Oklahoma City Thunder

at

Minnesota Timberwolves

Quarter by Quarter observations

First Quarter

The Thunder opened up the quarter playing serious defense and getting good challenges. The surprising hero offensively of the first quarter was Thabo Sefolosha. Sefolosha hit 3-4 shots in the first frame to jump out to 6 points. KD also was on fire the first quarter he was 3-3 for 12 points. Green had an ugly line after 3 straight put backs all missed 2-7 for 4 points but the other side he did get 2 offensive rebounds. The Wolves rallied to cut the Thunder lead down to 7 but it was a team effort no player made more than 1 basket.

Score to end the Quarter 30-23 Thunder

Second Quarter

Another solid quarter in the books the Thunder extended the lead to 14 before a last second half court shot from Brewer cut it 11. Harden, Collison, and Ibaka played a big part in how the quarter went offensively. Harden went 3-4 for 8, Collison went 2-3 for 4, and Ibaka 2-4 for 4 more. Green finished the quarter with 8 points and 10 rebounds so he is only a couple of points from a second straight double double. Westbrook is struggling from the field but is finding open shots for others he has 9 assists to go with 8 points.

Score to finish the half 62-51 Thunder

Third Quarter

 After a slow first half Westbrook exploded on offense going 6-8 for 12 points in the third quarter. The Wolves managed to win the Third quarter 29-24 cutting the Thunder lead to 6. Both Westbrook and Green have double doubles already wrapped up with Westbrook 4 rebounds away from a triple double. Eric Maynor finished the first half 0-3 with 2 fouls and in the third we saw the reappearance of Kevin Ollie. Brewer seemed to explode offensively all of a sudden 10 points in the quarter to lead the Wolves.

Score to finish the Quarter 86-80 Thunder

Fourth Quarter

The streak remains, KD put up 32 tonight to extend the streak of games with 25 another day. The Thunder tried to give this one away several times, first they let the Wolves climb back into the lead briefly in the fourth before committing several mistakes in the last minute. Westbrook got his triple double and the Thunder got the win. The Thunder get another needed win and now are sitting a game and tiebreakers out of 4^th in the West standings.

Score to finish the Game 109-107 Thunder

The Good and The Bad individually

The Good

Russell Westbrook

This was only Westbrook's second triple double, his first was last season against the Mavericks. Westbrook finished with 22 points on 9-19 shooting, 10 rebounds, 14 assists, and only 3 turnovers. Although he started the game slowly he really picked up the pace in the second half.

Kevin Durant

KD is slowly gaining ground on Lebron in the race for the scoring title. He finished the night with 32 points on 16 shots. The emergence of Green and Westbrook as scoring options are limiting Durant's shots but I don't think anyone would argue that was a bad thing, however it does mean that it will be hard for him to catch Lebron.

Jeff Green

The other half of the Thunder's something double duo. Green had a double double tonight that will probably be overshadowed by Westbrook's triple. Still for all the talk about Green's lack of rebounding he put up 14 tonight against a pretty tough front court.

The Bad

Eric Maynor missed the three shots he took and has been struggling lately, tonight Scotty went with Ollie off the bench to give Westbrook a breather in the third instead of the rookie.

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