OKLAHOMA
CITY (AP) With the ball in
Kevin Durant's hands in the final seconds,
Oklahoma City coach
Billy Donovan didn't call a timeout.
Instead, he let one of his superstars do his thing.
Durant made that decision pay off. He hit a
3-pointer with just a half-second on the clock to give the
Thunder a wild 117-114 win over the
Orlando Magic on Wednesday night.
Durant's buzzer-beater capped his 37-point outing for Oklahoma City, which has won five straight and 12 of its last 13. Durant extended his streak of games with 20 or more points to 36, the longest run in the
NBA.
Oklahoma City's other superstar,
Russell Westbrook, posted his third straight triple-double with 24 points, a career-high 19 rebounds and 14 assists. He has eight triple-doubles this season, five coming in the last 11 games. It was the 27th triple-double of his career, moving him into a tie with
Rajon Rondo for second place among active players, behind only
LeBron James with 39.
"When you have the two players (
Donovan) has, you don't need a timeout,"
Orlando coach
Scott Skiles said. "Just give them the ball and get out of the way."
Victor Oladipo scored 37 points - just one off his career high - to lead Orlando, which has lost 14 of its last 16 games. The
Magic have dropped nine of their last 10against Oklahoma City, including a double-overtime thriller in Orlando on
Oct. 30, in which they blew an 18-point fourth-quarter lead.
Orlando led into the final minute on Wednesday before
Westbrook tied the game at 114 with a driving layup with 29.4 seconds left. Oklahoma City's
Serge Ibaka then blocked a layup attempt by Oladipo and
Dion Waiters grabbed the rebound for the Thunder.
"There it is," Skiles said. "We drove to the basket and they blocked it. Westbrook drove to the basket and laid the ball in."
Waiters quickly passed the basketball to Durant, who stopped about 28 feet from the basket and knocked down the 3-pointer to put Oklahoma City ahead, saying he "just felt comfortable with the shot when I let it go."
After a timeout, Oladipo missed a well-guarded 3-point attempt at the buzzer.
Durant deflected attention to
Ibaka and Westbrook, saying they also made winning plays.
Ibaka "set (Oladipo) up for that block," Durant said. "That was a huge play.
Russell made a huge play right before that, grabbing that rebound and calling timeout, and then also making a layup. That set me up for the shot at the end. There's much more than just me making that shot."
Ibaka finished with six blocks to go with nine points and seven rebounds for Oklahoma City, while
Enes Kanter had 13 points. Hezonja and
Nikola Vucevic each scored 16 points for Orlando, while
Tobias Harris added 15 and
Smith, 13.
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- published: 04 Feb 2016
- views: 30622