The Oklahoma City Thunder came into this game against the Indiana Pacers trying to bounce back from the loss to Memphis. One of the biggest adjustments that the Thunder made tonight was the aggressiveness in the paint offensively and defensively. In the past couple of game, the Thunder were allowing a lot of points in the paint and they changed that tonight. When The Thunder start the game off with Steven Adams being that aggressive it’s very hard to beat this team. The Thunder exposed the mismatches with Adams in the paint all night. The Pacers tried to stop Steven Adams by putting Myles Turner and Domantas Sabonis on him all night which didn’t work. Steven Adams was able to get in the paint and get putback dunks and even utilize his hook shot to his advantage. Steven Adams had a huge bounce-back game tonight as he was able to get back into the groove of the offense after not putting up big numbers previously. Adams finished with 25 points and 12 rebounds on the night and set the tone for the Thunder throughout the game inside the paint tonight. One person who didn’t need much to get his shot going with Paul George as he was able to make anything that he put up tonight it seemed like.
Paul George was being guarded by Wesley Matthews majority of the night and showed why people have him in the MVP race. George is a special talent and showed that tonight against his former team the Indiana Pacers. When George is in a zone like tonight he transforms into PG-13 and you can tell when he’s locked in when he starts yelling. Paul George made an incredible and-1 shot behind the backboard on Matthews which was an 11 on the difficulty chart. The Thunder moves the way that George and Westbrook move and tonight proved that they’re still an elite team even with people trying to write them off. Paul George finished with 31 points on the night and made the Pacers pay for every 3 pointers they left him open for on the night.
Westbrook was able to showcase that he can get his teammates involved and still be that leader that OKC needs to make that strong playoff push. Westbrook attempted 15 shots on the night but it was about his teammates tonight. Russell Westbrook was able to get another triple-double on the night with 17 points, 12 assists, and 10 rebounds. The thing that a lot of people forget is the fact that Westbrook has grown on and off the court. Westbrook has been able to make the people around him better and a prime example is the play of Paul George and Jerami Grant. The confidence that Russell Westbrook gives his teammates is contagious and it shows in the play of Jerami Grant. Tonight Grant was able to 5 of 8 threes on the night and finished with 19 points on the night and as PG said: “He’s the X-Factor” on the Thunder this season.
The Indiana Pacers had a bright spot tonight with the shooting of Bojan Bogdanovic as he finished with 28 points. It seemed like he was able to make the toughest shots with Thunder defenders in his face. Once he saw that ball go through the hoop he was able to get that confidence and it spilled over to Domantas. On the night it seemed that Sabonis was able to make some tough shots as well because of the Thunder defense. Myles Turner was able to grab some rebounds to lead to second-chance points to help the Pacers but OKC always answered. In that 3rd quarter, the Thunder were able to catch up to their gameplan as OKC went on a 24-0 run that pretty much gave them separation for the rest of the game. The Thunder needed that win and they were able to get that one before some tough games coming up in this home stretch.
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