third miss from four shots at goal.A Steyn from zgr123's blog
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City Thunder showed Wednesday night that they dont always need to have Kevin Durant score in the fourth quarter to win a close game. Jaleel Johnson Vikings Jersey . Durant scored just two of his 26 points in the final 12 minutes and his teammates -- including Derek Fisher, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson -- stood in the gap, helping Oklahoma City pull away for a 106-97 win over a Minnesota Timberwolves team without Kevin Love and two other starters. Jackson added 20 points (seven in the fourth quarter) and nine assists for the Thunder, who won for the 12th time in their last 13 games and became the NBAs first team this season to 40 wins. The Thunder won for the ninth straight time at home against Minnesota, which entered the game 3 1/2 games behind Dallas in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot from the Western Conference. The Thunder have won eight straight home games and are 15-1 this season against Western Conference foes at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "We just focus on doing our job every night and living with the results and theyve been pretty good for a while now," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "We have expectations to a standard that we want to play at and I think weve done a good job with that going into the All-Star break. "This is funky time for a lot of teams because a lot of players are probably thinking about the break and what theyre doing, getting their plans together. Weve never been a team that has done that and I dont anticipate that happening this year." Love, an All-Star forward, sat out with a stiff neck after taking a hard fall Tuesday in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Center Nikola Pecovic (ankle injury) and forward Corey Brewer (family leave) also didnt play for the Timberwolves. Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said he was proud of the way his undermanned team fought. "I think it shows that these guys compete," Adelman said. "They werent afraid to go play them with three starters out. It gave the other guys an opportunity to play. I couldnt be prouder of the way they competed. We just ran a little bit out of gas at the end." With Minnesota devoting its defensive energies to stopping Durant, other Thunder players made the key plays in the final minutes. The score was tied in the closing seconds of the third quarter when Fisher attempted a 3-pointer from the corner that appeared to be long, but Minnesotas Gorgui Dieng accidentally tapped it into the basket to give the Thunder an 80-77 lead. Fisher finished with 13 points, his second-best offensive outing of the season. "Ive never seen that before," Durant said of the goaltending call on Dieng. "That guy is a rookie . so Im sure hes going to learn from that one. But that gave us a boost and at the start of the fourth those guys came out and played extremely hard and thats what we needed." Lamb opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to push Oklahoma Citys lead to six points. The Thunder finished off the 16-4 run with a dunk by Lamb with 7:17 left that made it 93-81, but Oklahoma City suddenly went cold from the field. Durant was called for a technical foul with 4:39 left after protesting a no-call, but Ricky Rubio missed the ensuing free throw, leaving the score at 93-86. Minnesota pulled within 95-89 after a 3-pointer by Robbie Hummel with 3:45 left, but the Timberwolves came no closer. "We came into the game aggressive and we fought all the way through, but in the last five minutes, I think we missed too many free throws and easy shots while they made shots at the end," said Rubio, who had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Thabo Sefolosha, who missed his first seven 3-point attempts, made one from the corner with 1:43 left to extend the Thunders lead to 100-90 and Minnesota came no closer than nine points the rest of the way. "Theyre NBA players, too," Durant said of his teammates. "Its not like Ive been scoring every point in the fourth. We play off each other. Guys hit big shots and we got stops. . We play a team game here." Durant, who also had nine rebounds and seven assists, continued his strong play against the Timberwolves. He had a triple-double in a home win over the Timberwolves on Dec. 1 and scored 48 points in a win at Minnesota on Jan. 4 before his outburst Wednesday. The Timberwolves led by as many as six points in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City took a 56-54 lead after Durant swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Durant had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists by halftime. Dante Cunningham added 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting for Minnesota. Serge Ibaka had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder. NOTES: Brewer didnt travel with the team following the birth of his son on Tuesday. The Timberwolves say hes expected to return for Fridays game at New Orleans. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute replaced Brewer in the starting lineup. ... Durant was the Western Conference player of the month for January. He averaged 35.9 points per game while shooting 54.9 per cent during the month, leading Oklahoma City to a 10-game winning streak. He scored 30 or more points in 12 straight games. ... Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, who live in nearby Norman, attended the game. ... Hummel saw his first action since Jan. 6 at Philadelphia. He played 17 minutes and scored five points. .. Oklahoma City C Kendrick Perkins matched his season high with 12 rebounds. Ben Gedeon Womens Jersey . Sweeting scored two in the first and three in the second before Strong (4-4) got two back in the fourth. Sweeting then scored three in the fifth, two in the sixth and one in the seventh to grab a commanding 9-2 lead. Jaleel Johnson Womens Jersey .Then came December.Three straight losses, including a crushing 27-24 defeat to Washington (4-11) on Saturday, has the Eagles (9-6) on the brink of playoff elimination.New Zealand confirmed their status as the best team in the world with a 57-15 thrashing of the Springboks in Durban. It was the sixth consecutive bonus-point win for the world champions, giving them a total of 30 competition points in the Rugby Championship - the maximum on offer.Three penalties from Morne Steyn kept the Springboks in the game up until the break, with New Zealand 12-9 up at half-time after tries from Israel Dagg and TJ Perenara. But as has so often been the case with Steve Hansens side, they were able to ramp things up in the second half. Perenara and Dagg both added a try to their individual tallies, while Beauden Barrett (2), Codie Taylor, Ben Smith and Liam Squire also crossed the line for 45 second-half points. The win takes New Zealand to 17 consecutive Test wins, which brings them level with the record for the most successive wins by a Tier 1 nation. The All Blacks next match is against Australia in Auckland in two weeks time, which will be live on Sky Sports.Things started well for South Africa when slotted his first penalty attempt after five minutes and Barrett, who began the game as the leading Rugby Championship scorer this season with 65 points, fluffed his first shot at goal. Ben Smith runs at Faf de Klerk South Africa were gaining little possession but defended with a lot more spirit than in recent matches in the competition.Steyn slotted another penalty to double the lead to six points before the All Blacks scored their first try through right winger Dagg at the beginning of the second quarter. It was a typical New Zealand score with backs and forwards applying pressure in the danger zone and wwhen the ball was moved wide, a quick pass from flanker Jerome Kaino sent Dagg over. Ben Gedeon Youth Jersey. Barrett was out of luck with the conversion, which struck the near post, leaving the Springboks 6-5 ahead. Given another penalty chance, Steyn made no mistake and the home side led by four points as the match passed the 30-minute mark.The visitors took the lead for the first time when Perenara was awarded a try after numerous replays were shown to the referee, his assistant and the television match official.Perenara appeared to have lost control of the ball forward before dotting down, but he got the nod and Barrett converted for a 12-9 advantage the All Blacks retained until half-time. Shortly before the final whistle New Zealand thought they had scored another try through lock Brodie Retallick, but it was ruled out for obstruction. The second half began as the first ended with the All Blacks on the offensive and Dagg notched his fifth try of this Championship within five minutes of the restart. Once again he went over far out, after passes from Perenara and Barrett set him up, and the fly-half failed to convert, his third miss from four shots at goal.A Steyn penalty kept the Springboks in the hunt, but when full-back Patrick Lambie had a clearance charged down, Barrett won the chase for the loose ball to score.It was becoming an uneven contest between the goal kicking of Steyn and the try-scoring world champions and after the Springboks playmaker slotted a fifth penalty, his side conceded a fifth try.Full-back Smith was the catalyst, winning an aerial duel with Lambie, and slick handling resulted in Perenara scoring and Barrett converting for a 29-15 lead. It went from bad to worse in the closing stages for South Africa as Barrett converted his try and Lima Sopoaga added the extra points to scores by fellow substitute, hooker Taylor, full-back Smith and replacement flanker Squire. 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