There’s efficient, then there’s just nearly statistically impossible. Paul George danced a fine line between the two on Monday night as he ripped off 31 points on just 10 field goal attempts for an outrageous 3.1 points per shot. George did most of his damage – 17 points worth at least – in the third quarter alone as he rained 4 three-pointers and made 5 of his 10 total made free throws in the period.
The Thunder outscored the Utah Jazz 42-29 right out of halftime, continuing to hammer teams as it leads the league in third quarter scoring margin, and rode out a 29-point lead into a 122-113 victory.
“We did a good job of focusing in and took care of business like we were supposed to,” said Westbrook.
“We were just alert,” said George. “We were locked in. We dialed into just being in help, scrambling around. The effort and energy was there.”
The final margin may have only been 9 points, but the Thunder was in control of this game from tip to buzzer. It started with a 6-0 burst right out of the gates with a Russell Westbrook put back layup, a Steven Adams up and under finish and a Paul George steal and finish in transition. The Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd was on its feet, Utah called timeout and Head Coach Billy Donovan’s club never trailed the rest of the way.
In the first half the Thunder broke away thanks to a defense that held Utah to just 4-of-15 shooting from behind the arc in addition to 12 turnovers. The Jazz have skilled players across the perimeter and at one point in the second quarter went super small with Kyle Korver and Thabo Sefolosha occupying the small and power forward roles with Derrick Favors manning the center spot. Despite a bit of push back from Utah, the Thunder’s offense kept pace by drawing fouls on the interior by early seals and post ups by Steven Adams and held the Jazz in check enough to take an 11-point lead into the break.
The game hung in the balance, but George put an end to that in the third quarter, as he produced a masterpiece 12 minutes that also featured 3 assists, 2 rebounds, a steal and no turnovers. Two of George’s three-pointers in the quarter came off of second chances, as the Thunder got that coveted swing-swing action along the perimeter to force scrambling defenders to arrive two steps late to a close out. George buried nearly everything he touched, continuing his highly productive 2018-19 campaign.
“Real balanced, under control, took open shots, knocked them down and played at his own pace,” Westbrook reviewed. “He’s aggressive when he plays at his pace. He gets any shot he wants and can score on anybody in this league. As you’ve seen, he’s been doing it all season.”
“I just let the game come to me early,” George himself noted. “That always puts me in a good rhythm where I can feel like I can pick and choose when to attack and be aggressive. That slows me down.”
Through three quarters, the now 17-8 Thunder clearly played this game to its desired tempo and style, racking up 18 second chance points and a 16-5 margin in fast break points at the 36-minute mark. In the third period, the Thunder turned the ball over zero times after coughing it up 11 times in the first half. The offense was cruising and defense snuffing out any chance of a Jazz comeback. It was shaping up to be a chance for all of the Thunder’s starters to sit the rest of the night.
The Thunder’s reserve up to that point had played quite well, as Dennis Schroder scored 23 points and added 6 assists and 2 steals while Hamidou Diallo chipped in 9 points and Nerlens Noel scored 8. In the fourth quarter with a 20-plus point lead, however, the Thunder’s defense suffered some slippage, and turnovers began to rear their head once again, with 7 in the quarter. Utah shot 14-of-20 (70 percent) in the fourth and climbed back to 110-96 with 5:42 to go, but by that point Donovan had sent Westbrook back in to settle the scoreboard for long enough to run out the clock.
Westbrook ensured the Thunder wouldn’t have a large collapse and put the finishing touches on his third-straight triple-double with 12 points, 11 rebounds, 10 assists and a steal to maintain averages that make him the first player since David Robinson in the early 1990’s to average 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 steals. Westbrook did not shoot the ball well at all (4-fo-18) on Monday night, but his persistence and energy helped the Thunder finish off an important divisional win in the team’s only home game in between two road trips.
“A big part of my game is coming out and I do other things to impact the team and to winning,” Westbrook noted. “I like to win and whatever play needs to be made to win, that’s what I’ll do.”
“I told him ‘I got your back’,” George said of Westbrook. “He’s had me on plenty of occasions when I had an off night and Russ took over offensively and put the game on his shoulders. I’m his counterpart. I have to do the same for him when the ball isn’t going in.”
Highlights: Thunder 122, Jazz 113