โI wanted to breathe smokeโ
The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Sacramento Kings on the road, 122-118. Behind the 20th triple-double on the season by Russell Westbrook (36-11-10, 4 steals, 7 TOs), the Thunder got back in the win column and moved 8 games over .500 once again.
The game, which is the 2nd of 6 consecutive road games and the first of a back-to-back (Clippers are tomorrow), was an up-and-down affair. The Thunder would play stretches of brilliant ball, only to follow it up by sloppy play which allowed the Kings to get back into it.
In fact, OKCโs inability to put away the Kings nearly cost them the game. Though the Thunder were up by 12 with under 2 minutes to play and by 9 with 30 seconds to play, OKC needed late game free throw shooting and a key defensive stop to finally seal the win. The roller-coaster affair was in part fueled by an extremely poor officiating game that both helped and hurt both teams throughout. The two teams ended up with a combined 81 free throws attempted on the night, which bore out more than anything the refereesโ inability to really hone in on how physical this game should have been expected to be, given that it featured Steven Adams and DeMarcus Cousins among others.
