What, overtime again?
It didn’t work out quite the same way as the last one, though: the Nets rattled off the first seven points in the extra frame, and the Thunder never quite caught up. Nenad Krstić got the last two points for Oklahoma City in the last second, but New Jersey won it, 103-99, their fifth win in six overtime contests this season.
Once again, turnovers proved to be OKC’s undoing: the Thunder coughed up the ball twenty-three times, including three in overtime. And NJ’s rookie center Brook Lopez inflicted plenty of damage, getting a career-high 31 points and grabbing 13 boards. Devin Harris was back after missing a couple of games, and he and Vince Carter combined for 38 points, Harris mostly early on, Carter coming on strong late and pulling off six steals.
OKC did shoot better than the Nets, 44.4 to 40.2 percent, but New Jersey managed to get off 16 additional shots. Kevin Durant was in reasonably good form, with 26 points; Jeff Green wangled yet another double-double — 15 points, 10 boards. Russell Westbrook had 19; Nenad Krstić led the bench with 12, and Earl Watson had 11 points and 9 assists, nearly half the Thunder’s total dimes.
This one really could have gone either way: lots of runs, but no huge leads. (OKC led by seven at the half; the Nets’ biggest lead was twelve.) But the Thunder are still inconsistent with their ball handling, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, and a couple of times tonight downright horrid.
The Jazz come to the Ford Center on Wednesday.
