Freezing cold rain wasn’t able to cool down Kevin Durant, as he scored 34 points and grabbed 13 rebounds as the Thunder beat the Pistons 103-87 inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena.
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Pistons point guard Reggie Jackson was traded by Oklahoma City last season after saying he wanted to be a starter, despite playing behind Westbrook.
The Thunder showed why it pays to have two superstars.
The Detroit Pistons were rolling early Saturday night, racking up 55 first half points and holding a seven point lead at intermission over the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Adams’ back-up, Enes Kanter added 14 points off the bench and power forward Serge Ibaka chipped in with 14 points on seven-of-eight shooting and four blocks.
“When you’ve got shooters all around the court and you’ve got good finishers, it makes it easier”, said Durant.
At his first game against his former team, Pistons guard Reggie Jackson was getting most of the pregame attention. Consecutive 3-pointers by Durant cut Detroit’s lead to 62-60. The teams traded buckets for the next two minutes, before a rebound and coast to coast layup by Dion Waiters put the Thunder up 66-65 with 3:56 left in the quarter.
In ATS trends, the Pistons are 11-4 ATS in their last 15 games against a team with a winning record and 1-5 ATS in their last six road games, while the Thunder are 1-5 ATS in their last six games against a team with a winning record and 0-5 ATS in their last five home games. He scored 14 points and four rebounds in the third quarter alone.
Flirting with foul trouble throughout the evening, Pistons center Andre Drummond was held without a double-double for just the second time this season. The Pistons took two 13-point leads, the last coming on Ersan Ilyasova free throws with 2:32 remaining in the first half. Westbrook missed his first six shots…. The Thunder, as logic would have it, also had a big edge in second-chance points at 22-10.
“We had a talk (Tuesday) at practice about me not challenging shots, so I made that a job tonight, ” he said. Westbrook had 11 turnovers, tied with Denver rookie Emmanuel Mudiay for the most in a game this season….
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By the time Durant and Westbrook checked back in, Oklahoma City had a double-digit lead.
