Richard Rowe-US PRESSWIRE

The Oklahoma City Thunder scored a season-high 72 points in the first half versus the Boston Celtics Wednesday night and would go on to win 119-104 and tie the Miami Heat for the best record in the NBA at 26-7.

The Thunder led by 23 at halftime and as many as 27 in the second half but Boston did make a run eventually cutting the lead to eight in the fourth quarter.

With 2:47 left Kevin Durant banked home a 15-footer on the same baseline out of bounds play Oklahoma City ran to beat Golden State last week to give the Thunder a 112-102 lead.

Then with 1:36 left James Harden penetrated and delivered a beautiful dime underneath to Serge Ibaka for a dunk that put Oklahoma City ahead 114-104.

Russell Westbrook led the Thunder with 31 points in the game and turned the ball over only twice along with six assists. Durant finished with 28 and Harden and Daequan Cook each chipped in with 17.

The Thunder put on quite a display in the first half led by Harden who scored 15 points and was plus-31 in the first two quarters. As a team the Thunder shot 8-of-12 from three-point land as well.

Boston turned the ball over 18 times in the game while Oklahoma City just 14 times.

The officiating felt weird in the fourth quarter with a couple of late whistles and surprising technical fouls called against the Thunder. Ibaka was hit with a technical after seemingly doing nothing other than boxing out Kevin Garnett.

ESPN announcer Hubie Brown noted how the two younger officials in the game weren’t making any calls and the veteran Mark Davis was forced to make every call which was causing the late whistles.

Brown also kept bringing up the Thunder’s susceptibility to blowing leads — obviously referencing last year’s playoffs — but the Thunder did good to hold on tonight.

This is the area where Harden will be crucial for the Thunder is when he creates for others late in the game. Durant and Westbrook are great closers individually but Harden can get a guy like Ibaka an easy dunk like he did tonight.

The Thunder now with the best record in the league will host the Los Angeles Lakers (19-13) tomorrow night in their final game before All-Star Weekend.

David Butler II-US PRESSWIRE

Thunder (3-game winning streak)
106.1 Offensive Efficiency (2nd)
99.2 Defensive Efficiency (14th)
96.2 Pace (4th)

Celtics (4-game losing streak)
97.9 Offensive Efficiency (23rd)
95.3 Defensive Efficiency (3rd)
91.0 Pace (29th)

The Thunder have been hot of late and the Celtics haven’t. The Celtics have had to deal with a lot of injuries and other reason for players missing games and have lost their last four. Kevin Garnett missed the last two games for personal reasons but is expected to return tonight. Rajon Rondo will also be out tonight serving the second game of a two-game suspension from earlier this week for throwing a ball at a referee. The odds are really stacked against the Celtics and the Thunder should have no problems tonight. James Harden and Nick Collison sat out two nights ago for the Thunder but neither had serious injuries and both could play tonight.

Thunder keys to the game

1. Durant and Westbrook

No duo has been hotter in the NBA than Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and there’s no reason they shouldn’t continue to ride this hot streak right into the All-Star Break. The duo each scored 31 points in the Thunder’s win over New Orleans Monday night and combined for 91 the night before against Denver. In the first meeting against Boston this season when the Thunder won 97-88, Durant scored 28 and Westbrook 26, including a barrage of threes to close out the Celtics late in the fourth quarter. Tonight will be impressive to watch Westbrook as Avery Bradley will likely be assigned the task of guarding him. Bradley is one of the better defenders in the league and an athlete but he will just look like a poor man’s Westbrook tonight.

2. Fast break

The Celtics are one of the older teams in the league and play the second slowest pace. The Thunder are at their bets when they get out and run and without Rondo tonight Boston should really have trouble trying to keep up with the Thunder. Look for the Thunder to run every chance they get even more so than usual tonight.

3. Contesting every shot

It sounds simple but it is really important when playing to Boston to sell out and get a hand up on every shot. The Celtics are the worst team in the league on the offensive glass so it all comes down to stopping that first option on offense when playing them. Without Rondo the Celtics shouldn’t be able to get as many good looks as they normally would. Paul Pierce played his bets game of the season up to that point the first time these teams met and the load will be even heavier for him tonight. Oklahoma City just needs to make everything difficult and they should have no trouble blowing out Boston tonight.

Prediction: Oklahoma City wins 103-79.

sports.yahoo.com

The Oklahoma City Thunder won in the Boston Garden last night, 97-88, improving to 12-2 on the year making them the best record in the NBA.

A three-pointer by Paul Pierce with 5:22 to play cut the Thunder lead to two but that would be as close as the Celtics would get. The Thunder would not execute down the stretch but it didn’t matter as they made tough shot after tough shot.

The Thunder made five more field goals the rest of the game, four of them were threes and two were daggers by Russell Westbrook who finished with 26 points on the night.

Westbrook’s first dagger was with 10 seconds left on the shot clock when the ball was swung around to him to the left wing. He drilled the off balance 26-footer to put Oklahoma City up 89-82 with 1:31 left. Timeout Celtics.

Then, after the Celtics answered with a three of their own, Westbrook went into cold-blooded mode with another three-point dagger with 51 seconds left in the game.
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