Thunder Stuffs Suns In Second Half, Rallies For Win

After a bad loss to Utah Saturday, the Thunder rallied from a 20-point deficit to get a big win at Phoenix, 109-97. 

Sunday, March 29th 2015, 11:59 pm

By: News 9


In a tight playoff race, every game matters. After laying a major egg Saturday night in Utah, Oklahoma City desperately needed to pick up a win in Phoenix to keep the Suns in its rearview mirror and shake off its recent road struggles.

What began as the start of another disastrous loss ended up as a huge road win for the Thunder as OKC rallied from a 20-point deficit to take down the Suns, 109-97.

Oklahoma City trailed by 20 midway through the second quarter and had given up 54 points in the process. But over the last 30 minutes of the game, the Thunder gave up just 43 points and just 35 points after halftime, the same number Phoenix scored in the first quarter alone.

With the defense keeping the Suns off the scoreboard, the Thunder offense chipped away at the deficit, cutting the lead to 62-54 at halftime and tying it at 71 with 5:33 to go in the third quarter. The Thunder finally took the lead early in the fourth quarter, and a barrage of 3-pointers from the second unit built a 95-83 lead that was big enough for the Thunder to hold down for the win.

D.J. Augustin and Anthony Morrow combined to go 7-of-10 from 3-point range and hit five of the Thunder's six 3-pointers in the fourth quarter. Augustin finished with 19 points and Morrow had 11. Kyle Singler had the other 3-pointer in the final period, but it was his defense in the second half that was his biggest contribution to the OKC win.

Markieff Morris—a constant thorn in the Thunder's side—had 16 points in the first quarter on 7-of-8 shooting. For the rest of the game, Morris had eight points on 3-of-12 shooting, thanks in large part to Singler's defense.

The Suns are not a great matchup for the Thunder, but the play of Steven Adams negated the Suns' ability to play small with the Morris twins. Adams was dominant all night and played a game-high 42 minutes. He finished with a double-double of 13 points and 16 rebounds and was tremendous in the middle of the Thunder defense.

Russell Westbrook led OK with 33 points. It wasn't a great shooting night, as Westbrook was just 10-of-29, but he did go 12-of-14 at the free throw line. Dion Waiters had 18 points and Enes Kanter had 11. Waiters and Westbrook went a combined 2-of-13 from 3-point range.

The Thunder had dropped six of their last seven road games, so Sunday's win was enormous in terms of Oklahoma City's ability to maybe squeeze out a win on the road in the playoffs and make a first round series interesting.

But the fact OKC was able to rally with defense was the best part about the win over the Suns. Given the Thunder's major issues on defense recently, Sunday's performance should give the Thunder a bit of confidence on that end of the floor.

Every game matters, and performances like the second half of Sunday's game will have the Thunder comfortably in the playoffs in two weeks.

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