Tulsa World: Durant leads Thunder to win at BOK Center

Home > News > Article

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Durant leads Thunder to win at BOK Center

OKC's Tre Kelley, a rookie from South Carolina, tries to go around Miami's Shavlik Randolph during Wednesday's game at the BOK Center. CORY YOUNG/Tulsa World

By MATT BAKER World Sports Writer
Published: 10/14/2009 9:15 PM
Last Modified: 10/23/2009 4:15 PM

If Kevin Durant keeps playing like this at the BOK Center, maybe the Oklahoma City Thunder should play in Tulsa more often.

The Thunder's star forward scored 18 points in the fourth quarter to lead the Thunder to a 96-91 win over the Miami Heat in tonight's exhibition game in front of an announced crowd of 10,427 at the BOK Center.

Durant was also impressive in last year's exhibition in Tulsa, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter against Houston to spark a win over the Rockets.

Durant picked up five fouls in his first 20 minutes but came alive in the fourth quarter. His baseline jumper with 1:10 left gave the Thunder a four-point lead.

Jeff Green added 25 points for the Thunder.

Oklahoma City trailed by nine at the end of the third quarter but rallied back behind quick buckets by Durant and key free throws by point guard Russell Westbrook.

Forward Michael Beasley starred for the Heat with Miami star Dwyane Wade on the bench with a rib cage injury. Beasley finished with 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting and grabbed four rebounds.

Former Booker T. Washington standout Etan Thomas had 11 points and a rebound for the Thunder. Playing in front of his hometown crowd, Thomas made a pair of free throws in the final seconds to seal the win.

Oklahoma City forward Michael Ruffin, who played college ball at the University of Tulsa, finished with one rebound and no points in 11 minutes of action.

Thunder forward Nick Collison didn't play because of a right ankle sprain.

By MATT BAKER World Sports Writer

Comment

RSS

Bookmark

Reader Comments

Reader comments for this story have been moved to the most updated version of the story, now under the headline "Slide Show: Durant scores 30; OKC beats Heat," which was published on 10/15/2009. So far, 7 comments have been made.