Foiling Sloan’s Rangers
“The Jazz never go quietly in their house,” said radio guy Matt Pinto, and he knows whereof he speaks: after two very close quarters, the Thunder outscored Utah 31-16 in the third and built a 19-point lead, only to see it shrink to eight as OKC managed to go four minutes without a field goal. And at the end, there was a mixture of silence and boos as the Thunder walked off with a 104-94 win.
Jerry Sloan couldn’t have been too pleased; the Jazz did dominate the boards, with 11 offensive rebounds, but they committed 24 turnovers, ten in the fourth quarter. Still, Carlos Boozer earned his keep, rolling up 26 points, and Paul Millsap added 19 off the bench. What didn’t happen: a big night for Deron Williams, who was pestered more or less constantly by Thabo Sefolosha. Williams finished with ten points and nine assists.
Both sides shot pretty well: the Jazz 49.4 percent, the Thunder 48.7. Atypically, the Thunder had the advantage from beyond the arc, hitting 8 of 18 treys. (The Jazz made 3 of 10.) And Thunder D is proving tenacious: OKC blocked six shots and pulled off 10 steals. The Big Three did their usual point contributions, Kevin Durant with 28, Jeff Green with 19, and Russell Westbrook with 17; with Nick Collison sidelined and Nenad Krstić in foul trouble, Serge Ibaka once again got the call for Fearsome Presence. Kyle Weaver, dispatched to the D-League, was retrieved when Kevin Ollie came up lame, and contributed 15 minutes and 7 points. And James Harden, who couldn’t hit against the Lakers, was good for 10.
The Thunder now pull ahead of the Jazz by half a game in the Northwest Division. Fifteen games in, OKC is 8-7. And the traveling slows down for a couple of weeks: the next five games are all at the Ford, starting with the Bucks on Friday night.
