Oklahoma City Outlasts Minnesota in Overtime

The Thunder narrowly avoided a double-overtime scenario in the win over the Timberwolves.

Thursday, May 26th 2011, 12:10 pm

By: News On 6

Oklahoma City Outlasts Minnesota in Overtime

Originally Published: Jan 26, 2011 10:4 PM CDT

Gerald Goodridge
Oklahoma Sports Staff Writer

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota -- A career night from Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City to a 118-117, overtime win over the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday.

The win moves Oklahoma City to 29-16 on the season, half of a game back from the Dallas Mavericks for third in the Western Conference.

Durant, who leads the league in scoring, tied his career-high in scoring with 47 points and set a career mark in rebounding with 18 boards.

Oklahoma City built a four-point lead early in overtime, starting the extra period with a 6-2 run to take a 116-112 lead with 2:46 left on the clock.

Minnesota knocked down back-to-back shots from the floor to tie the game 116-116 with 46 seconds left to play, but Durant connected on an 18-foot jumper to give Oklahoma City the two-point lead 18 seconds later.

A two-shot, loose-ball foul was called on Thabo Sefolosha, sending Corey Brewer to the line with seven ticks on the clock, but the former Gator missed the second attempt. Teammate Wesley Johnson grabbed the rebound, but Luke Ridnour missed the last-second shot from behind the arc securing the win for Oklahoma City.

Kevin Love led the charge for Minnesota, scoring 31 points and grabbing 21 rebounds, marking his first double-double since seeing his 30-game streak end three games prior against the Los Angeles Clippers. Teammate Michael Beasley attempted to keep up, scoring 30 points, grabbing nine rebounds and dishing out seven assists.

Behind Durant, Jeff Green – whose floater sent the game to overtime – scored 19 points and recorded eight rebounds in the win. Point guard Russell Westrbook contributed 16 points, despite eight turnovers, and James Harden added 13 points coming off of the bench.

Oklahoma City will return home and try to knock off the Washington Wizards at 7 p.m. Friday.