Paul Millsap walked into the Hawks locker room and looked at the final box score from a 106-100 win over the Thunder Monday.
He was stunned.
Thabo Sefolosha did not score a single point. That didn’t matter. The small forward had eight rebounds, six assists, four steals and was a plus-2 in 39 minutes. Oh yeah, he guarded Thunder All-Star Kevin Durant for most of the evening.
“I talked to him when I walked into the locker room (after the game), a person who can affect the game without scoring and doing multiple things, that’s great,” Millsap said of the player one locker down. “When he’s stealing the ball, rebounding, assists and had a tough assignment guarding KD. He’s beneficial to our team. … That’s big time.”
Al Horford put Sefolosha’s contribution in the simplest of terms.
“I just feel like the difference for us was Thabo,” he said.
Guarding Durant was Job No. 1 for Sefolosha. He got help from plenty of team defense by the Hawks. Durant finished with 25 points on 9 of 18 shooting, including 2 of 3 from 3-point range. Kent Bazemore helped with the defensive assignment at times but Durant was on the floor for 39:39 and Sefolosha was there for 38:32. Sefolosha has some experience against Durant as the two were teammates with the Thunder from 2008-2014.
“To be honest, he’s the type of player that even if you know his game, he’s going to be able to get to where he wants to on the court,” Sefolosha said of Durant. “I was just trying to play physical against him and relying on my teammates on pick and rolls for them to be there and make it difficult for him.”
Sefolosha sat in the post-game locker room with his surgically repaired right ankle in a bucket of ice water. It’s an every-game ritual after his season ended last year in April with a broken leg and ligament damage. His 39 minutes was seven more than his previous season-high of 32 set against the Timberwolves last week.
Hawks coach Mike Budenholzer did not care that Sefolosha did not score. Not on this night. Not against this opponent.
“Just the effort that he puts in on the defensive end of the court to basically do everything he can to limit (Kevin) Durant,” Budenholzer said. “It was a great individual performance. I think the defense behind Thabo helped him and put him in a position where he could have success. The fact that he didn’t have a bucket doesn’t matter. All the other things he did was winning basketball.”
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