 Hasheem Thabeet of the Thunder gets in the way of the Raptors' Alan Anderson's pass attempt during Sunday's game in Toronto. (Fred Thornhill/Reuters) |
TORONTO - Believe the hype.
The Oklahoma City Thunder could well be playing late into June again.
Few teams can match up with Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant, Serge Ibaka and the Thunder and the Raptors only could for snippets of the afternoon on Sunday, hanging around until OKC turned things up in the second half.
The final read 104-92, but it wasn’t really that close of a contest.
Westbrook cut through the heart of the Raptors defence at will and was a terror at the other end in a 23 point, seven assist, four steal outing.
Durant wasn’t in peak form, but still poured in 22 points with seven rebounds in an “off” night.
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Amir Johnson had 19 points, Alan Anderson a career-high 27, combining to shoot 18-for-25 from the field. The rest of the Raptors managed a not so robust 16-for-51.
For the second game in a row, Toronto’s bench outperformed the starters significantly, Johnson aside. Toronto only made a game of it originally because Anderson started 6-for-6 including 4-for-4 from deep.
The Raptors trailed only by a pair at the half, but when the starters struggled again heading out of the break, Westbrook and Durant took over.
The Thunder improved to 26-7, Toronto dropped to 12-22 with the second consecutive loss.