
Durant, Westbrook power Thunder past Hawks
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the Oklahoma City Thunder finished continued to rise into the upper echelon of the NBA and stirred up some bad blood with the Atlanta Hawks.
Durant scored 37 points and Westbrook riled up the Hawks by topping off a double-double with his 10th assist in the final seconds of the Thunder's 90-81 victory on Monday night.
Westbrook finished with 19 points and 10 assists -- the last coming when he rushed the ball up to Serge Ibaka for a dunk with 6.9 seconds left instead of running out the clock.
"You don't do that. The game is over with," Atlanta coach Larry Drew said. "The game is over with. You've got the ball, you run the clock out. Just that plain and simple."
"When you've got the game won, you run the clock out," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "Russell knows how I feel about situations like that, and it was a mistake, but I'm not going to let a mistake at the end of the game ruin what we've done tonight. I thought the game was as well as we've played both ends of the floor against one of the best teams in basketball."
Joe Johnson led Atlanta with 21 points and Josh Smith scored 19, both players tied for the team high with 8 rebounds.
James Harden had 14 points off the bench and Kendrick Perkins had a season high 15 rebounds for Oklahoma City.
Oklahoma City will welcome the Milwaukee Bucks to town on Wednesday night. The Bucks handed OKC one their 10 losses on the season 86-73 in Milwaukee.
Atlanta Hawks at Oklahoma City Thunder | |||||
Jan 23, 2012 | 1ST | 2ND | 3RD | 4TH | SCORE |
Atlanta (24-17) | 16 | 18 | 27 | 20 | 81 |
Oklahoma City (33-10) | 19 | 23 | 25 | 23 | 90 |
Atlanta Hawks | ||||||||||
STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
J. Smith, PF | 41 | 8-11 | 1-1 | 2-2 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 19 |
M. Williams, SF | 30 | 0-4 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
A. Horford, C | 35 | 5-13 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 12 |
J. Johnson, SG | 37 | 8-18 | 1-3 | 4-6 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 21 |
J. Teague, PG | 33 | 6-18 | 0-3 | 0-0 | 4 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 12 |
BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
T. McGrady, SF | 19 | 3-5 | 1-1 | 0-0 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
K. Hinrich, PG | 16 | 2-4 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
W. Green, SG | 12 | 2-3 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
I. Johnson, PF | 10 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
Z. Pachulia, C | 12 | 0-1 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
TEAM TOTALS | 35-79 | 3-11 | 8-10 | 43 | 20 | 6 | 6 | 11 | 81 |
Oklahoma City Thunder | ||||||||||
STARTERS | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
S. Ibaka, PF | 35 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 2-2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
K. Durant, SF | 34 | 6-17 | 0-0 | 7-8 | 7 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 37 |
K. Perkins, C | 40 | 1-4 | 0-0 | 4-6 | 15 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
D. Cook, SG | 24 | 0-4 | 0-2 | 0-0 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
R. Westbrook, PG | 36 | 6-17 | 0-0 | 7-8 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 19 |
BENCH | MIN | FGM-A | 3PM-A | FTM-A | REB | AST | STL | BLK | TO | PTS |
J. Harden, SG | 37 | 6-11 | 0-1 | 2-2 | 6 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 14 |
N. Collison, PF | 15 | 2-2 | 0-0 | 0-0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
E. Maynor, PG | 13 | 1-4 | 1-2 | 0-0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
N. Mohammed, C | 10 | 1-3 | 0-0 | 1-4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
TEAM TOTALS | 33-79 | 2-9 | 22-28 | 45 | 19 | 8 | 1 | 7 | 90 |
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