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Tonight we got to see some vintage Vince Carter; lots of production early, followed by a fizzling out in the clutch. Carter was absolutely dominating in the first half, going 8-8 from the field, and then the Nenad Kristic factor came in to play. In most of the Thunder's recent games the opposing teams have gone on big runs while Kristic is in. When Scottie Brooks finally wises up and puts in either Serge Ibaka or Nick Collison the Thunder claw their way back in. At this point it doesn't even make sense to me as to why Kristic is still playing.
Besides giving me further proof that Kristic doesn't belong on the court, the first quarter had a few other plays that bear mentioning. The first is my pick for play of the week, which was Kevin Durant's pilfer of a Steve Nash pass on the fast break. Nash seemed to have an easy assist in place, but then Durant's seven foot plus wing span got in the way and Durant had the best steal of the season. He followed that up with a slick layup to finish the play. The other play that stuck out to me happened when Russell Westbrook passed out of a drive, which, by my count, is the first time he's ever done this. Last week I was talking to my dad about Westbrook's seeming inability to pass out of a drive when he said, "It seems like he decides at about the three point line what he's going to do and then never deviates from that." Tonight was the first time I can honestly remember seeing Westbrook dish out of a drive, maybe he's learning from Steve Nash.
Speaking of Nash, I expected him to have a terrible night against Westbrook's quickness and athleticism. However, he did a great job of keeping up with his much younger counterpart. It's a testament to how hard he works in the off-season when he can go out and keep up with a guy who is just in his third year. This wasn't a game that was about the stars though, because it was the Thunder's bench that, starting in the early second quarter, decided this game.
If you've ever read an OKC article by me you know I have a mean man crush on Nick Collison so I have to point out how great he played tonight. I want you to pay attention to this, Kevin Durant had -7 plus/minus tonight. That's Kevin Durant, the star of this squad. Nick Collison came into Phoenix and had a game leading +25. Most people are going to look at his stats and not think he had an impact on this game, but that +25 is proof that my man is a game changer on the court, even if you can't see it in the stats.
He wasn't alone though, Serge Ibaka came off the bench and went off for 18 points on 9-10 shooting, including an amazing spinning jumper that came out of nowhere for the high flying Ibaka. James Harden also played a big part in the win by stuffing the stat sheet with 13 points, 6 boards, and 5 assists. I'd be remiss to not mention Jeff Green, who had the quietest 28 points in the history of basketball. When the announcers mentioned he had the team high I couldn't believe it because I could barely remember him taking a shot. If he can continue scoring like this and making himself into a legitimate third option OKC will go places.
I must point out that I thought the two late technicals against Steve Nash and Grant Hill were uncalled for, but in the end it didn't really change the course of the game that much. Besides those two bad calls I thought this was a great game. Both teams had big spurts of good shooting, but in the end it came down to the Thunder's superior defense. In the fourth quarter the Suns only shot 26% and you just can't win games shooting like that. Here's hoping the Suns can make a run to the play-offs because I would love to see these two fast-breaking teams compete in a seven-game series.
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