{"id":142636,"date":"2017-12-28T04:26:33","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T09:26:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=142636"},"modified":"2025-01-20T17:39:02","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T22:39:02","slug":"george-westbrook-lead-thunder-past-raptors-124-107","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/28\/george-westbrook-lead-thunder-past-raptors-124-107\/","title":{"rendered":"George, Westbrook lead Thunder past Raptors 124 107"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_142637\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-142637\" style=\"width: 851px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/851px-PaulGeorge.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-142637\" src=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/851px-PaulGeorge.jpg\" alt=\"Paul George in 2013 (Photo By TownePost Network - http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/atgeist\/10560296716\/sizes\/o\/, CC BY 2.0)\" width=\"851\" height=\"900\" srcset=\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/851px-PaulGeorge.jpg 851w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/851px-PaulGeorge-284x300.jpg 284w, https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/851px-PaulGeorge-768x812.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 851px) 100vw, 851px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-142637\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Paul George in 2013 (<a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/w\/index.php?curid=30235063\">Photo By TownePost Network &#8211; http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/atgeist\/10560296716\/sizes\/o\/, CC BY 2.0<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>OKLAHOMA CITY &#8212; The Oklahoma City Thunder are having fun playing basketball and that&#8217;s translating into a long winning streak.<\/p>\n<p>Paul George went 7 of 10 from 3-point range &#8211; tying the Thunder record for 3s in a game &#8211; and scored 33 points and Russell Westbrook added 30 points, 13 assists and eight rebounds as Oklahoma City won its sixth straight game, beating the red-hot Toronto Raptors 124-107 on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy cipro online <a href=\"https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/cipro.html\">https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/cipro.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>Carmelo Anthony and Steven Adams had 18 points each for Oklahoma City, which is 12-3 in December and is five games over .500 after an 8-12 start. The Thunder are alone in second place in the Northwest Division, two games behind Minnesota.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe biggest thing is on the court, we&#8217;re expecting to win,\u201d George said. \u201cThat just changes really everything, your whole outlook stepping into a game, to preparation, to getting each other ready. We&#8217;re just stepping on that floor and we&#8217;re expecting to win.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder won despite being on the wrong end of a 23-2 run in the first half, during which the Raptors built a 12-point lead in the second quarter.<\/p>\n<p>C.J. Miles led the Raptors with 20 points, while Jonas Valanciunas added 16 and DeMar DeRozan had 15. Kyle Lowry went 3 of 10 from the field but had a double-double with 13 points and 10 assists.<\/p>\n<p>Toronto entered the game as the hottest team in the Eastern Conference, but lost its second game in as many nights and fell to 10-3 in December. Miles went 6 of 12 from 3-point range but the Raptors otherwise struggled from behind the arc, finishing 11 of 38.<\/p>\n<p>The Thunder posted a sizable 52-34 edge in rebounding.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe ran into a well-oiled machine tonight,\u201d Toronto coach Dwane Casey said. \u201cWe had stretches but just didn&#8217;t have the juice or the energy to come in. It&#8217;s a difficult part &#8212; two in a row. We should hurt, we should be down, be upset that we lost two in a row. We didn&#8217;t earn either game. We didn&#8217;t earn last night the way we played and we didn&#8217;t earn the game tonight in the stretches we played bad. We&#8217;ve got to put a full game together.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City rallied to take a 66-63 halftime lead and outscored Toronto 18-10 over the final 5:41 of the third quarter. The Thunder went up 102-88 on a late 3-pointer by Raymond Felton, then pulled away in the fourth quarter, their lead peaking at 117-96 with 4:47 left on a 3-pointer by George .<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy female viagra online <a href=\"https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/female-viagra.html\">https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/female-viagra.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe played like crap,\u201d DeRozan said. \u201cAs a team. Down the line individually. And it showed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Oklahoma City jumped to a 32-23 lead with 2:30 left in the first quarter, but the Raptors seized control with a 23-2 run and led 46-34 after Deion Wright&#8217;s three-point play with 9:55 left in the half. The Thunder rebounded to take a seven-point lead before settling for a 66-63 halftime lead.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe just stuck to the game plan,\u201d George said. \u201cWe knew we needed to be more aggressive. That wasn&#8217;t how we wanted to end that first quarter after we played so well (to start). We knew we had to kick it up another notch. That&#8217;s a really good, explosive offensive team. We just couldn&#8217;t allow them to get comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>TIP-INS:<\/p>\n<p>Raptors: Serge Ibaka, a fan favourite during his seven seasons for the Thunder before being traded in June 2016, received a hearty ovation during pre-game introductions and waved to the crowd. &#8230; The Raptors went 24 of 26 from the free-throw line, with Jakob Poeltl responsible for both misses. &#8230; Lucas Nogueira got in the game late in the fourth quarter, after missing the previous 11 games with a right calf injury.<\/p>\n<p>Thunder: Westbrook and Valanciunas each received a technical foul after a second-quarter skirmish, and later in the quarter, Adams and Valanciunas were called for a double foul after getting tangled up under the Toronto basket. &#8230; The Raptors&#8217; 38 points were the most in the first quarter by a Thunder opponent this season. &#8230; The game was delayed about 3 minutes in the third quarter after a small electrical fire by one of the catwalks at Chesapeake Energy Arena.<\/p>\n<p>QUOTABLE:<\/p>\n<p>George, on the brief delay due to the electrical fire: \u201cWe were on fire. The roof was on fire. I think we had something to do with that. . The energy was amazing. From the energy we generated on the floor to the fans giving us energy to keep going. It was too much energy &#8211; lights were blowing out.<\/p>\n<div style=\"position:absolute;left:-99195px;\"> buy addyi online <a href=\"https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/addyi.html\">https:\/\/primeraeyecare.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/png\/addyi.html<\/a> no prescription pharmacy <\/div>\n<p>\u201d<\/p>\n<p>NEXT UP:<\/p>\n<p>Raptors: Host Atlanta on Friday.<\/p>\n<p>Thunder: Continue their four-game home stand, hosting Milwaukee on Friday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>OKLAHOMA CITY &#8212; The Oklahoma City Thunder are having fun playing basketball and that&#8217;s translating into a long winning streak. &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":142637,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[14928,5985,18693,18694,902,41004,30175,15324,39442,13256,41003],"class_list":["post-142636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-carmelo-anthony","tag-demar-derozan","tag-jonas-valanciunas","tag-kyle-lowry","tag-minnesota","tag-northwest-division","tag-oklahoma-city","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-paul-george","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-steven-adams","mauthors-murray-evans","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=142636"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":286266,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/142636\/revisions\/286266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/142637"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=142636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=142636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=142636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}