Russell Westbrook rose up for a game-winning three-pointer with under three seconds to go. The ball sailed short – either tipped or due to defensive contact on the shot – and it fell into the arms of a falling Anthony Morrow under the basket near the baseline. The shooting guard slapped the ball back into play and the ball hung in the air, just above the ground for a half of a second before Steven Adams was able to corral it and dunk it through the hoop.
The flurry of activity stopped. Thunder fans thought they had just witnessed a game-tying bucket. The referees checked the monitor and the faithful at Chesapeake Energy Arena saw what they did. The clock had expired, the buzzer had sounded and the red lights around the backboard had illuminated just a split-second prior to Adams’ dunk. The result then stood – a 110-108 loss for the Thunder to the Atlanta Hawks.
Just prior to that possession with 2.9 seconds remaining, Westbrook came crashing down the lane on a floater attempt through contact, then gathered his own miss and tried to go up again but the ball was blocked.
“From my view, I thought he got fouled on the three and on the drive on the basket,” Head Coach Billy Donovan said of the final two possessions. “I’ll go back and watch the film and I could be mistaken.”
The Thunder led by as many as six with 4:05 to go, but Atlanta closed out the game on a 10-4 run behind the play of Dennis Schroeder (31 points) and Paul Millsap (30) points. Down the stretch, Schroeder scored on two free throws then he hit Millsap on a cutting layup before knocking down an 18-foot jumper. Millsap sealed the stretch with a fadeaway 10-foot jumper to give the Thunder the lead for good. All night long, including in the closing minutes, the Thunder couldn’t quite keep Atlanta’s playmakers in front of them.
“One of the things that hurt us was ball containment, the ball getting driven. Defensively in the first half I thought we did a pretty good job,” Donovan said. “We had a really hard time, when they were small, trying to contain the ball.”
Schroeder was particularly tricky, racking up those 31 points on just 10-for-16 shooting while going a perfect 10-for-10 from the free throw line and dishing out eight assists. On the perimeter the Thunder was switching nearly anything, but it was still extremely difficult with how small Atlanta can play, particularly without Dwight Howard in the lineup.
“There were a lot of different guys guarding him,” Donovan said. “We had a very hard time containing the dribble one-through-four.”
“They made some tough plays towards the end of the game, but we can do better on defense keeping the guys in front of us without fouling,” point guard Semaj Christon said.
For the night, the Hawks shot 54.7 percent compared to just 44.8 percent by the Thunder. For the most part the Hawks denied the Thunder’s big men from being a factor by blocking off dives to the rim and double teaming on every single post touch for Steven Adams or Enes Kanter. To thwart that, Kanter showed off his patience, timing and understanding of the floor by doing a really nice job of passing out of double teams to get the defense moving and generate hockey assists.
“They did a good job of neutralizing our front court,” Donovan explained. “We were trying to go inside and when we did get the ball inside, they totally sold out to take away any kind of post feeds, post touches and post isos.”
“Enes did great finding everybody when he knew the double team was coming,” Christon said. “We just moved without the ball and tried to get into open areas where he could see us, then finish plays.”
Donovan’s club had trouble knocking down shots, hitting just 10-for-35 from behind the arc, although Andre Roberson and Jerami Grant combined to make six three-pointers. In fact, Roberson hit two big ones as a part of a 10-3 run by the lineup of Christon, Roberson, Grant, Kyle Singler and Kanter early in the fourth quarter. Grant also hit a big one during a 7-0 flurry with less than five minutes to go for the Thunder.
The Thunder seemed to have those types of bursts all night, including a 9-3 stint in the first quarter and an 18-7 run to end the first half, but Atlanta always had a response. The Hawks racked up a 10-0 run towards the end of the third quarter to wrestle away control of the game, as the two teams racked up 16 lead changes and 13 ties throughout the night.
By the Numbers
6 – Combined three-pointers from Andre Roberson and Jerami Grant (3-for-3), the latter of whom tied a career-high for made threes in a game
14-5 – The Thunder’s advantage in second chance points on the night thanks to a plus-nine rebounding edge
46 – Points for Russell Westbrook on the night, in addition to 11 rebounds and seven assists in 35 minutes. Westbrook started the game 1-for-7 from the floor, then made nine of his next 11 shots.
The Last Word
“We were just trying to stay together, play for each other out there and whoever is open, shoot the ball.” – point guard Semaj Christon
