Thunder takes control of NBA West thanks to Durant and Westbrook
Only a half game separates the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder after 75 of the 82 games of the regular season have been played.
The Thunder will soon enter the post season and defend their Western Conference title of last season. Oklahoma City has two of the best players in the league that come to play each and every game.
Kevin Durant and teammate Russell Westbrook have both played in every one of the team’s 75 games this season. In Durant’s short six-year career, he has only missed 14 games overall. However, Durant’s longevity fails in comparison to that of Westbrook’s.
The Thunder guard never sat out a game during high school, college or now in the NBA. Westbrook holds the current longest streak for consecutive games played in the NBA with 387, including 43 in the playoffs.
The two are always on the court and that was evident in the Thunder’s win on Thursday over the San Antonio Spurs.
The Spurs were without Manu Ginobili and point guard Tony Parker only managed to play 25 minutes of unproductive basketball scoring just 2 points in the game. Parker sat for good in the middle of the fourth quarter with the game still on the line.
The win by Oklahoma City gave them all but the lead in the Western Conference. The Thunder is a half game behind in the win column, tied in the loss column and holds the tiebreaker against the Spurs.
The win on Thursday might not be a good example of how the two teams might play if they meet in the post season, but what the Thunder did was take control of the conference.
San Antonio at this point is hurting. The Spurs have lost four of their past seven games and have not played the same since Parker was hurt on March 1.
The Durant and Westbrook duo has made Oklahoma one of the best scoring teams; second in the NBA behind Houston. Not only is Durant leading the league in scoring averaging over 28 points per game, but also Westbrook is sixth in the league in scoring averaging 23 points per game. Between the two, they average 51 points per game out of the 106 per game the Thunder score as a team.
Even more impressive is Westbrook is averaging 7.5assists per game and an impressive 5.3 rebounds per game, while Durant averages just fewer than 8 rebounds and 4.5 assists per game.
It is no wonder why the Thunder sit atop their division and now their conference and look to be the team to beat in the West come the postseason. Oklahoma City might be the only team in the NBA that could give the Miami Heat a run for their money in the NBA Finals.
