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 After he got the Thunder going, the superstars took over.
Forward Kevin Durant scored 30 points, guard Russell Westbrook added
21 points and 13 rebounds and the Thunder pushed their winning
streak to seven with a 105-93 victory over the Denver Nuggets on
Tuesday night.
Ibaka had 17 points and 10 rebounds for Oklahoma City, which has won
14 of 15.
"Tonight he came out and he really set the tone," Durant said of
Ibaka.
The Thunder (20-4) have been dominant at home and on the road, where
they are 6-1 on this streak. They've moved to within a half-game of
red-hot Portland (21-4) in the Northwest Division.
They used the same formula in beating Denver — strong play from the
superstars and key contributions from everyone else.
Center J.J. Hickson had 20 points and 14 rebounds and guard Ty
Lawson had 17 points and 13 assists for the Nuggets, who dropped two
of their last three home games.
"Scott Brooks had plays in his sleeve that he pulled out today that
we didn't prepare for," Lawson said of the Oklahoma City coach. "It
was good plays, got them easy shots."
Ibaka did most of his damage in the first quarter. He made his first
five shots and scored 13 points to help Oklahoma City take a lead it
never surrendered.
"I thought Russell did a great job of getting Serge involved early,"
Brooks said. "He found Serge a lot in the first three or four
minutes."
Westbrook had the assist on three of Ibaka's first five shots.
"Once they put two guys on myself and Kevin, our job is to make the
other guys better," Westbrook said. "That's what I did early in the
game."
When Denver (14-10) tried to make a run, Durant and Westbrook took
over.
The Nuggets pulled within 58-57 and had a chance for their first
lead since the first quarter but forward Wilson Chandler missed a
running hook.
The Thunder then scored nine straight points, capped by Durant's
3-pointer that made it 69-58.
It was a 12-point lead when guard Nate Robinson hit a pair of
3-pointers to make it 83-77, but Durant hit a shot and then stole
the ball from Robinson.
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"I was just shooting, to be honest," Durant said. "I didn't
start the game off the way I wanted to, but the third quarter is
key for us."
Westbrook, who finished two assists shy of a triple-double, hit
a pair of free throws before guard Derek Fisher's three-point
play made it 89-77 with 6:09 left.
Westbrook's 3-pointer with 4:49 left made it 94-79 and Denver
was on the way to its fourth loss in 11 home games. Last year
the Nuggets lost a total of three games at Pepsi Center.
"Where we are as a team, we got beat by a better team tonight,
Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. "I liked our spirit in terms of
fighting, but we couldn't finish in the paint. We couldn't play
defense on them without fouling."
Denver's fourth-quarter woes started when forward Jordan
Hamilton was called for a Flagrant Foul 2 and was ejected 59
seconds into the period.
The Nuggets missed their first nine shots of the second quarter,
11 straight overall and 13 of 14. The Thunder reserves took
advantage of the cold spell by spearheading an 11-1 run that
gave Oklahoma City a 37-25 lead.
The Nuggets regrouped and cut it to 41-37 late in the second,
the Thunder finished the half strong to take a 52-44 lead into
the break.
Ibaka led all scorers with 15 at halftime.
NOTES: While winning each of its previous six games, Oklahoma
City averaged 111.2 points and prevailed by an average margin of
15.2 points. ... The Nuggets won nine of their previous 11 home
games against the Thunder/SuperSonics franchise. ... Oklahoma
City F Serge Ibaka began the night averaging career highs in
points (14.5) and rebounds (9.4) this season. He was 11th in the
league in rebounds per game. ... Entering Tuesday's games,
Denver's bench ranked third in the NBA in scoring at 44.7 points
a game, 11 more than the Thunder's reserves. ... Oklahoma City
entered the game 14-1 when outrebounding its opponent. ...
Thunder reserve F Andre Roberson played for the University of
Colorado, 30 miles from Pepsi Center.
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