With All-Stars Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant leading the way, the Oklahoma City Thunder can outscore any team in the NBA on any given night.
That still isn’t good enough for a team with the highest of aspirations.
Westbrook scored a season-high 37 points, Durant added 27 and Oklahoma City snapped a three-game losing streak Friday night with a 127-111 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves that did little to fix what was wrong during the skid.
”A baby, minor step” was how Westbrook described it…
The Thunder avoided losing four in a row for the first time since April 2009, near the end of their first season in Oklahoma City, but were hardly better on defense after allowing 113.7 points per game during their longest losing streak of the season…
Alexey Shved led Minnesota with 17 points, and Andrei Kirilenko and Dante Cunningham had 15 points apiece. The Timberwolves shot 53 percent in the first half but couldn’t keep up that pace and wound up hitting on 43 percent after halftime.
Seven Timberwolves reached double figures in points, and leading scorer Nikola Pekovic wasn’t one of them…
Kevin Martin had 19 points off the bench for the Thunder, who went 9 for 14 from 3-point range and hit all 22 of their free throws. Oklahoma City came in first in the league in foul shooting and second in 3-point accuracy…
Greg Stiemsma and Ricky Rubio had 13 points apiece, and Ridnour chipped in 10. Rubio also had nine assists and five steals.
— Reported by Jeff Latzke of the Associated Press
