Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Minnesota Timberwolves 115-111
When the game got underway on Saturday, Kevin Durant found himself closely guarded as Nikola Pekovic, Kevin Love and other Timberwolves players were constantly ganging up on him and a three-game losing streak seemed more than possible for the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Durant’s regular sidekick was sitting out due to an injury and he found himself in a difficult position to help his team as the Minnesota Timberwolves seemed to have a game-plan to keep him under control and they were doing a very good job at it. The poor start did not discourage Durant and he came back with a vengeance in the fourth quarter to clench the win and keep the Thunder on top of the Western Conference.
Durant scores season-high 48 points
He seemed determined to show that he can’t be stopped and finished the game with a season-high 48 points to his name, 23 of which he scored in fourth quarter, and got the winning basket in with just 4 seconds remaining on the clock. The Thunder (26-7) managed to come back from being 13 points down and won 115-111 on Saturday in a game that not many expected to be this close.
Minnesota (16-17) came very close to taking down the strongest team in the Conference right now, and arguably in the entire league, and they should be happy with their performance despite the loss dropping them further away from a shot at the playoffs.
Durant made 7 of 11 shots from the field and also got 4 three-pointers in the fourth to help bring the Thunder on the winning path after losing two consecutive games at home.
Kevin Love did his best to keep the Timberwolves in the lead and played for the entire second half. He scored 30 points and had 14 rebounds but ended up missing four very important free throws with 27 seconds remaining. Three of them were given when Love was fouled by Kendrick Perkins in the last few seconds of the match, when Minnesota was down by two. Love then missed two of the free throws and tried to make a play on the third to miss it on purpose in order to give the Wolves the ball and score for more points. The plan didn’t work out as Oklahoma City got the ball after it didn’t hit the rim.
Durant got two more throws in and the two great players embraced when the game was over, putting an end to a great duel that came down the wire.
The fourth quarter was when the action really got heated as both Durant and Love had a slow start on Saturday night but then kicked it into high gear. When the fourth started, the Thunder were behind by three points at 90-77 and then Durant really came into play.
Oklahoma City had the lead in the fourth quarter in the past two games at home and didn’t manage to keep it by the time the final buzzer went off. This time, the situation was the other way around. Durant said after the game that his teammates talked to him about being down in the first half and that motived him to keep his head high and go on the aggressive.
Upcoming games
The Thunder will now host the Boston Celtics (13-20) later on Sunday and they have a great shot at getting another win at home and keeping their lead over the San Antonio Spurs (26-8). Bookmakers are giving Oklahoma City a 9-point handicap for the game.
The Timberwolves will have the day to recover and will travel to Philadelphia on Monday to play against the 76ers (12-21).