NBA -- Thunder beat Warriors with Durant's career-high 54
By Homer D. Sayson
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 19 Jan 2014
CHICAGO -- Kevin Durant had one of those scoring splurges Friday night. This time, it netted him a career-best 54 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder dispatched the dangerous Golden State Warriors at the Chesapeake Energy Arena in OK City.
It wasn't easy though as the Warriors rained 16 threes, a dozen of which coming from Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson who led Golden State with 37 and 26 points, respectively.
In the end, it was just too much Durant for the Warriors to handle.
"He's a special talent, a superstar basketball player, an all-time great," Warriors head coach told NBA.com as he sang praises for the OKC serial scorer.
Making matters worse for Golden State was the fact that Durant had able reinforcement as Serge Ibaka finished with 21 points and eight boards while Reggie Jackson accounted for 14 and six assists.
In a spectacular display of fine shooting, KD made 19 of 28 field goals and 5 of 9 triples. He also knocked down 11 of 13 free throws.
"As the leader of this team, my main objective is to serve my teammates and some nights, I have to put it up," Durant said.
Thanks largely to Durant's sizzling performance, the Thunder moved to 30-10 in the standings, third overall in the Western Conference and just a full game behind the top-seeded 31-9 San Antonio Spurs. (Homer D. Sayson)
Photo: Kevin Durant (center) made all sorts of shots against the Warriors as the Thunder won 127-121. KD finished with 54 points.
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