Kevin Durant, Oklahoma City Thunder dominate Miami Heat
The Oklahoma City Thunder upended the Miami Heat Sunday night 103-87 behind a phenomenal effort from all-star forward Kevin Durant.
The reigning NBA scoring champion flirted with his potential first career triple-double, finishing with 28 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists on 11-20 shooting. Serge Ibaka and James Harden also added 19 apiece to seal the victory. Dwyane Wade led Miami with 22 points in defeat.
The Thunder came out strong despite being only one day removed from a gritty double-overtime win against the Minnesota Timberwolves. Oklahoma City won that contest 144-140 behind 40 points from Durant and 45 from guard Russell Westbrook, while Kevin Love had a historic 51 points, 14 rebound and 7 three-pointers in defeat.
The Thunder did a great job defensively on LeBron James, holding the MVP candidate to 17 points and forcing him into 4 turnovers. James had averaged 28.6 points in 14 previous meetings with the Thunder.
Durant and the Thunder beat the Heat at their own game, routinely beating their opponent down court for fastbreak dunks and layups. Miami also had no answer for the Thunder bigs, allowing Kendrick Perkins and Ibaka to combine for 35 points on an efficient 16-21 from the field. Perkins kept the Thunder momentum high with a big dunk with a high leg kick that hit Wade, perhaps some anger built up from the tweet that James posted about Blake Griffin’s posterizing dunk on the Oklahoma City big man.
The Heat fell to 35-12, 3.5 games back from the Chicago Bulls for the No.1 seed in the Eastern Conference. The Thunder improved to 37-12, and currently hold a three game lead on the San Antonio Spurs for the No.1 seed in the West.
The Heat head to Indiana to square off against the Pacers on Monday, while the Thunder head to Portland Tuesday before a brutal four-game stretch that includes games against the Lakers, Bulls, Grizzlies and Heat.
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