Oklahoma Thunder overcome the Heat 105-94

The fans are always the winners

He is not the scoring champion for nothing as the three time ppg king scored 17 fourth quarter points to lead the Oklahoma Thunder to a 105 – 94 win in game 1 of the 2012 National Basketball Association Finals and take a 1 – 0 lead against the Eastern Conference Champs, the Miami Heat.   Durant’s scoring came in at the right time as he rallied the slow starting Thunder team who were down by 13 points at one point in the first half as they shook away the opening game NBA finals jitters and took the fight off the Heat in the second half.

Durant and Haslem battle it out

At the start of the game, the Heat made some defensive adjustments right away as Miami star was on OKC point guard Rusell Westbrook and Shane Battier on Kevin Durant.  Add to the mix the overexcitement of the Thunder and the result was a 13 point deficit as the KD and RW tandem found it hard to score and defend. But as I mentioned, these two teams does not have the word quit in their vocabulary as the Thunder defense zeroed in on the other Heat scorers which jumpstarted their offense with plenty to spare after the game.

Westbrook and Wade wanting the W

Kevin Durant and Rusell Westbrook combined for 41 second half points which was more than the Heat’s 40 second half points as the Thunder’s suffocating defense made life hard for the Heat to score.  The Thunder defense in the first half was quite loose which the Heat took advantage but in the second half the Thunder defense zeroed in on the others as Shane Battier and Mario Chalmers who combined for 23 first half points was helf to only six in the second half. 

 Durantula on the attack

Kevin Durant’s fourth quarter exploits is one for the books.  Shooting six of ten from the field, 1 of 3 from the three point area and canning all his four free throws Durant was like a man possessed.  From the looks of it this finals open up great performances from the tandem of Durant and Westbrook as Lebron James and Dwayne Wade would most probably get back at their tormentors.  Look for the finals to be more exciting than this first game.