Thunder beat Suns 124-103 to snap 3-game skid

Unsurprisingly, Kevin Durant (32 points, 11 rebounds) and Russell Westbrook (21 points, 13 assist, 6 rebounds, 4 steals) led the charge for Oklahoma City.

Compare that to the Oklahoma City Thunder, whose starters scored 77 points on 50% shooting.

If the last Thunder game against the Bulls is what I called a ‘system loss,’ this is one that I’d call a ‘system win.’ With the exception of one player, every man on the Thunder squad did exactly what they’re capable of doing without breaking too much of a sweat.

To Donovan’s point, it’s pretty clear what the Thunder are going to get from Durant, Westbrook and often times, Serge Ibaka. Coming into Sunday’s game against Phoenix, he was averaging 29.8 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, 1.7 blocks per game while shooting 48.4 percent from the floor and 42.5 percent from deep. Dion Waiters added 19 points.

“They did a great job tonight”, Westbrook said of the bench. After cutting the lead to 9 points on a nifty Eric Bledsoe assist to TJ Warren for an uncontested dunk, the Thunder took advantage of Phoenix misses and miscues to go on a 16-3 run to put the game out of reach for good. “With the way they fastbreak, you can’t turn the ball over because it’s easy layups”.

Led by Westbrook, the Thunder built a 15-point lead in the first quarter.

52-33 – Rebounding edge for the Thunder, despite going against the Suns who ranked second in the National Basketball Association in rebounding heading into the game. Bledsoe’s 20 points in the first half was the second-highest first-half total of his career. That’s an 18 possession swing for Oklahoma City. If Kanter and Waiters can continue that production from a bench role, the Thunder will be hard to slow down for four quarters.

“We need to go through these times”, Durant said. “We hit them in the mouth early to start the third quarter and we just cruised on”.

Even with normal bench staples forwards Nick Collison and Anthony Morrow not getting a single minute of action, the Thunder’s bench outscored the Suns’ reserves 47-38.

“We talked about this during the timeouts”, Kanter said. “We have to do this because (opponents) are really going at us the last three games”. That’s 25 of the Thunder’s 31 second quarter points. Phoenix Suns coach Jeff Hornacek said the team is figuring out the best way to make use of C Tyson Chandler…. If Westbrook is trying to fire up the Thunder crowd and get his team off to a good start, mission accomplished.

“I don’t think as coach with your team want to say we’re locked in and we’re never changing and this is who we want to be the rest of the year because things can change”, Donovan said.