The Oklahoma City Thunder finished off their 3 game road trip by beating the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Pistons. That improves their record to 7-13. Each game though was more of a struggle than it should have been, but thankfully this is the NBA and not college football where style points matter. At this point in the season with where the Thunder are any win will do. It is pretty clear that they are still trying to figure out how to play together once again. Most teams figure this out in preseason, but the Thunder were only able to play one scrimmage and one game together before Kevin Durant went down. It may be a couple of weeks before they start to look like themselves on a consistent basis. Last night though was a step in the right direction.

Going into the game last night in Detroit, the Pistons had lost 11 in a row, including losing the previous night to the 1-18 76ers. It has been a struggle thus far for Stan Van Gundy in Detroit as he tries to remake their team. The Thunder though got off to a terrible start. Too many turnovers, missed shots, and too little defense played in the first quarter led to them being down at one point by 11. They just kind of came out really flat and with not a lot of energy. They cut the lead down to 7 by halftime. The Thunder sometimes have played down to their competition, but thankfully tonight it did not cost them. In the third quarter they came out with more energy on both ends of the court. They were flying around and switching actively on defense and attacking the offensive glass. They ended up with 13 offensive rebounds in the 2nd half alone. They only average 10 offensive rebounds per game. The main contributor in that area was Serge Ibaka. He ended up with 13 rebounds total and 6 offensive rebounds. He was positioning himself well and was able to get several putbacks off of missed shots. That helped to turn the tide for the Thunder. They ended up outscoring the Pistons by 9 in the third quarter to take a 2 point lead. The Thunder ended up getting it to as much as 8 after this Russell Westbrook dunk.

Oh my goodness. What a dunk. I was afraid he might have broken his hand or broken the rim. He tomahawked that thing. I have seen some powerful Westbrook dunks, but oh my goodness that may have been one of the best ones. It even earned the play of the game from the Pistons broadcast team. That is how good it was. Have I mentioned how good it is to have him and Durant back. They just make sitting through a game in early December worth every penny.

The problem with that dunk though was this is not Harlem or any streetball court where you get to walk-off after a powerful dunk. They still had to play the last 6 and a half minutes. The Pistons did not go away instead they made one last charge and go to within one at 93-92 with about a minute left to go, but Durant calmly received a pass on the next possession and splashed through a 3 of his own to make it 96-92. The Pistons would add two more points and then Josh Smith would attempt a game-winning 3 with one second left and it went wide to the right and the Thunder held on for a 96-94 win.

There are some areas that they need to improve and I am sure they will. They need to play consistently on defense, continue to attack the glass, and continue to share the ball. There were some bright spots. Kevin Durant bounced back from scoring 10 points on Friday against the 76ers to scoring 28 points against the Pistons. He was more active and his shot was falling last night. Jeremy Lamb continued his solid play with 12 points last night. He was attacking the rim with floaters and made 2 more 3 pointers. Serge Ibaka had a double-double last night with 13 points and 13 rebounds. Finally Westbrook played a solid floor game with 22 points, 7 assists, and 11 rebounds.

They now return home for a 2 game homestand this week against the Milwaukee Bucks and the red-hot Lebron James’. Should be interesting to see how this team fares at home against two good Eastern Conference teams. I can’t wait till Thursday, any time Lebron and KD are on the court together it is great. At this point they still need wins. They are 4.5 games behind Phoenix for the 8th seed.They just need to continue to win.