Thunder Finally Get To .500, Beat Wizards

By Randy Renner

Well it's been a long time coming but the Thunder have gotten even on the season at 17-17. 

"It's a good feeling," said head coach Scott Brooks about getting to .500. "We've had some rough patches that we've fought through but we can't rest now. We've gotta lock in and focus." 

Thunder superstar Kevin Durant was locked in, he scored 34 points on 12-for-18 shooting (4-for-7 on threes). KD has now scored 108 points in his last 10 quarters. 

Russell Westbrook added 22 but he was just 8-for-23. 

The Thunder also got 13 points from Serge Ibaka on 6-for-10 shooting. 

The guys on the bench came up really big, none bigger than Nick Collison. He didn't even play the other night against Phoenix, but against the Wizards he scored 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting to lead all bench scorers, he also pulled down five rebounds. Reggie Jackson had nine, Anthony Morrow dropped in eight and Perry Jones had seven. Even Kendrick Perkins got in on the fun with six points and four rebounds. All together the bench boys scored 40 points.

The Thunder defense struggled at times, especially early in the game but they clamped down in the second half, allowing the Wizards to shoot just 40.4 percent over the final 24 minutes. 

They also held Wizards All-Star point guard John Wall to 14 points on just 5-for-13 shooting, Wall did hand out 12 assists though. 

All in all it was a fine performance for the Thunder who now go on a western road swing to Golden State, for what ought to be a heck of a game on Monday night and then over to Sacramento play the Kings on Wednesday before coming home on Friday night to take on the Utah Jazz.