He also committed five fouls.ĭort, on waiting to get a full-time NBA contract: “Right now, I’m just staying patient. Noel blocked five shots and made all five of his field goal attempts. We always play close games, so I could care less. Me and Shai was on the bench talking about it - that it has been a while since we had a game where we had the chance to rest. Billy won’t let me be great, man,” Paul joked. Paul didn’t know he was so close to his 16th career triple-double until after the game. Donovan pulled Paul with 8:25 remaining and the Thunder leading 109-81. Paul came close to getting the first triple-double for a Thunder player at Chesapeake Energy Arena since Russell Westbrook last April.
Oklahoma City’s other double-figures scorers were Schroder with 13 points, Danilo Gallinari with 12 and Abdel Nader and Nerlens Noel each with 10. Backup G Terrance Ferguson did not play in the second half due to stiffness in his lower back. Thunder: Shot exactly 50% from the field in each of the first two quarters. G Dejounte Murray went scoreless on 0-for-7 shooting. Shot better from 3-point range in the first half (40%) than overall (35.1%) in the first half. Spurs: Committed just one turnover in the first quarter and finished with nine. “And in the second half, we were behind the eight ball in a lot of different ways.” “We have been playing well, but after that first half, it just looked like they didn’t have any juice,” Popovich said. It was a tough loss for a Spurs team that was coming off a solid win at Utah on Friday.
The Thunder shot 66.7% in the quarter while the Spurs shot 23.8%.Įarly in the fourth quarter, Adams passed behind his back to Schroder, who lobbed the ball to Adams for a one-handed throwdown that gave the Thunder a 104-77 lead. The Thunder continued to roll and outscored the Spurs 37-18 in the third quarter to take a 98-73 lead. The Thunder opened the second half on an 8-2 run, and the Spurs called a timeout. Oklahoma City led 61-55 at halftime behind 13 points from Dort. The Spurs led 45-36 in the second quarter before the Thunder went on a 16-0 run.