Former UCLA Bruin Russell Westbrook 07-08 -- now playing for the Oklahoma City Thunder -- almost pulls off a quadruple double when he scorched the Golden State Warriors for 21 pts, 10 assists, 8 steals, and 7 rbds Saturday night, February 6.
As expected, Kevin Durant, forward extraordinare for the Thunder, top all scorers with 29 points.
Corey Maggette led the Warriors with 24 pts for the night. Stephen Curry of Davidson fame scored 23. Monte Ellis could only manage 15 pts for the night as Warriors get whupped by OKCT 105-95.
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Recap
Thunder defense slows down Warriors in road win
By Geoff Lepper, for NBA.com
Posted Sunday February 7, 2010 2:20AM
OAKLAND (NBA.com exclusive) -- Despite having four steals by intermission, Russell Westbrook was not immune to the criticisms of Oklahoma City head coach Scott Brooks and the rest of his staff during halftime Saturday night.
"The coaches were on me," Westbrook said. "I needed to be better. . . .They just told us to come out and defend."
Westbrook responded, finishing with a career-high eight steals, and the Thunder once again showed off arguably the NBA's most improved defense, handcuffing the high-scoring Warriors in a 104-95 victory.
Oklahoma City has won five straight games, and only once in those contests has an opponent reached triple digits. Golden State shot just 42.0 percent Saturday, nearly seven points off its season average, and turned the ball over a season-worst 23 times, setting up 29 points for Oklahoma City.
Playing at their breakneck pace, the Warriors often rack up turnovers of their own accord. But Saturday, Oklahoma City forced the issue with a season-high 16 steals. Durant tied his season best with four thefts, while Westbrook's eight matched New Orleans' Chris Paul for the single-game high for any player in the league this season.
"Russell, with eight steals, it's incredible. It doesn't happen often," Brooks said. "We said it all along, he's going to keep improving, and every month, he's getting better."
Westbrook flirted with a quadruple-double before finishing with 21 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds.
"He did a great job tonight pressuring [Warriors guard Stephen] Curry and got some steals for us," Durant said. "He was able to force them into rushing passes so we could get some steals. He started it off for us, and we just followed."
Westbrook enjoyed baiting the Warriors into thinking a passing lane was open when the exact opposite was actually the case.
"People just throw the ball real lackadaisical, so I was sitting there, waiting and waiting," Westbrook said. "They'd throw it, and I'd go."
Thabo Sefolosha took on the primary assignment against Monta Ellis and helped hold the NBA's sixth-leading scorer to 15 points on a painful 6-for-22 shooting night.
The stats illustrate how far the Thunder have come defensively. Last year, Oklahoma City ranked 27th in the league, allowing opponents to shoot 47.5 percent from the floor. This season, that number is 43.9 -- fourth-best in the league -- and still dropping.
To Brooks, it's proof of the individual improvement of several of his players, who took the coach up on his challenge to better their defensive games over the summer.
"Last year, Thabo was the premier defender on our team, and this year, he's gotten better, but he's not the premier defender," Brooks said. "That's a good thing because that means all the other guys are picking up."
On a night when Durant had to use a higher-than-normal number of possessions to extend his franchise-record streak of games with at least 25 points to 24 straight contests, the Thunder needed the defensive help. Durant eventually broke free from physical defense provided primarily by Coby Karl and Anthony Tolliver to drop 29 points, but went 7-for-21 while getting there.
Nevertheless, Oklahoma City took control in the third quarter with an 18-9 run at the outset, a seven-minute stretch in which Golden State missed 10 of 13 shots and committed four turnovers. The Thunder eventually outscored the Warriors 36-23 in the period.
It was just another in a litany of poor third quarters this season for Golden State, which has now lost a season-worst eight straight games. That's the Warriors' longest streak since dropping nine in a row early last season.
"Tonight was just sloppy turnovers and then the third quarter," said Curry, who finished with 23 points. "I think we need to petition the NBA to not have a halftime and just keep playing. Maybe that'll help us out."
Tolliver had 11 points and 11 rebounds to celebrate his first game after receiving a pro-rated contract for the remainder of the season. To make room, the Warriors cut loose Speedy Claxton, giving up some flexibility in terms of potentially engineering a swap at the trade deadline with the loss of Claxton's expiring $5.2 million contract.
The Warriors could have cut other players who make less money and thus hold lower value as a bargaining chip, such as Devean George, who has a $1.6 million expiring deal, and Chris Hunter, himself a former D-Leaguer who earned a pro-rated minimum-rate deal earlier this season.
"Sometimes you wait around forever, and (trades with) expiring contracts never happen, anyway," Warriors coach Don Nelson said. "I'm sure Larry knew what he was doing there. If you don't know by now if you can do something with an expiring contract, you've got to have a pretty good idea."
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