The OKC Thunder suffered a 103-98 home loss Wednesday night to DeMar DeRozan and the undefeated Toronto Raptors, this despite a combined 49 points from Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook.
In the postgame scrum, KD referred to his superstar teammate as the Thunder’s “best player”.
It's KD. He's humble. And Westbrook has been crazy good. But it was interesting Durant called RW "our best player" pic.twitter.com/3hw8xtihyi
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 5, 2015
With 16 tonight, Russell Westbrook now leads the NBA at 10.6 assists per game.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) November 5, 2015
Durant, who really needs to make a decision about who the best player in basketball is, has gotten off to a strong start this season (the former MVP is putting up 29.2 points on just under 50 percent shooting.)
Per The Oklahoman:
Turnovers and free throws were under the microscope Wednesday, as the Raptors swept into Oklahoma City on the second night of a back-to-back to win 103-98. Despite 16 assists from Russell Westbrook, the most in a single game in the NBA this season, a first half marred by turnovers kept the Raptors breathing. A second half plagued by personal fouls helped Toronto thrive standing still. […] “I thought it was for us a tale of two halves,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “We turned the ball over again in the first half at a very high rate. We fouled too much and put (DeMar) DeRozan too much to the free throw line.”
“We can’t come into a game and just hand the other team the ball,” said Kevin Durant, who scored a team-high 27 points for OKC. “That’s basically what we’re doing, and putting them on the free throw line. So, it’s basically we’re down 20 points before we even start playing. It’s tough to win that way. We had this game in the bag. We had the last two games in the bag.”
Westbrook took over for stretches in the second half, scoring 20 of his 22 points after halftime. He was hammered on a drive at 7:19 in the fourth quarter, then two possessions later got into a mini-skirmish with Raptors center Bismack Biyombo. The result was an offensive foul on Biyombo and a technical, Westbrook still holding his neck and grimacing.
