The Thunder limped into this game having played a tepid style of basketball over the past few weeks. They were a .500 ball club that seemed like they were going through the motions and hoping their collective talent would carry them to wins in the end. Fortunately for us all, the Thunder realized that when they display a level of focus and energy, their talent gets supercharged and the result is what we saw last night.
While I was practically beside myself as the Clippers started off red-hot once again from 3-point land to keep the game close, the Thunder never lost their composure. They knew they were defending better than in previous outings and chose to stay in their base defense rather than over-extend. As a result, they completely eliminated the Clips' inside presence. OKC held the duo of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan to only 19 points on 7-18 shooting, and only 9 rebounds. Without any inside presence, the Clips were forced to continue to rely on their outside shooting. Once the Thunder had dictated what offense they would allow, everything became simpler for them and they cruised to the win in the 4th.
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