Thunder Blasts Hornets Behind A Barrage Of 3-Pointers

Oklahoma City set a franchise record with 14 3-pointers as the Thunder whipped New Orleans on Friday night.

Friday, November 16th 2012, 11:59 pm

By: News 9


The Oklahoma City Thunder scored 96 points and tied a franchise record with 13 3-pointers – by the end of the third quarter.

That's a pretty accurate indicator of what was easily the Thunder's most well-rounded, efficient performance of the young NBA season as Oklahoma City pounded the Hornets 110-95 in New Orleans on Friday night, rolling to its sixth victory in the past seven games.

The final score doesn't do the Thunder's play justice, as Oklahoma City led by as much as 34 before the starters headed for the bench after the third quarter.

Eric Maynor drilled a 3 with seven minutes left in regulation to set the OKC record for 3's in a game with 14.

Of all of the standout performances against New Orleans, perhaps Kevin Martin's was the most impressive.

Martin's growing comfort level with the team keeps becoming more evident with each game and his performance on Friday was spot on. Martin was incredibly efficient, scoring 16 points in his first seven minutes and hitting three of his first four 3's. He finished tied for the team lead with Kevin Durant, as each poured in 27 points.

Martin finished 9-of-17 from the floor and 6-of-11 from 3 with five rebounds and four assists. Durant was even more efficient, hitting 9-of-12 and 4-for-5 from behind the 3-point line.

For the second consecutive game, Russell Westbrook finished with more assists (12) than points (10). It was Westbrook's fifth double-double in the past six games.

Westbrook spearheaded one of the most impressive passing performances in recent memory for OKC, which had 31 assists on 40 baskets as players executed nearly flawless ball movement to find the open shooter, befuddling the Hornet's on the defensive end.

Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha were the other two Thunder players in double figures with 15 and 11, respectively. Ibaka also had three blocks.

The Thunder shot 54 percent from the floor on the night and 48.3 percent from 3-point range, while also converting on 16-of-20 shots from the free-throw line.

New Orleans shot 42.3 percent and a whopping 58 percent from 3 on 7-of-12 from deep.

With the victory, the Thunder improved to 7-3 on the season and will play Golden State at 6 p.m. on Sunday at Chesapeake Energy Arena before a major showdown with Blake Griffin and the Clippers on Wednesday in OKC. New Orleans dropped to 3-4 with the loss.

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