Kevin Durant leads Oklahoma City Thunder to a win over Love-Less Minnesota Timberwolves – NBA Recap
It took 43 points from Kevin Durant to put away Minnesota Timberwolves 115-110 in a game which turned out to be a nail biting thriller.
The last time these two teams met, Oklahoma City defeated the Wolves 149-140 in a double overtime humdinger. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had a combined 85 points in that game. On Saturday night, they combined for 78.
Michael Beasley led the Wolves scoring with 26 points coming off the bench, as the Wolves played without their star player Kevin Love due to a head injury.
Oklahoma took the lead early in the 1st quarter and then held on to it. The Wolves were right at their tail, but could not take the lead throughout the 1st period. For each play of Minnesota, OKC came back
with one of their own. They led by as many as 7 at 22-15, but the Wolves came back to reduce the lead to 3 at the end of the quarter. OKC finished the quarter leading 34-31.
Minnesota took the lead for the first time in the match with back to back shots in the opening minute of the 2nd quarter. The Wolves extended their lead to five, 43-38, after a jump shot by Wesley Johnson followed by
a free throw by Anthony Randolph near the midway mark.
A three pointer by Durant tied the game at 45 with 5:22 left in the game. Johnson was then fouled while attempting a 3 pointer and went to the foul line for three shots, converting all three. Michael Beasley followed with a jump
shot and Anthony Randolph hit another jump shot in a row to give Minnesota a 7 point lead, their largest of the night at 52-45.
OKC came back with a jump shot by Westbrook followed by a three from Durant. Westbrook then went to the foul line and scored both shots to tie the game at 52. A three pointer by Thabo Sefolosha gave OKC a 59-58 lead going into
half time.
OKC opened the 2nd half with a 10-0 run to lead 69-58. The Wolves kept coming back at the Thunder and slowly chipped away their lead to trail 80-86 at the end of the 3rd period. The Wolves then came out in
the final quarter with an 8-3 run to trail the Thunder by only 1 point.
Oklahoma slowly extended their lead back to 10 points with 2:53 to go, on the back of 6 straight points by Durant. Jose Barea sunk a three pointer with 15 seconds left on the clock to bring the Wolves to within 2. However, OKC
kept the lead and followed with 3 free throws by Russell Westbrook to win 115-110.
Russell Westbrook had 35 points and 8 assists, and went 9 of 10 from the foul line. Durant was 15 of 23 from the field and 9 of 12 from the foul line for his 43 points. Serge Ibaka had 12 rebounds and Kendrick Perkins has 10, although
both did not make sizable contributions on the offense. Jose Barea had 24 points and 10 assists for the Wolves and Anthony Randolph came off the bench to score 22 points grab 11 rebounds. The Wolves bench outscored the Thunder bench 54-18.
The Wolves shot better than OKC, going 50% from the field as compared to 44% for the Thunder. The Thunder were also only 7 of 25 from the three point line, out of which 4 came from Durant. They were, however, very effective from
the foul line, scoring 28 of their 32 free throw attempts. OKC also outnumbered the Wolves 53-39 in rebounds. The Wolves had 58 points in the paint compared with 42 for OKC, but did not have an answer for Durant and Westbrook.
With the win, Oklahoma further improved its win loss record and is two wins clear of 2nd placed San Antonio Spurs.
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