Russell Westbrook hits game winner as time expires; Warriors lose 113-112

Russell Westbrook celebrates after hitting the game-winner in OT against the Golden State Warriors.

It was a heart-breaking overtime loss for the Golden State Warriors, who played another strong game against the Oklahoma City Thunder.  For the first three quarters, these teams played a fast-paced contest filled with a lot of jump shots and and fast break lay-ups.  That is exactly how the Warriors want to play.

However, the Thunder were hot to start the game, including Russell Westbrook who started 5-5 and propelled the Thunder to an early 7- point lead.  The Warriors hung around due to some excellent first quarter play by Harrison Barnes and Steph Curry.  The two of them combined for the team’s first 16 points.

The Warriors made a nice little run of their own to take the lead but ended the half down three.  The third quarter was vintage Warrior basketball.  Klay Thompson, who struggled much of the first half, came alive, scoring 13 points in the quarter and gave the Warriors a 9 point lead.

They played excellent defense, holding Kevin Durant to 10 points through the first three quarters.  They also did an excellent job on Westbrook who followed up his hot start with 3-14 shooting.  The Warriors were unable to close out the quarter and started the 4th with a six point lead.  Then the 4th quarter began.

Kevin Durant decided it was time to take over and he did just that.  He was beautiful to start the 4th, scoring or assisting on the Thunders first 7 points to give them a 1-point lead.  All the work the Warriors had done in the 3rd quarter was undone in a matter of minutes.

It went blow for blow from there as Steph Curry and Harrison Barnes decided to turn it on again.  They scored 11 in a row to propel the Warriors on a run and gave the team a 5 point lead with 2:49 left.

That’s when the Thunder, who were struggling from the field, decided to get to the line at all costs.  They did it with ease.  Eight of the Thunders final ten points came at the line.  The Warriors found themselves down one with 24 seconds left when David Lee went to the line.  Of course, he only made 1 out of 2 to tie the game.  The Warriors had a nice defensive stand as Durant missed the game winner and the game went to over-time.

In OT, Steph made an early lay-up and then went very cold as the Warriors struggled to score.  The Thunder continued to get themselves to the line, fouling out Andrew Bogut in the process.

With 2:00 minutes left in the game and the Warriors down four, Kevin Durant had the ball and was ready to put the game away.  The Warriors couldn’t find any offense and to be down six with 1:50 left would have been nearly impossible to overcome.  That is when Harrison Barnes stole the ball from Kevin Durant and proceeded to get fouled in transition.  Harrison who was clutch all night made both free throws and cut the Thunder lead to two.

That in my mind was the biggest play of the game.  The Warriors then got a stop and David Lee made the luckiest lay-up of his life to even the game up.  Then who else but Harrison Barnes made an incredible reverse lay-up, avoiding Serge Ibaka, to give the Warriors the lead.

With 10 seconds left the Warriors were up two, and that is when their biggest defensive issue reared its ugly head.  The Warriors forced Kevin Durant into a difficult fade-away jumper, but got an offensive rebound which led to an Ibaka 15 footer.  Ibaka missed the 15-footer and Russell Westbrook proceeded to have the most ridiculous 5 second sequence I have ever seen.

Jermaine O’Neal skied to get the rebound, but Russell knocked it out of his hands.  Sefolosha tracked it down and threw it over his head to Kevin Durant.  Out of nowhere Russell swoops in and steals the pass from Durant and then hits a turn around corner three for the win.

As a basketball fan I loved every second of it.  As a Warriors fan I was devastated.  How can we let a team get two offensive rebounds in the last ten seconds to lose?

It was hard fought game for the Warriors who are proving they can go toe to toe with a very talented Thunder team.  However, the Warriors are now 9-8 and 1-2 on this long road trip.  They need to get a victory in Sacramento on Sunday to start separating themselves from the middling Western Conference playoff teams.

I want to see the Warriors put a complete game together from beginning to end against a playoff team in the West.  I know they are capable of it and with the team sitting around 500 something needs to happen soon.