Even if Dirk Nowitzki is feeling as good as he did against the Jazz on Saturday when he scored a season high 40 points in just under 29 minutes, defeating the best home team in the league will be a tall task for the Dallas Mavericks. Nowitzki and the Mavericks (22-16) visit Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder (29-8) for their final meeting this season in Monday night’s best game. The Thunder has won two of the three meetings this season
When Josh Smith is in the right frame of mind, meaning attack the basket and not settling for perimeter shots, the Atlanta Hawks are a difficult team to beat. In fact, when Smith scores at least 20 points, the team is undefeated. They improved to 11-0 in such situations as Smith scored 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to defeat the Oklahoma City Thunder — the team with the NBA’s best record coming into the game — 97-90 Saturday night. It was an
Do the Oklahoma City Thunder have a toughness complex? One of the reasons the Thunder have the NBA’s second-best record is because they have three young, explosive players – Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden – who simply cannot be contained off the dribble. When defensive schemes cannot prevent a player from getting to the basket, teams usually resort to rough stuff as discouragement. Michael Jordan went through it. So did Allen Iverson. Tony Parker still gets thrown to the floor
The Oklahoma City Thunder head to Atlanta on Saturday to play their one game against Hawks this season and may be without All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook. Westbrook rolled his ankle with 5:46 remaining against the Orlando Magic on Thursday, but didn’t leave until 20 seconds remained to ensure Thunder’s 105-102 win. “Russell has a heart of a lion. That’s the bottom line.” said coach Scott Brooks. Westbrook was a little more candid. “I don’t know. I was just playing, man, trying to find
NEW YORK — The Miami Heat’s LeBron James and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant have been named the Kia NBA Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month for games played in February. James captured his second consecutive Player of the Month award, leading Miami to an 11-2 record in February. James led the conference in scoring (24.6 ppg) and posted double-figure point totals in all 13 of Miami’s games. He finished in the top 10 in the East in assists
// csprtContainer(); // ]]> Kevin Durant isn’t exactly taking over the league, but he certainly would be if he were playing in a larger market. For now, we’ll have to appreciate the performances like the one he put on Thursday night at Orlando in the same arena where he was named the MVP of the All-Star game last Sunday. He enters the weekend trailing Kobe Bryant (28.5 ppg) by a half-point for the league lead in scoring, but Durant is hitting at
The only place Kevin Durant had never won in his career was the Amway Center. He can finally cross that off on his to-do list. The Thunder put an end to the long road drought — they hadn’t won in Orlando in eight years — by staging a big comeback behind Durant to win 105-102 and pushed their winning streak to seven games. Russell Westbrook went off for 29 points and 10 assists, only his second double-digit assist effort this season. Dwight Howard took
Kevin Durant has won in every building in the NBA in his career except one: the Amway Center. Durant and the league-leading Oklahoma City Thunder (28-7) put their six-game winning streak on the line as they visit Dwight Howard and the Orlando Magic (23-13) in Thursday’s best game, airing on TNT. The Thunder last won in Orlando in March 2004, when they were still wearing the Seattle Supersonics uniforms and Durant was 16 years old. Although you’d never guess after watching him put