National Basketball Association
Oklahoma City 123, Toronto 102
When: 7:00 PM ET, Thursday, March 16, 2017
Where: Air Canada Centre, Toronto, Ontario
Officials:
#8 Marc Davis, #27 Mitchell Ervin, #58 Josh Tiven
Attendance:
19800
By The Sports Xchange
TORONTO -- Russell Westbrook did what he does best by posting yet another triple-double in a dominating performance.
He had plenty of help from his Oklahoma City Thunder teammates in a 123-102 dismantling of the Toronto Raptors on Thursday night.
"I thought we did a good job defensively, just playing 48 minutes on both sides of the ball," Westbrook said. "They are an aggressive team and they like to trap and stuff, so my job was able to use that to my advantage and take on two people and make sure the other guys get open."
The Thunder led by as many as 32 points in the fourth quarter as Westbrook recorded his 34th triple-double of the season with 24 points, 16 assists and 10 rebounds.
"(Westbrook) was a one-man wrecking crew," Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. "He caused a lot of chain reactions. It starts with him. We had multiple breakdowns in terms of getting him under control because he is a great player."
Fellow guard Victor Oladipo added 23 points to help the Thunder (39-29) win for the fourth straight game.
DeMar DeRozan scored 22 for the Raptors (39-29), who lost three of their past four.
"I was really pleased with the way we came out and played," Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. "I thought defensively in the first half we did a nice job."
The Thunder led by 10 points after the first half, increased the lead to 27 after three quarters, and opened a 30-point advantage early in the fourth quarter.
"That exhibition of basketball is unacceptable," Casey said. "I want to apologize to our fans, to everybody the way we played tonight. That's just the effort. The competitive spirit wasn't there. That team came out and played like it was a championship game, we played like it was a middle-of-the-season game."
Enes Kanter contributed 14 points off the bench for Oklahoma City. Andre Roberson had 13 points, and Steven Adams, Taj Gibson and Alex Abrines each scored 10.
Norman Powell added 13 points off the bench for Toronto and Cory Joseph had 11 points. Serge Ibaka and Delon Wright each scored 10 points.
"We have to come out and play harder," DeRozan said. "That team played with a sense of urgency. Everything you can think of from the get-go, we didn't do and the score told that. There's no excuse for it."
The Thunder opened an 11-point lead with 4:49 to play in the first quarter on Gibson's 15-footer. The first quarter ended with the Thunder leading 29-24.
The Thunder opened a 14-point lead with 2:08 to play in the second quarter when Westbrook set up Oladipo for a fast-break layup.
The Thunder led 58-48 at the intermission.
"We just defended our butts off collectively as a group and we did it for 48 minutes," Oladipo said.
A tip lay-in by Roberson early in the third quarter returned Oklahoma City's lead to 14. A cutting dunk by Adams had the lead at 15 with 5:59 to play in the third quarter.
Two free throws by Westbrook bumped the lead to 17 and his fadeaway jumper with 4:06 left in the quarter had the lead up to 19.
Roberson's 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 20-point advantage and Gibson's 20-footer made it a 22-point margin with 2:06 left.
Domantas Sabonis scored five points in the final 1:39 and the third quarter ended with the Thunder leading 97-70.
Kanter made two free throws early in the fourth quarter to stretch the Thunder lead to 30 points.
"I thought we fouled too much," Donovan said. "Some offensive rebounds and some drives, we got caught in some rotations but outside of that, our 3-point defense was good. I thought our overall getting back in transition, shot discipline in terms of trying to make them take tough shots, we rebounded the ball well and then I thought offensively, 33 assists, we were unselfish, we made the extra pass. So I thought on both ends of the floor we played well."
NOTES: Raptors F DeMarre Carroll (ankle) returned to the lineup after missing the previous two games with a sore left ankle and scored two points with three rebounds in 15 minutes. ... The Raptors won the first meeting 112-102 on Nov. 9 in Oklahoma City with Toronto G DeMar DeRozan outscoring Oklahoma City G Russell Westbrook 37-36. ... Westbrook needs to average 7.5 rebounds and 8.8 assists in the Thunder's final 15 games to finish the regular season averaging a triple-double. He would become the first NBA to do so since G Oscar Robertson in 1961-62. ... The Raptors play their next game Friday at the Detroit Pistons. The Thunder are home to the Sacramento Kings on Saturday afternoon.
Top Game Performances
Oklahoma City |
|
Toronto |
Russell Westbrook 24 |
Scoring |
DeMar DeRozan 22 |
Russell Westbrook 16 |
Assists |
Cory Joseph 6 |
Russell Westbrook 10 |
Rebounds |
Jonas Valanciunas 5 |
Enes Kanter 4 |
Free Throws Made |
DeMar DeRozan 6 |
Alex Abrines 2 |
Steals |
Cory Joseph 2 |
Steven Adams 1 |
Blocks |
Jakob Poeltl 2 |
Team Stats Summary
Team |
Points |
FG% |
3PM-3PA |
FTM-FTA |
Assists |
Rebounds |
Blocks |
Steals |
Turnovers |
Oklahoma City
|
123 |
53.4 |
14-25 |
15-19 |
33 |
47 |
1 |
10 |
18 |
Toronto
|
102 |
45.7 |
5-20 |
23-30 |
15 |
32 |
10 |
10 |
14 |
Upcoming Games
-
Toronto will play their next game on the road against Detroit. The Raptors have a W/L % of .564 after a win and .586 after a loss.
-
Oklahoma City will play their next game at home against Sacramento. The Thunder have a W/L % of .641 after a win and .483 after a loss.