Westbrook
carries Thunder past Nuggets
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[February 23, 2015]
OKLAHOMA CITY -- When Russell
Westbrook's shot is dropping, the Oklahoma City guard is one of the most
lethal players in the NBA. However, when he is getting his teammates
involved, the Thunder are truly dangerous.
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Westbrook showed the latter side when the Thunder took on the
struggling Denver Nuggets. Scoring 21 points and dishing out a
career-high 17 assists, he led Oklahoma City to a 119-94 victory
over the Nuggets Sunday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.
"Like I've said since the start of the year, he's the best point
guard in basketball," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "He does so
many great things and he does it every night. He's a no excuse
player. You would have thought he hadn't played in a month with all
the energy he came out with."
The Thunder played without forward Kevin Durant for the second
consecutive game after he had surgery on his right foot earlier in
the day. Despite that, they improved to 31-25 on the season have won
eight of their last nine contests.
The Nuggets' slide continued as they have now lost eight of their
last nine games. At 20-35, they are still third in the Northwest
Division.
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"They were doing everything more crisper than we were," Denver coach
Brian Shaw said. "And they were going after the ball harder than we
were. They had 17 fast-break points at halftime and that's just a
matter of will power. They were just running harder to the other end
than we were."
Oklahoma City forward Serge Ibaka posted 20 points, eight rebounds
and eight blocked shots. In his second game with the Thunder, Enes
Kanter scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds. Guard Dion Waiters
came off the bench to score 17 points on 7-of-15 shooting.
Guard Ty Lawson led Denver with 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting.
Forward Danilo Gallinari added 16 points.
"As you can see from the game, we didn't play very good defense,"
Gallinari said. "Especially from the beginning. So they were able to
do whatever they wanted to do. They were able to play freely with no
pressure. We didn't play any defense for the whole game."
Even without Durant, Oklahoma City had no problems scoring to start
the game. Led by Westbrook and Kanter, they shot 60 percent from the
field in the first quarter as they took a 36-18 lead.
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Kanter has quickly shown why the Thunder coveted the big post man.
Along with the points, rebounds and rim protection, he displayed all
out hustle. Late in the second quarter, he hurdled two rows going
after a loose ball. The effort resulted in a 3-pointer for forward
Kyle Singler and a 24-point lead.
When you play with Serge, you just feel more comfortable," Kanter
said. "You know he has your back."
Denver looked to Gallinari to try and get the team going. He was
able to knock in 10 first-half points.
But the Nuggets had no answers on defense. The Thunder racked up 21
assists in first half, which is a franchise record. They led 67-42
at halftime.
Westbrook's ability to spread the ball around allowed him to hit a
career high in assists. He broke his previous high of 16 midway
through the third period on a bounce pass to a sprinting Ibaka down
the middle of the lane for a thunderous dunk.
Despite his stellar play on the season, Westbrook said he isn't
concerned about recent MVP talk.
"Just taking care of business," Westbrook said. "My job is to come
out, lead my team to victory."
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