Kevin Durant lifting Thunder when things get down

After a string of home defeats and the loss of star point guard Russell Westbrook, Kevin Durant power Oklahoma City to a comfortable 119-96 win over Boston on Sunday night.

Kevin Durant is scoring 29.2 points per game for Oklahoma City this season. Layne Murdoch / Getty Images / AFP

OKLAHOMA CITY, United States // The Oklahoma City Thunder had been struggling on their own court, losing two straight and three out of their last four at home. Kevin Durant made sure that trend didn’t continue Sunday night.

Durant overcame a slow start to finish with 21 points, seven rebounds and eight assists, Reggie Jackson scored a career-high 27 points, and the Thunder rolled to a 119-96 win over the Boston Celtics.

Serge Ibaka added 17 points and 11 rebounds for Oklahoma City, who had struggled at home after starting the season 13-0 at Chesapeake Energy Arena. The Thunder (27-7) have the best record in the Western Conference.

Oklahoma City are 4-2 since All-Star point guard Russell Westbrook had arthroscopic knee surgery on December 27.

A day after the Thunder narrowly avoided a three-game losing streak – rallying from a 13-point fourth-quarter deficit to win at Minnesota behind Durant’s season-high 48-point effort – they seized control early against the Celtics, going on a 10-0 run in the first quarter and never trailing again.

“We just want to come in here and focus every time, especially after an emotional win last night,” Durant said. “On the back-to-back, it might have been easy for us to relax, but I think we did a good job of playing hard.”

Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said the emphasis wasn’t so much on winning at home, but instead eliminating the in-game lapses that led to the Thunder’s recent home losses to Toronto, Portland and Brooklyn.

“It’s just important that we just play a 48-minute game,” Brooks said. “I thought we had good moments on the games that we lost, but it wasn’t consistent throughout the game and the other teams got hot down the stretch and we couldn’t stop it.

“But we didn’t go into the game and say, ‘Guys, we’ve got to win tonight because we’ve lost three out of our last four at home.’ We went into the game, ‘Guys, we want to keep playing our style of basketball.”’

Jeff Green and Avery Bradley scored 19 points apiece for Boston (13-21), who have lost four straight games and seven of their last eight.

Oklahoma City matched their season high for points in a half and led 66-56 at the break. The Thunder scored the first six points of the second half and the Celtics came no closer than 11 the rest of the way.

“I thought our ball movement in the first half was really good,” Boston coach Brad Stevens said. “That dried up in the second, and we didn’t help each other on defence very often. One of the things we’ve got to do as a group is when things don’t go well, we’ve got to collect ourselves quicker and make things go in our favour again. When things are going well, we’re not bad, but when things don’t go well, we haven’t responded well lately.”

Durant didn’t record his first field goal until 5 1/2 minutes into the second quarter, but still had 17 points by halftime thanks to 9-of-10 free throw shooting. He sat out the fourth quarter with the game in hand.

Jackson hit six of his first seven shots and was 3-of-3 from 3-point range while scoring 19 in the first half. He surpassed his previous career high of 23 points with 2:57 left in the third quarter, taking a pass from Durant and rising for a one-handed dunk. Jackson, who finished 9-of-12 from the field, said he doesn’t feel extra pressure while subbing in the Thunder’s starting lineup for Westbrook.

“Pressure bursts pipes or makes diamonds,” Jackson said. “I’m cool with it. I put a lot on myself and I expect big things from myself. I’m just happy to have a pretty good game tonight and most importantly come out with another win.”

Moments after Jackson’s dunk, Ibaka followed with another slam to put Oklahoma City ahead 89-68.

“In that third quarter, they went on that run and we had no answer,” Green said. “We came a little bit too attached to our man and let them get easy layups.”

Jordan Crawford scored 17 points and Kris Humphries added 14 for the Celtics. Jeremy Lamb scored 13 points and Kendrick Perkins – playing against his former team – added a season-high 12 points to go with six rebounds for the Thunder.

OTHER SUNDAY RESULTS

Heat 102, Raptors 97

Rallying from a nine-point, third-quarter deficit, the Miami Heat earned a victory over the Toronto Raptors in a battle of division leaders.

LeBron James led the Heat with 30 points and the Southeast Division-leading Heat (26-8) won for the 10th time in their past 12 games.

Toronto (16-16) got a team-high 26 points from guard DeMar DeRozan, who pulled Toronto to within 96-95 with 1:04 left in the fourth quarter before Miami closed the game at the free throw line.

Toronto, who lead the Atlantic Division, had their five-game win streak snapped but are 9-4 since they traded forward Rudy Gay.

Pacers 82, Cavaliers 78

All-Star forward Paul George had a team-high 16 points and six assists, as the Indiana Pacers held off the stubborn Cavaliers.

The Pacers (27-6) saw their 16-point, fourth-quarter lead cut to just one in the final minute but recovered to seal it at the free throw line.

Dion Waiters scored 12 of his 14 points in the fourth to lead a comeback for the Cavs (11-23).

Warriors 112, Wizards 96

Klay Thompson scored 26 points on six 3-pointers and David Lee had 21 points and 11 rebounds as the Golden State Warriors won their ninth straight game.

The Warriors (23-13) used a 30-5 run during the third quarter to pull away and have won nine straight games for the first time since 1975.

Point guard John Wall had 14 points and 10 assists for the Wizards (14-17), who have lost three straight games.

Knicks 92, Mavericks 80

New York forward Carmelo Anthony scored a game-high 19 points and grabbed seven rebounds as the Knicks completed a solid four-game road trip.

The Knicks (11-22) split their four-game road trip, but they went 2-1 against the Texas trio of the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets and Dallas.

The Mavericks (19-15) dropped their fourth consecutive home game.

Grizzlies 112, Pistons 84

Reserve forward Jon Leuer tied his career-high with 23 points and power forward Zach Randolph powered for 16 points and 16 rebounds as the Memphis Grizzlies blew out the Detroit Pistons.

It was the Grizzlies’ (15-18) eighth consecutive win over the Pistons.

Power forward Greg Monroe had 19 points for the Pistons (14-20), who have lost four straight.

Nuggets 137, Lakers 1115

Los Angeles (14-20) lost for the seventh time in their last eight games as the Denver (16-17) bench found 21 points from guard Nate Robinson and 20 from Russian center Timofey Mozgov. Mozgov shot 8-of-10 and added seven rebound, two steals and two blocks. Robinson had five rebounds, five assists and three steals.

Ty Lawson led the Nuggets’ starting unit with 20 points and 12 assists. Kenneth Faried contributed 17 points and 13 rebounds as well.

The depleted Lakers were led by Pau Gasol, who scored 25 and collected 10 rebounds. Point guard Kendall Marshall chipped in 17 assists.