Holding on to the Lead

Every player was completely focused, doing exactly what they needed to do on the court.

The game had a strange feel to it: on every possession, the defense seemed to be doing everything it possibly could. The rotations were sharp, the reads were brilliant, the closeouts relentless... You could look at it and think this was as good as the All-Defensive First Team could get this season.

And yet the score kept climbing. Higher and higher.

Neither team had gone cold for even a single minute.

The players missed shots from the perimeter, and sometimes failed to finish at the rim, but those mistakes rarely came in succession.

That spoke volumes about both teams' individual ability and outstanding teamwork.

At last, the third quarter ended.

The score was 107–101.

The teams entered the final quarter with a six-point gap between them.

Now it was the Thunder's turn to go all in.

At the start of the quarter, Donovan put out a lineup that was almost entirely his starters: Westbrook, Chen Xi, Batum, Anthony, and Little Jordan.

If Davis, who already had four fouls, hadn't been in foul trouble tonight, Donovan might well have played his starters for the entire quarter right from the start.

Mike Malone reacted quickly.

Just a minute and a half into the fourth, he called a timeout and sent Jokic back onto the court, bolstering his lineup to match the intensity the Thunder were bringing.

Even in that brief minute and a half, though, Chen Xi had found an opening.

He had keenly seized on the stretch when the two teams' strengths were clearly mismatched, immediately leading his teammates on two transition fast breaks and scoring six straight points to push the lead into double digits.

Once Jokic returned, Chen Xi proactively switched assignments with Anthony