Coming off of his second straight scoring title, Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic on Christmas Day. Dwight Howard won the tip over Serge Ibaka and Jameer Nelson found Ryan Anderson for the first bucket of the game. The Thunder went down the court on their first possession and Kevin Durant made fader despite tight defense from Hedo Turkoglu. The Magic started the game with an 18-11 run thanks to six points from Anderson. Russel Westbrook was a good orchestrator on offense for Oklahoma City, varying the pace of their offense, and involving his teammates after being criticized last season in the postseason for taking too many shots. Orlando came out shooting strong, starting the game 8-9, but then went cold for most of the rest of the game. In that stretch, the Thunder were too passive on offense against the older and much slower Magic. Oklahoma City is a young, fast team with Westbrook, Durant, James Harden, Eric Maynor, and Daequan Cook. The Magic have guys like Howard, Turkoglu, and Glen "Big Baby" Davis, who are not known for running the floor. As the game progressed, OKC became much better at pushing the floor on fast breaks and taking advantage of easy points. Many of Orlando's offensive possessions were led by Hedo Turkoglu, which seemed like a misuse of two players on the Magic. Turkoglu is a thirty-two-year-old small forward whose ideal role is being a spot-up shooter. Orlando has a quality point guard in Jameer Nelson, who has seven years of experience running the Magic's offense as a pass-first player. Oklahoma City showed great ball movement, keeping the Magic on their heels, and finding great looks for different players. The biggest play of the first quarter was when Howard was stripped by Harden, the Thunder went on a four-man fast break, and Harden found Nazr Mohammed for the bucket.
It was prommising for Oklahoma City at the end of the first quarter and start of the second, when the Thunder were able to play well with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook on the bench. OKC's bench played very well against the Magic, led by Harden, who might have the coolest facial hair in the league and enough to make up for the lack of hair on Durant, Westbrook, Cook, and Maynor. Harden finished the game with 19 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 assists. Oklahoma City won the battle of the boards early and extended its lead with back-to-back three-pointers from Eric Maynor and Daequan Cook. For the Magic, Ryan Anderson and Jameer Nelson were the only players with good shooting nights. Anderson led Orlando with 25 points on 9-17 shooting (6-12 on his three-point attempts). Orlando's shooting woes were the worst for Howard and Jason Richardson, who were a combined 5-22 for 13 points. Big Baby struggled in the first half on both ends of the floor, with three personal fouls and hitting only a third of his shots. Durant hit a three to make the score 44-29 in favor of OKC as the arena erupted as the home team started to pull away. Kevin Durant had a mismatch all night against the Magic, being defended by the much slower Turkoglu for most of the game. Durant could drive to the basket at will and Orlando would have to make the choice between surrendering a basket or fouling him. Westbrook found Harden for an alley-oop at the end of the second quarter to give the Thunder a 55-41 lead going into halftime.
Westbrook started off the third quarter with a turn-around fading jump shot, drew a foul, and made the free throw for an old-fashioned three-point play. Durant then had his own three point play after dribbling past Hedo Turkoglu and being fouled by Howard. Jameer Nelson was a good motor for Orlando and kept them from getting blown out by the Thunder. Nelson dropped 18 points on a night where the Magic were uncharacteristically bad from behind the arc. Serge Ibaka, who led the NBA in blocked shots last season, was a strong defensive presence throughout the game for Oklahoma City with six rebounds and two blocks, one of which drew fans to their feet after he had a monster rejection against Nelson on a lay-up attempt. Thabo Sefolosha, a future Hedo Turkoglu, his both of his spot up threes and had eight points in the game. While Dwight Howard had an off night shooting the ball, he made his presence known through his rebounds, finishing with fifteen.
At the start of the fourth quarter, OKC was winning 81-63 and Harden was even more impressive as the game progressed. He drained shots from all over the court and was a pesky defender. I'll make the prediction that unless Harden makes his way into the Thunder's starting lineup, he will win 6th Man of the Year. It is Oklahoma City's Western Conference to lose and Harden has developed into a player who could start and average eighteen to twenty points per game for any team in the NBA. I was very impressed by the Thunder's team chemistry. All of their players were unselfish with the ball and the sky is the limit with as much youth and energy Oklahoma City has on their team. Daequan Cook made a jumper from behind the arc to give OKC its biggest lead of the game, 85-63. The Magic continued to shoot poorly from the field and they lacked an identity with Howard on the bench. Orlando made the game closer at the end but still lost 97-89. Oklahoma City was very impressive in their first game of the season and deserve to be the favorite in the Western Conference. Kevin Durant finished with 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 6 assists. Westbrook, who was on the All-NBA 2nd Team last season, scored 14 points along with 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
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