the bench, including Enes Kanter’s 23 points on 9-for-12 shooting. Russell Westbrook racked up his 36th triple-double of the season with 39 points, 13 assists and 11 rebounds, bringing him within five of Oscar Robertson’s record of 41 in season. The Thunder shot 50 percent from the field and racked up 27 assists while out-rebounding the Rockets by six.
But Houston shot 63.3 percent from the field, went 29-of-38 in the paint (74.4 percent) and made 20-of-39 three-pointers (51.3 percent). In fact, the team attempted just one shot that wasn’t a three-pointer or in the paint all night long. That’s exactly the identity the Rockets want to display, and the Thunder didn’t do enough to deter ancillary scorers like Lou Williams, Nene, Trevor Ariza and Eric Gordon from getting exactly what they wanted all night long.
“The first half, they scored 79 points. That was the issue,” center Enes Kanter said succinctly. “We cannot play like that on the road. We have to do a better job defensively.”
“(We can’t) take it on the chin. We know what those guys want to do. They like shooting threes,” point guard Semaj Christon added. “We let them get comfortable and line them up and shoot them.”
The Thunder had a pair of chances to make this one interesting. The first one was a great lesson in the importance of buckling down and maintaining momentum. The second was an education in “too little, too late”.
Coming out of halftime, the Thunder rattled off an 11-2 run to cut a 21-point lead down to just 12 with a little under nine minutes to go in the third quarter. The sequence was started and ended by Victor Oladipo, who drained a three, then was on the receiving end of a beautiful Westbrook full-court bounce pass for a layup, making it 82-70 with 8:37 to go.
“We physically laid it on the line there to start the third quarter,” Donovan said. “It takes that kind of effort for 48 minutes.”
On the surface, that would have been a totally manageable situation to overcome over the final 21 minutes of action. Coming out of a Rockets timeout, however, Houston drained a pair of three-pointers and added a layup over the course of their next four possessions, sinking the Thunder’s deficit all the way back down to 18. It would eventually get as far as 25 before Donovan’s club righted the ship in the fourth quarter.
Thanks to finding a lineup that could provide some rim protection and scoring, along with Westbrook’s relentlessness, the Thunder rallied to within eight with 1:32 to go. The Rockets followed up Westbrook’s back-to-back three-pointers with a Nene dunk, then after Westbrook missed a deep three, James Harden drove for a layup that capped the scoring, and ended any comeback hope.
Highlights: Thunder at Rockets
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By the Numbers
19-5 – The Thunder’s advantage in second chance points, thanks to 16 offensive rebounds
36 – Triple-doubles this season for Russell Westbrook after a 39-point, 13-assist, 11-rebound performance. That’s his 73rd of his career
51.3 – Shooting percentage from three-point range from the Rockets on the night, including 20 made threes- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The Last Word
“We have to do a better job. They’re hard to guard but I’m not so sure we did as good of a job as we could with concentration, focus, scrambling, rotating, communicating, all those things you have to do.” – Head Coach Billy Donovan