Quotes, Notes, and Links: Oklahoma City Thunder 111 Atlanta Hawks 104

Boxscore

Gameflow

Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
OKC	91	1.22	54.8	17.8	32.4	11
ATL	90	1.156	51.2	24.4	35.1	17.8

Larry Drew:

"Take nothing from Oklahoma City; they are a good team. The disappointing thing is the physicality in which they played with, we didn’t match it. We didn’t get after loose balls. We didn’t get on the floor. Yeah, they were coming over our backs on some plays but you have got to box out, you have got to get your body into them. They fought screens. They played with a physicality that we did not match."

Al Horford:

"I don’t think we did well as far as protecting the paint.It had something to do with me being in foul trouble and not wanting to be as aggressive helping out. They took advantage of that in the first half. After that, they seemed to have the shooting and the scoring in the paint going.

I like the way that our team came out and showed up. Yeah, we could have probably picked up the intensity more. But I felt like we played hard. We were one or two plays away but we couldn’t get it done."

Joe Johnson:

"I thought we came out with the right energy and effort in how we wanted the game to be dictated. But we just didn’t get stops when we needed them down the stretch like we wanted to."

Johnson on Kevin Durant scoring 29 points on 18 shots despite a recently sprained left ankle:

"He showed no signs of being hurt. I give him a lot of credit. He willed them to that victory, he and Westbrook. They are a great tandem."

Durant:

"My adrenaline was pumping a little bit and my teammates got me going, so I was able to make some shots a little bit."

...and Durant on the Hawks:

"The Hawks are a great team and they bring the best out of us. We shot well against them from three, and me and Russell and James all were hitting from outside."

At Daily Thunder, Royce Young provides the Oklahoma City perspective:

I honestly don’t think the Thunder’s doing a whole lot differently, but they are definitely picking up a little bit of comfort in their new skin. They’re understanding who fits where and you can just tell how much stronger they are inside. Nazr Mohammed and Serge Ibaka didn’t do anything incredible tonight — 14 points, 11 rebounds between them — but they sealed off the inside and held Al Horford to just 15 points. A big part of that was Nick Collison’s outstanding effort off the bench, but as a whole, I think it’s becoming more and more clear that the Thunder’s just better right now.

...

This was a game where it really felt like the Thunder was the superior team throughout. The Hawks have enough offensive talent in Joe Johnson, Jamal Crawford and Horford to always stay tight, but without Josh Smith, OKC kind of seemed dominant. I don’t think it was the case, but really, other than the Hawks getting it to two with a minute left, I never felt much worry about the outcome.