Wednesday got wild. Oklahoma City and Golden State squared off once again, and the biggest head-to-head battle wound up being between Russell Westbrook and Zaza Pachulia. There were a handful of last-second thrillers across multiple sports, and finally finally finally that ridiculously bad Los Angeles Chargers logo is buried.
We’ve got all that and much more in this Thursday’s Cheat Sheet, so let’s get started.
Durant scores season-high 40 as Warriors beat Thunder; Russ vows for revenge on Zaza
It was cute when the Thunder were tied with the Warriors at halftime. Then Golden State broke open a 23-point lead in the second half and went on to win 121-100. Kevin Durant dropped a season-high 40 points against his former team while Russell Westbrook went for yet another triple-double with 27 points, 15 rebounds and 13 assists. (And 10 turnovers — quadruple-double?)
But the real battle became Westbrook vs. Zaza Pachulia when the big fella committed a nasty flagrant foul and stood over Westbrook.
“He hit me kinda hard,” Westbrook said after the game. “I’m gonna get his ass back. Straight up.”
Westbrook on the Pachulia incident: "I'm gonna get his ass back for that one." pic.twitter.com/yJDYes2nXn
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 19, 2017
Westbrook was involved in a few of the other most memorable plays of the evening, including the most obvious travel of all time.
At least he owned it.
Westbrook on what happened with his traveling violation in the third quarter: "Travel."
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 19, 2017
He made up for that play with a vicious dunk straight down the lane in the third quarter.
Meanwhile, Durant’s 40 points came on 13-of-16 shooting, which made him the first player with such a stat line since Paul Pierce more than four years ago, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
Kevin Durant finished 13-16 shooting on Wednesday; 1st to score 40 while missing 3 or fewer shots since Paul Pierce in December 2012 pic.twitter.com/F8FGc0Jwql
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 19, 2017
A thrilling night of college basketball
—Of 39 games last night, 17 were decided by five points or less. Six went to overtime, and six were decided on the final shot.
James Blackmon Jr. got the buzzer-beater party started as Indiana survived at Penn State, despite an apparently serious injury to OG Aunoby.
James Blackmon Jr. is a bad, bad man.
The @IndianaMBB star silences the Penn State crowd at the buzzer! https://t.co/huw08D6K2v — Big Ten Network (@BigTenNetwork) January 19, 2017
Then IUPUI guard Darell Combs unleashed a nasty crossover to knock off South Dakota State, although only 981 people were there to see it.
Then Jordan Woodard went coast-to-coast as Oklahoma stunned West Virginia. (I love the Mountaineers, but they quietly have three not-so-good losses this year — Temple on a neutral site, Texas Tech on the road, and now this at home.)
Here's the game-winner from Jordan Woodard for #Oklahoma! The 7-9 #Sooners stun #7 #WestVirginia 89-87 in OT on the road! #BoomerSooner pic.twitter.com/8CSnX9Kzwm
— Chat Sports (@ChatSports) January 19, 2017
Next, Antwoine Anderson decided the Battle of the Rams with a buzzer-beater as Fordham upset VCU and a put a dent in those Rams’ NCAA tourney hopes.
Antwoine Anderson for the win! Fordham beats VCU 69-67 #SCTopTen #RamsRising pic.twitter.com/BABgqVwEAh — Fordham Athletics (@FordhamRams) January 19, 2017
The fun didn’t stop there. Glynn Watson slipped on defense allowing Marc Loving to get wide open for an Ohio State game-winner at Nebraska.
Ballgame! 🌰@lovingthegame32 finds himself wide open down low for the @OhioStateHoops game-winner! https://t.co/3giNbyjTii — Ohio State on BTN (@OhioStateOnBTN) January 19, 2017
The night ended out in Hawaii, where the Rainbow Warriors knocked off Cal State Northridge in overtime on Leland Green’s three with 0.9 seconds left.
LELAND GREEN FOR THE WIN!!!! #HawaiiMBB #GoBows #FTW 🙌💪🌈🏀🏀🏀 pic.twitter.com/8MU667datl
— HAWAII BASKETBALL (@HawaiiMBB) January 19, 2017
College basketball wasn’t the only sport with a game-winner
Connor McDavid broke loose for a breakaway goal with 2.6 seconds left to give the Oilers a win over the Panthers.
Ridiculous hands by McDavid and career point #100 for @Drat_29. Solid OT winner. #FLAvsEDM https://t.co/hiBt1TFXVA
— NHL (@NHL) January 19, 2017
"Leon had the puck with all kinds of time. Usually when he does that he's going to make a sweet pass & he did." @cmcdavid97 on OT winner pic.twitter.com/5WfVIffvFQ
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) January 19, 2017
McDavid also reached 100 career points in the same game.
Jeff Bagwell, Tim Raines, and Ivan Rodriguez headed to Cooperstown
Those are your 2017 inductees to the baseball hall of fame. Bagwell led the group with 86.2 percent of the vote while Raines was close behind at 86 percent and Pudge got 76 percent to be the only first-ballot player this year.
Rodriguez had an emotional reaction to the news.
Gracias, Gracias, gracias, muchas gracias, es tan grande la emoción…. bendiciones a todos #Pudge7HOF pic.twitter.com/gGjTNJMFD4
— Ivan Pudge Rodriguez (@Pudge_Rodriguez) January 18, 2017
So did CBS/Sports Illustrated writer Jonah Keri, who has been a big advocate for Raines’ induction.
The big snubs were Trevor Hoffman (74%) and Vladimir Guerrero (71.7%) while a handful of steroid users were further down the list. Roger Clemens (54.1%) and Barry Bonds (53.8%) were the most notable of the group, each rising several percentage points from last season.
“So much Jackie Chan in Seth Allen.” — Jon Rothstein, probably
Seth Allen with the most impressive play of the night in the ACC pic.twitter.com/b0DDGXFA4U
— Mike Rutherford (@CardChronicle) January 19, 2017
Next time, let’s see him grab a few teammates and try this:
Quick Hits
Joel Embiid at the free throw line…#TrustTheProcess chants fill the Wells Fargo Center….
Amazing.
(Via @clippittv)https://t.co/zV0REMl1fR— Def Pen Hoops (@DefPenHoops) January 19, 2017
—Joel Embiid continued to become America’s most lovable star as he encouraged the 76ers home crowd to chant “Trust The Process!” while he shot free throws during Wednesday’s win over the Raptors.
—Remember that laughable Chargers logo? Well, memories are all we have now.
The infamous LA Chargers logo will reportedly never be used by the team again. (via @ArashMarkazi) pic.twitter.com/ETNxbHmeQb
— NFL on ESPN (@ESPNNFL) January 18, 2017
—Westbrook vs. Durant wasn’t the night’s only intriguing NBA matchup of the night. James Harden and Giannis Antetokounmpo also went head-to-head, and The Beard got the better of The Greek Freak in this battle of unconventional point guards. Not to say Antetokounmpo didn’t play well — Harden had 38 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists to his 32 points, 11 boards and 6 dimes.
—Arizona star Allonzo Trier has not played this season, and we now know his absence is the result of a positive PED test, per ESPN.
—”The Discovery,” a new Netflix sci-fi flick, looks awesome. Nothing better than Roy Orbison’s voice to set a haunting tone.
—You’ve probably heard of Markelle Fultz as that guy you’ve never heard of. The possible No. 1 pick is playing essentially in obscurity this year at Washington, and he went bonkers once again with 37 points, 8 assists, 5 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks as Washington defeated Colorado in overtime.
.@MarkelleF x @JakeUno pic.twitter.com/x0U3qu5YoL — LØØPSØØP (@vineydelnegro) January 19, 2017
—Ben Simmons, last year’s No. 1 pick who also played in obscurity at LSU, could make his debut for the Sixers shortly after the all-star break, according to reports.
—Larry David’s cameo in the Last Week Tonight With John Oliver season four promo made me hyperventilate for a hot sec. The tongue-in-cheek ad provided quite a few laughs.
—Considering I knew nothing about this until now, I’m really excited for CBS Sports’ new documentary on 14 African-American Wyoming football players who protested against racial injustices in 1969.
—There’s a new shop in Los Angeles that only sells VHS copies of “Jerry Maguire.” They’ve got 14,000 copies in stock in English, Spanish and French. “¡Muestrame el dinero!”
—The one thing I never realized I needed so badly.
One last moment of procrastination
This is kind of how we all feel in the middle of the winter. Let’s all be more like the dog in the background just chilling and embracing the wind.