Durant scores 27 in season debut, but Thunder come up short vs. Pelicans
The good news for the Oklahoma City Thunder is that Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are both back, and both looked healthy in their respective returns.
The unfortunate reality, though, is that they find themselves at 5-14 after dropping a 112-104 decision to the New Orleans Pelicans on Tuesday, and that means their margin for error the rest of the season is razor thin. But for one night, Durant simply being on the floor mattered much more than whether this team is on any floor come late April.
Playing in his first game of the season after losing the first 17 to a Jones fracture in his right foot, Durant didn't have any issue picking up where he left off as a scorer. It took him all of just 90 seconds to connect from long range for his first field goal of the season.
The reigning MVP scored 27 points on 9-of-18 shooting in just 30 minutes of action, flashing his 3-point stroke and getting to the line as he normally does.
He looked smooth, and he looked comfortable - more so than the team as a whole. The Thunder coughed the ball up 17 times and Westbrook struggled to a 6-of-20 shooting mark, but the real issues came on defense.
The Thunder have made do without Durant and Westbrook thanks to some creative scheming from head coach Scotty Brooks, who has mixed in some zone to leverage the length of his non-star rotation pieces. The team ranked seventh on the defensive end entering play Monday, but that calling card abandoned them some Tuesday as the Pelicans scored 112 points.
That wasn't all on the defense - the Pelicans had 105 possessions, so the point total was inflated - but the Thunder gifted New Orleans 45 free throw attempts and allowed the Pelicans to pull in 16 offensive rebounds. Anthony Davis was a terror, as is his custom, scoring 25 points with 10 rebounds, four assists, six steals and four blocks, and Tyreke Evans poured in 30 points in support, as the Thunder never really found a solid footing.
Again, though, these are minor concerns from a single game with major overarching positives: Durant is back, Westbrook now has two games under his belt, and the team outscored opponents by 10.8 points per 100 possessions when they played together a season ago. They're in a hole, but this might be a 60-win team at full health, and they only need to play at a 55-win pace from here to finish with 48 wins - right around the expected Western Conference playoff cutoff.