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The Oklahoma City Thunder got up big, but the Suns came roaring back to win a thriller over their rivals. Gerald Green had a career high 41 points and Goran Dragic scored 6 of the Suns 8 deciding points to take their final lead.
BEST. GAME. OF. THE. SEASON.
The Oklahoma City Thunder jumped out and punched the Suns first, getting up to an 18-8 lead before the Suns could right their ship.
That 10-point lead proved to be the difference as the Thunder and Suns played even for the next two quarters until Gerald Green's unconscious shooting put the Suns right back into the game.
The Thunder built a 16-point lead (96-80) before the Suns started coming back with a vengeance. Gerald Green did, that is. The Suns went on a 28-5 run to take a 7-point lead (108-101) with 9:33 to go. The crowd was ELECTRIC.
Then Russell Westbrook came back in. The Suns had to work hard to keep the lead, with the Thunder back to scoring nearly every time down.
At the 5:42 mark with a 4-point lead, every second felt like it was taking a minute to pass.
For while, it looked dicey as OKC took the lead back. Russell Westbrook couldn't miss a shot of his own. He made three 3s in the fourth alone to help bring the Thunder back, scoring 36 points on the night.
But the Suns would not be denied, and Goran Dragic got the Suns back into the lead with 4 straight points at the rim. The a Morris-Morris oop. Then a Dragic midrange dagger.
Holy s$^$t!
And TNT didn't want this game.
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First half notes
The Suns came out like lambs, while the Oklahoma City Thunder came out like lions.
Russell Westbrook started the game with two steals running right into fast break slams, and finished a teammate's steal with an FB dunk as well. He was bouncing and flexing all over the court like he couldn't stay in his own skin.
The Thunder as a team played right up on the Suns, and the team did not respond, allowing the Thunder to take an 18-8 lead on an 8-0 run after the Suns had pulled to 10-8.
The Thunder kept laying it on, even with their backups in the game with Kevin Durant who just deferred to teammates the whole first quarter. It's embarrassing to lose big to the Thunder. It's embarrassing-er when Durant doesn't even have to score in the process.
First quarter Thunder points: 41. League leading scorer Kevin Durant: 5.
Thunder 41. Suns 32.
Scoring slowed down in the second quarter with the teams' best scorers on the bench as the Suns tried to whittle down the Thunder lead bit by bit.
The Suns momentarily cut the lead to 5, but then Thunder pulled back out to 10 as soon as Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook returned to the game.
The Suns tried to stay close but let the Thunder get out on fast break after fast break. They only average 15.7 fast break points per game on the season, but blew the Suns up with 21 before halftime.
Yet the Suns stayed strong, kept fighting, and somehow pulled within 4 at halftime - 65 - 61 Thunder.
In the third, the Thunder tried to shoot the Suns out of the gym, but the Suns shot back (actually, Gerald Green shot back). But the Thunder wouldn't give in, and got lots of favorable foul calls on the Suns who came out playing with fire (if not smarts) on the defensive end.