Thunder vs Rockets, final score: well rested Oklahoma City blown out in first quarter, falls to Houston 112-101

The Oklahoma City Thunder once again got blown out on the road, falling to the Houston Rockets, 112-101. Losing their 4th road game in a row, the Thunder came off a mid-season break of 5 rest days in between games by falling behind 40-18 in the opening quarter, looking as if little has been done to correct the myriad problems on either end of the court. Making it all the more painful, once again the Thunder had a chance to get their record back to .500 and failed to execute a game plan that could have helped them beat one of the league's best teams. The Thunder now trail both the Pelicans and Nuggets in a race for the 8th seed, currently held by the Suns who have a 3.5 game lead on OKC.

This being the NBA, there were plenty of opportunities for the Thunder to catch the hot-shooting Rockets. However, the Thunder could never close the deficit to less than 10 points, despite hitting that mark numerous times the rest of the way. In what has become a consistent team for this Thunder squad that appears unable to recover from deficits this season, key sequences that represent game-turning opportunities come up empty.

The Thunder could have made an amazing turnaround in the 2nd quarter and cut the lead to 8-9 points at the break, but could not convert before the half ended. The defense, maligned but not terrible, held the Rockets to only 24 points in each subsequent quarter after the opening deluge, but played Houston to a dead heat in the 2nd half. Lastly, the Thunder had one final shot at making the game competitive, closing the game to within 10 with over 11 minutes to play in the 4th. Stupefyingly, the Thunder lost the next 3 minutes of play, 12-0, a stretch where OKC committed 2 turnovers and missed multiple long range shots instead of attacking the rim while Dwight Howard was out of the game. Three minutes later, the lead was back to 22, the same deficit that OKC saw at the end of their horrific 1st quarter. All that time passed, yet no ground made up. Ball game.

The Thunder were led by Dion Waiters, who took 16 shots. Russell Westbrook chipped in with 13 shots, Kevin Durant and Reggie Jackson each got 12, and Serge Ibaka got 11.

The Rockets were led by bearded journeyman James Harden, who let loose for 31 points on only 15 shots.