Thunder Finally Get Over .500 Mark, Top Heat 94-86
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MIAMI (AP) — Russell Westbrook scored 19 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, Kevin Durant added 19 points and the Oklahoma City Thunder moved over the .500 mark for the first time this season with a 94-86 win over theMiami Heat on Tuesday night.
Durant also had eight rebounds and eight assists for the Thunder, who've won 18 of their last 26 games. Reggie Jackson scored 16 points and Anthony Morrow added 12 for Oklahoma City.
Dwyane Wade scored 18 points and Chris Bosh added 16 for Miami, which fell to 7-13 at home.
Durant was 0 for 8 from 3-point range — matching the second-worst showing of his career — and the Thunder got to the foul line only 10 times, less than half their team average coming into the night.
It didn't matter, especially after Miami shot only 42 percent in the final three quarters. The Thunder took 92 shots,Miami just 68.
Miami had three shots to tie or take the lead in the fourth quarter, all of them missing and the Thunder would eventually pull away.
Jackson's 3-pointer with 2:54 left put the Thunder up 87-82, then Westbrook got the next two baskets — the second of them an easy one after Miami's 20th turnover of the night — to extend the lead to nine and send most in the crowd heading for the exits.
The game was the exact midpoint of the regular season for both teams. Oklahoma City went 21-20 in its first 41 games, Miami went 18-23.
Morrow's jumper to open the fourth quarter put Oklahoma City up 74-67, what was then the Thunder's biggest lead of the night. The Thunder were down by nine early and trailed 50-49 at the half, then did what plenty of teams have done to Miami this season — clamp down in the third quarter.
The margin in the third wasn't overwhelming, with the Thunder winning the quarter just 23-17. But it was the 18th time already this season that Miami failed to reach the 20-point mark in a third quarter, and it meant the Heat would have to play from behind once again.
Miami lost starting center Hassan Whiteside in the second quarter to a sprained right ankle. Whiteside finished with 10 points on 5 for 5 shooting — three of them dunks — in 11 minutes.
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TIP-INS
Thunder: Oklahoma City had four steals in a 55-second span of the first quarter, two by Westbrook, two by Andre Roberson. ... Durant posed for photos and shook hands with U.S. Army Sgt. Ian Vaquero, the night's honoree as part of the Heat's "HomeStrong" program that honors returning military veterans at each game, during warmups. ... The Thunder have gone 28-13 over the second half of their schedule in each of the last two seasons.
Heat: Backup center Chris Andersen had a unique sequence in the second quarter, getting dunked on by Durant at one end and making a 3-pointer — just the eighth of his career — on the ensuing Heat possession. ... Miami wore new "black tie" uniforms, a nod to men's formalwear. ... Wade appeared in his 750th regular-season game. ... Bosh broke a tie with Glen Rice and moved into the No. 7 spot on Miami's all-time rebound list.
UP NEXT
Thunder: At Washington on Wednesday.
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