MIAMI, FL. Oklahoma City took their 4-game winning streak into Miami's American Airlines Arena to face the Heat, who after a long drought of wins, were collecting bandwagon riders again with a 3-game winning streak.
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| Kevin Durant scored 29 points, dunking several times for the fans, including Dwayne Wade's Sidekick. |
This was Miami's first time facing the new, tougher Oklahoma City Thunder, who had acquired Kendrick Perkins, along with Nate Robinson, from the Boston Celtics for Jeff Green and Nenad Kristic at the trade deadline. The trade gave the Thunder the tough low post defender and rebounder that they have coveted to complement Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook; it was a move looking forward to playing deep into the playoffs and facing teams like Los Angeles Lakers and San Antonio Spurs.
The Miami Heat have proven very vulnerable to the particular combination that OKC was bringing into Miami on this night, and Miami once again failed to buck the trend.
The Heat have been dominated on the glass by superior teams, and the Thunder brought toughness and rebounding up front. They were able to rotate starters Kendrick Perkins and Serge Ibaka for Nick Collison and Nazr Mohammad, and their frontline helped to contribute to the Thunder's 51 - 40 edge in rebounds (17 - 9 on the offensive boards).
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| Russell Westbrook was too big, too strong, and too fast for the Miami defenders trying to guard him. |
Deron Williams, Baron Davis, NBA MVP leader Derrick Rose, among others have proven that a big strong scoring point guard can give the Heat fits. Oklahoma City also brought a big strong point guard in Russell Westbrook, who finished with 18 points and 5 assists. The Thunder dominated the guard position; Wade scored 21 points on an inefficient 21 shots while also allowing the usually defense-focused Thabo Sefolosha to put up 8 points and 6 rebounds.
Finally, the Thunder were able to focus on the defensive end, holding the big three to 23 points on 40 shots in the second half, and the Heat did not break the 90 mark for the game. The Heat managed a mere 85 points, 16 points below their season average. The Thunder's transition defense kept the Heat fast break in check, winning the fast break stat 18 - 15 for the game.
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| Dwayne Wade's Sidekick is featured on another poster, this time it's Kevin Durant's poster. |
Oh, yes, and a guy named Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 29 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists, scoring in a multitude of ways on his defender, Lebron James. I suppose tonight was a bad night for Lebron to have "chill time".
