Kevin Durant sizzles as Oklahoma City Thunder beat Golden State Warriors 120 – 109 – NBA Recap
The Oklahoma City Thunder are sitting atop the Western Conference so far in the 2011-2012 NBA season on the back of some entertaining basketball. The Thunder have been notching up one win after the other thanks t their many talented stars and they added
another to the long list of conquest with the Golden State Warriors.
The two sides met at the ORACLE Arena in Oakland and what followed was an enthralling contest that left the capacity crowd aching for more. The Thunder managed to come out on the top with a 120 – 109 score line and had Kevin Durant to thank for some stunning
play.
Durant, a two time NBA Scoring Champions, was on song tonight and led all scorers with a whopping 37 points. The forward was pretty much impossible to stop as when he got on a roll and completed his double-double by grabbing 14 rebounds as well.
Giving Kevin a massive helping hand was live wire point guard Russell Westbrook. The exciting Westbrook scored 28 points, dished out 11 assists and grabbed 6 boards. Forward Serge Ibaka was the third Thunder player to complete a double-double on the night
with 20 points and 12 boards while James Harden came off the bench for 19.
The points were more evenly spread for the Golden State Warriors, with 5 players reaching double figures on the night. Most impressive was forward Dorell Wright, who had a team high 23 points and 9 rebounds. David Lee scored 19 points and Stephen Curry,
who faced time out with an injury this season, managed 15 in a somewhat rusty performance.
Star guard Monta Ellis was a big letdown for the Warriors as he could only manage 13 points as he struggled, shooting just 5-of-17 from the field.
The Thunder appeared stronger at the start in an exciting first quarter. OKC had a double digit advantage just before the end, the score 28 – 18, but Golden State recovered to finish the period behind by 5 at 28 -23.
The second period was thoroughly entertaining as both teams went for the jugular and scored freely, matching each other all the way. It ended with OKC still ahead at 57 – 50.
After the break not much seemed to change. The Thunder were able to stave off all attacks by the Warriors and in by the end of the third period had increased their lead to 10 points.
The penultimate quarter saw Golden State pull to within 3 points at the start before the Thunder put some distance between the two again. The cat and mouse game continued for a little while but Oklahoma City established their superiority and in the end got
home with a comfortable margin 120 – 109.
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