Cruising 235
Let’s face it, you see 235 points in 60 minutes, you might think it wasn’t exactly a titanic defensive struggle. The Wizards and the Thunder between them put up 169 shots, and a lot of them went. But then you look at this pair of statistics — OKC blocked five shots and pulled off 14 steals — and you realize that even with three Wizards scoring over 20, five in double figures, some serious D was going down even as the points were rolling up. Oklahoma City 127, Washington 108, as the Wizards unraveled late in the fourth.
Agent Zero is back in good form: Gilbert Arenas had 23 points. Caron Butler was good for 24. Brendan Haywood and Antawn Jamison posted double-doubles. (Haywood reeled in 16 rebounds.) The Wizards shot a respectable 47.7 percent, 46.7 from beyond the arc — seven of 15 — but twenty turnovers contributed to their undoing.
Jeff Green ran off a double-double in the first half; he finished with 19 points and 14 boards. Both Russell Westbrook and James Harden came up with season highs, 26 and 25 respectively. And Thabo Sefolosha put in 43 minutes, scoring 16 and wreaking havoc on the Wizards. That Durant fellow? Matched his number: 35. The Thunder shot 53 percent, and even made 52.4 percent of their treys (11 of 21). Weirdly, Harden was the only bench player to score, though both Etan Thomas and Kevin Ollie did serious defensive work.
And Flip Saunders must be wondering what is going on, if the Wizards can roll up 108 points and still lose by 19: they didn’t look at all like a team that was about to be 3-8. I’m going out on a limb here and saying that Mike Miller needs to take more shots: the guy’s a sharpshooter, and yet he took only four shots all night.
The Thunder, meanwhile, are back above .500, though the next two opponents are the Lakers and the Jazz, so they’re going to have to work that much harder to stay there.
CGHill »
21 November 2009 · 10:25 am
Michael Lee in the WaPo points out that early on Miller aggravated an injury to his left shoulder, which slowed down his production.