Monday, January 19, 2015

NBA scores 2015: OKC blows out Orlando, Raptors still looking for answers

Posted by Doc Fantasy
Monday, January 19, 2015 | 0 comments

A blowout win for OKC, big nights from Elfrid Payton and Rudy Gobert, and the rest of the action from Sunday in the NBA.

It was only days ago that we were wondering when the Oklahoma City Thunder would come alive and start making a run for the eighth seed in the Western Conference. That may have happened this weekend as the team followed up a big win against the Golden State Warriors by blowing out the Orlando Magic, 127-99, on Sunday night.

Things haven't gone the Thunder's way yet this season, stifled by Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook both missing time due to injury, but the past few days have been encouraging. The team topped first-place Golden State on Friday night, 112-101, thanks to an incredible triple-double from Westbrook, then beat up on a young Orlando team to finish the weekend.

We haven't seen many outright dominant performances from this year's Thunder, not with Durant and Westbrook playing together in so few games, but the team delivered one Sunday. Even if it came against the Magic, this was what you wanted to see two days after beating arguably the best team in the league.

The Thunder had this one decided relatively early, jumping out to a 13-0 lead that would expand to 37-20 by the end of the first quarter. OKC didn't relent from there, starting the next period on a 7-0 run, and eventually the advantage ballooned to 79-45 by the end of the half.

The game was pretty much decided by that point, so Scott Brooks pulled the Thunder's starters midway through the third period. When Westbrook and Durant departed, Oklahoma City was still leading by 30 points. The final 15-plus minutes of the game were, for all intents and purposes, garbage time.

That meant 10 different players on the Thunder appeared for at least 15 minutes, led by Durant and Serge Ibaka with 28 apiece. Durant still put up big numbers, recording 21 points on 7-of-10 shooting, 11 rebounds and eight assists, while Ibaka went for 16 points and eight rebounds. Westbrook had 17 points on 7-of-12 shooting and six assists in 24 minutes. All of them got some nice rest with the game out of hand.

The starters still outscored the OKC bench, but Dion Waiters (16 points), Reggie Jackson (13 points) and Kendrick Perkins (11 points) all tallied in double digits. Jeremy Lamb came close with an efficient eight points in six minutes. Overall, the team shot 57.8 percent from the field.

So this was a complete team effort from the Thunder, the likes of which we haven't really seen from Brooks' team this season. It wasn't simply an offensive masterpiece, either -- OKC dominated in rebounding, 54-33, and held Orlando to 39.8 percent shooting. Those 20 turnovers can be forgiven considering how well the team performed in every other facet of the game.

The Thunder have had a rough start to the season, and only get back to .500 with this win. A 20-20 record puts them a long way from the No. 8 seed in the West, and they'll likely need to post one of the best records in the league from here on out to reach the postseason.

However, this is still an OKC team with KD, Russ and Serge, and we've seen that trio beat up on opponents for years. Given what we saw over the weekend, there's reason to believe the rest of the league should be worried if those guys stay healthy the remainder of the year.

3 other things we learned

Orlando may have a keeper in Elfrid Payton. The Magic knew they didn't have a legit point guard in Victor Oladipo, so they went out and traded for Payton during the 2014 NBA Draft. A few months into his rookie campaign, we're seeing why GM Rob Hennigan traded to get the talented point guard. Coming off season highs of 22 points and 12 assists in a fantastic showing against Memphis on Friday, Payton put up 19 points and eight assists in the Magic's loss to OKC on Sunday night. His numbers this month -- 11.3 points, 6.7 assists, five rebounds, two steals per game -- show how he can impact the game in different ways, and he's limiting his turnovers (2.2 per game) during that stretch, too. The Magic may not have a prototypical backcourt with Payton and Oladipo, but they definitely have talent.

It's time to start paying attention to Rudy Gobert, too. After taking some time to mature and adjust to the NBA game, Gobert appears to be blossoming in his sophomore season. The Utah Jazz have been turning to Gobert more and more over the past few weeks, and it's resulted in some downright impressive performances. The latest came Sunday in a 89-69 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, where Gobert was one of the few bright spots by going off for 13 points, 18 rebounds and four blocks in 29 minutes of action. Since taking on a larger role in early January when starting center Enes Kanter was sidelined, the 7'1 Gobert has shown he's deserving of some hype:

Gobert	MPG	PPG	RPG	BPG	FG%
Before Dec. 31	18.6	5.6	6.4	1.7	61.9
Since Jan. 1	31.0	10.0	9.2	4.2	61.5

The Toronto Raptors' troubles persist. A long homestand was supposed to cure what ailed Toronto, but the team dropped its latest game Sunday, 95-93, to the New Orleans Pelicans. The Raptors have now lost seven of their past nine games, including four of six at Air Canada Centre over the past couple weeks. Working DeMar DeRozan back into the lineup has been a process, and the team's once-intimidating defense has seemingly lost its bite. This is a relatively easy stretch of the schedule for Toronto, with a glut of games against Eastern Conference opponents, but the team's only wins this month have come against the Philadelphia 76ers and Boston Celtics.