OKC Drops Final Regular Season Game To Denver

The final regular-season game for the Thunder had a playoff-like feel to it as OKC and Denver battled it out to the end in a very physical game.

After being down much of the game, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook rallied in the second half pushing OKC to as much as a six point lead, but it wasn't enough as Denver outlasted OKC 106-101.

Kevin Durant paced the Thunder with 32 points and five rebounds, notching his 25th 30-point game of the season. Durant's scoring performance keeps him in first place in scoring for the league. Kobe Bryant sits at No. 2 in scoring and would have to score 38 points for the Lakers tomorrow against Sacramento in order to overtake Durant for the scoring title and prevent Durant from becoming the seventh player to win three in a row.

The win puts OKC at No. 2 in the Western Conference at 47-19 on the season, one spot behind San Antonio who sits at 48-16. The Lakers are the No. 3 team in the west with a record of 41-24.

The exact matchups have not been set for the first round of playoffs since the regular season isn't officially over for all teams until Thursday, but as it stands, Oklahoma City is in line to potentially face the Dallas Mavericks to open the post season. There is still a chance OKC could face the Nuggets in a first round playoff matchup.

With just over eight minutes remaining in the game Denver had scored eight straight points to go up 88-86.

Durant came back into the game at that point, and minutes later threw down a two- handed dunk to even the score.

Denver didn't back down though. The Nuggets responded with the next six points to push their lead to 94-88 after Kenneth Faried's reverse layup with 6:09 remaining.

Ty Lawson netted a free throw for Denver with 4:11 remaining and the Thunder would not threaten for the rest of the matchup.

Derek Fisher fired a long 3-pointer from the left wing with nine seconds, but it banged off the iron leaving OKC shorthanded.

Denver's Lawson finished with 25 points while Faried contributed 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Westbrook added 32 points, nine assists, but turnovers continued to hinder the Thunder as they gave the ball up 18 times on the evening that Denver turned into 24 points.

OKC did tally 13 blocks on the night with four from Westbrook and four from Serge Ibaka who finished with 15 points.