Thunder Pound Nuggets, Win Fourth Straight

Don't look now but your Oklahoma City Thunder all of a sudden are rolling again. They won their fourth straight and ninth of their last 12 Monday night by clobbering the Denver Nuggets 117-96.

Kevin Durant led all scorers with 27 points in just three quarters. That's his 35th straight game scoring at least 25 and he's now just five games away from tying Michael Jordan's record of 40 straight.

Caron Butler and Reggie Jackson had big time games too. Butler with 23 points, his seventh 20 point game of the season and first since signing with Oklahoma City. Jackson had his second straight double-double with 16 points and 11 assists filling in for Russell Westbrook who rested on the first night of a back-to-back. Westbrook will play tomorrow night in Dallas.

The Thunder scored a season-high 72 points in the first half and then held Denver to just 38 points on 27.3 percent shooting in the second half.

"I really liked the way we came out on offense in the first quarter (41 points) with our passing and our spacing, our assists," Thunder head coach Scott Brooks said after the game. "And then in the second half we really locked down on defense."

The Nuggets were playing without six of their guys and the Thunder were playing without three starters, but Denver was also playing on the second night of a back-to-back and they just couldn't hang with the Thunder.

"We never made them uncomfortable so they shot a high percentage from two and from three," said Nuggets head coach Bryan Shaw. "I thought our defense was reacting to them instead of forcing the issue and then we made too many turnovers (20), so it was a recipe for disaster."

The Thunder will face the Mavericks in Dallas next before coming back home for a couple of days of practice before taking on the Sacramento Kings on Friday night.