Thunder vs Pistons, final score: OKC gets big win 121-108, Roberson leaves game with apparent leg injury

box score | Detroit Bad Boys

The Oklahoma City Thunder defeated the Detroit Pistons on the road, 121-108. There were many positives that would have been worth highlighting in this game against one negative, but unfortunately that one negative looms large.

As the Thunder looked to be cruising to an easy win, Russell Westbrook set up Andre Roberson for a standard backdoor lob set they have run dozens of times in the past. Only this time, when an uncontested Robes went up, his left leg seemed to buckle on him and he landed hard on his lower back.

Roberson had missed 8 games with patellar tendonitis, and tragically, early reports appear to be that this is also the nexus of this injury, which may likely shelve Robes for the remainder of the season.

Robes’ impact on the team cannot be understated, and we know as much now by how OKC struggled in many ways while he had previously been sidelined.

All eyes now shift to the Thunder front office as they will likely have to weigh what to do as the trade deadline looms.

Random notes

• Carmelo Anthony became the 21st player in league history to score 25,000 points.
• Russell Westbrook recorded another triple-double (31-13-11), but it was his 4th quarter leadership that stood tall. With the team wavering in the aftermath of Roberson’s injury, Westbrook made nearly every critical play down the stretch, scoring the ball, grabbing offensive rebounds, and setting up open shooters to close the game that would have quite literally become insult to injury had OKC not held onto what was once a 27 point lead.
• At one point Paul George had 24 points on 8 shots.
• The Thunder starters outscored the Pistons starters, 96-44. The bench? Well, ah...
• Terrance Ferguson got the call again, and hit a big corner-3 (just like last game) with 3:28 left to hold off the creeping Pistons.

Next game: vs 76ers on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 5PM CST