The Los Angeles Clippers opened their season against the Oklahoma City Thunder Thursday night and squeezed out a 93-90 victory against the undermanned Thunder team.

The Thunder were already without reigning MVP Kevin Durant, sixth man Reggie Jackson, rookie Mitch McGary, sharpshooter Anthony Morrow, Jeremy Lamb, and Grant Jerrett. During this game, they also lost superstar Russell Westbrook to a hand injury.

Westbrook left the game at the 6:35 mark of the second quarter and never returned. He apparently jammed his hand on teammate Kendrick Perkins. He did return to the bench with an ice pack wrapped on his right hand. After the game, head coach Scott Brooks confirmed that Westbrook has a small fracture in his hand.

Shorthanded and all, the Thunder still competed. The team was only down two when Westbrook departed the game, and the young guys kept Oklahoma City afloat.

However, in the first quarter, the Thunder started off strong, taking on a 10-2 lead on 5-of-5 shooting. The Thunder led by six points at the end of the quarter, but the Clippers bounced back in the second quarter. They went on a 16-6 run to take a four-point advantage and eventually took a five-point lead into halftime.

The Clippers were unable to shake off the Thunder in the third quarter. Every time they gained some separation, the Thunder kept crawling back. For the Clippers, Blake Griffin had a big third quarter after struggling in the first half. He had nine of his 23 in the quarter, but the Clippers were only up 70-62.

The Thunder started the final period playing zone defense, but they went away from it. Midway through the fourth, Griffin gave the Clippers their biggest lead of 10 with a layup. But the young Thunder team did not waver. Perry Jones was on fire and was keeping the team alive with his 32 points. Serge Ibaka came up big late in the game too, as he drained back to back three pointers to cut the Clippers lead to four.

A few possessions after, Sebastian Telfair knocked down a three to cut L.A.’s lead to one with 1:44 remaining in the game. The Clippers rushed a couple of possessions where J.J. Redick took quick three pointers and missed. However, the Thunder was unable to capitalize off the Clippers’ misfortunes on the offensive end. Even Chris Paul missed two straight costless throws down the stretch with 13 seconds remaining. Oklahoma City was still down by one after Paul’s misses, but Sebastian Telfair was unable to finish on a driving play, as he thought he was fouled.

The Thunder was still alive with two seconds left. They were down by three with no timeouts remaining. Steven Adams threw the ball to midcourt to Serge Ibaka, who took a couple of dribbles and fired up a long three, but came up short.

The Oklahoma City Thunder were highly competitive, despite having only eight active players and none of their stars. Unfortunately, they had 27 turnovers which hurt them down the stretch. Though, they did out-rebound the Clippers 47-33 which gave them a chance to hang around. The Clippers also shot a poor percentage (39.1) from the field, allowing the Thunder to keep close.

Blake Griffin finished the game with 23 points and seven rebounds on 8-of-18 shooting. Chris Paul added 22 points, seven assists, four rebounds, and three steals. Jamal Crawford, the reigning sixth man of the year, cashed in 16 points off the bench.

As mentioned before, Perry Jones put in 32 points, which was a career-high, in 42 minutes on an efficient 10-of-17 shooting. Serge Ibaka had 17 points and nine rebounds. Sebastian Telfair, who did a wonderful job of orchestrating the offense with Westbrook out, chipped in with 11 points and seven assists.

The Los Angeles Clippers will play their cross town rivals the Los Angeles Lakers next on October 31. The Oklahoma City Thunder have a game on Saturday, November 1 against the Denver Nuggets.

The Thunder drop to 0-2 in the young season, while the Clippers capture their first win in the Steve Ballmer era.