Durant injures leg; Westbrook leads Thunder past Wiz 125-101

Those were fun, blissfully ignorant times.

Chris Bosh put up 30 points and 11 rebounds to pace the Heat. Early on the Verizon Center faithful tried to boo every time Durant touched the ball after the Montrose Christian star called fans disrespectful for rooting for him over their team. “It means a lot coming back, because I remember as a kid catching the train to come down here to watch the Wizards and Mystics, Georgetown, all the time”.

“Nah, I didn’t”, Durant said when asked if he heard the boos.

James also scored 17 points in a tight fourth quarter, hitting a huge runner over the outstretched arm of Favors to give Cleveland a four-point lead that ultimately held up.

Just consider the basketball reasons. Kevin Durant had a double-double, Russell Westbrook was dishing all over the place, and OKC had only missed one three-point attempt. His team was undermanned without Bradley Beal and Nene but he emphasized the absences weren’t reasons for the Wizards’ shortcomings. There was clear frustration from Washington, as Marcin Gortat and Kris Humphries got into a shouting match with each other during a late second quarter free throw. Durant is among the league’s top three players, if not the best. “We let teams take it to us the last three games”.

Not a great look in terms of organizational cohesiveness.

Wittman explained before the game his plan was to match the Thunder’s size by playing big, adding Washington wouldn’t have to worry about a stretch-4 or stretch-5 from OKC stopping at the 3-point line in transition. He made 77 3-pointers at a. 376 clip last season. I have really just focused on our team. Washington fell 125-101 in a poor defensive performance. Washington avoided its recent rash of turnovers, yet lost its third straight game while allowing its most points this season. “We’ve gone pretty standard”.

The Wizards just aren’t shooting three pointers very well. Indeed, over the past four seasons Houston has continued to make splashy moves such as acquiring James Harden from Oklahoma City, signing Dwight Howard, and trading for Ty Lawson from the Denver Nuggets.

After the bench treaded water, KD, Westbrook, and Ibaka came in to close the second quarter.

In spite of it all, Durant was doing his usual thing, popping back-to-back 3s in the second quarter as the Thunder opened up a lead on the Wizards. Washington was missing its second-best player in Beal, but now the Thunder were missing (at this point, arguably) their best player. The Thunder crashed the boards as they outrebounded the Wizards 53-to-41. “So I said, ‘Where’s Dion?’ and he didn’t come out there”, Donovan said, explaining that’s why Kyle Singler was on the court to begin the second half.