The Oklahoma City Thunder performed exceedingly well in their season-opening matchup against the San Antonio Spurs, 112-106. The game also marked Thunder's new coach Billy Donovan's debut in the NBA.
Russell Westbrook had 33 points and dished out 10 assists, while Kevin Durant contributed 22 points. The latter had an abysmal 6-of-19 field goal rate but sank two critical free throws in the final 11.5 seconds in the fourth quarter to keep the Spurs at bay, SportsNet.ca reports.
According to Yahoo! Sports, Donovan was very pleased with his team's performance.
"They kept battling, they kept fighting, and I think everyone knew it was going to be a game that was going to come down that way," he said.
Thunder center Enes Kanter also performed well off the bench. The big man contibuted 15 points and 16 rebounds to the team's winning effort.
San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich admitted his team floundered in the game's last sequences.
"A couple of defensive mistakes, a couple of offensive plays where we were impatient. We just needed to work together a little bit longer," Popovich said.
San Antonio had a good chance of taking the lead in the last seconds of the fourth quarter, but a three-pointer attempt by Danny Green to take the lead was foiled by Steven Adams. Thunder gained possession of the ball and Durant scored a couple of free throws to take the game away from Spurs' reach.
Individually, Kawhi Leonard put on an impressive display. Leonard scored a career-high 32 points and nabbed eight rebounds. Popovich remarked that Leonard has evolved to a better player with hard work and diligence.
LaMarcus Aldridge, one of the new additions to the Spurs, scored 11 points and grabbed five rebounds in his first game after spending nine seasons with the Portland Trail Blazers. Manu Ginobili had 11 points and Tony Parker registered 10 for San Antonio.