Bink mode
Early in Piers Anthony’s Xanth series, there was a character named Bink who turned out to be resistant to magic. The Thunder evidently took some inspiration from Bink tonight, thrashing the Orlando Magic, 102-74.
Admittedly the visiting Floridians weren’t at full strength — Rashard Lewis was still on suspension, Vince Carter was ailing, and Stan Van Gundy suited up only nine players — but Orlando was leading 25-23 after the first quarter. Then the bottom fell out. Dwight Howard, as always, was several kinds of awesome, but he had to earn half of his 20 points at the foul line, and it took him 17 tries to bag them. The Magic shot a mere 36.8 percent from the floor and hit only three of 13 3-point attempts.
Meanwhile, the Thunder owned the boards, 45-30, and shot 57.1 percent, including 9 of 16 treys. They weren’t at the stripe very much at all — 15 free throws, fewer than Dwight Howard — but they hit 13 of them. Kevin Durant turned in a 28-point night; both Thabo Sefolosha and Russell Westbrook recorded double-doubles; and things were moving so fast almost nobody noticed when Jeff Green fouled out, by which time Van Gundy had basically called it a night anyway.
Now beginneth the road trip: Tuesday at Sacramento, Wednesday at Los Angeles against the Clippers, and Saturday at San Antonio, before returning Sunday night to see the Clippers again. For the moment, and we all know how long those last, the Thunder is ahead of all three of those teams in the Western Conference standings.
