Thunder Uses Balanced Effort To Swat Hornets

Five Thunder players finished in double-figures Saturday night as OKC ran the undermanned Hornets right out of their own building, 100-79.

Kevin Durant's 20 points and eight rebounds led the way for Oklahoma City (14-4). The Thunder has now won five straight games and 13 of its past 15. Even more impressively, OKC's past four victories have been by an average of 25 points.

It was a night where Oklahoma City needed to generate its own energy. The many thousands of empty seats left New Orleans Arena very quiet throughout the night. In fact, the only buzz in the building was Hugo the Hornet, and even he looked like he wanted to go home.

The Hornets (4-11) were once again without both Eric Gordon and 2012 No. 1 pick Anthony Davis as both are recovering from injuries. New Orleans was led by Ryan Anderson's 21 points and 10 boards.

Kevin Martin added 19 points for Oklahoma City while Russell Westbrook was right behind with 18. Nick Collison's 12 points helped the Thunder bench effort, while Kendrick Perkins' 10 rounded out the double-digit scorers for OKC.

The Thunder shot 51 percent from the floor while holding New Orleans to just 37 percent. The disparity was just as bad from 3-point range, where the Thunder shot an impressive 44 percent compared to the Hornets' 25 percent. OKC also blocked 12 shots and had nine players with at least one block.

The upcoming week should be an exciting one for Thunder fans. OKC will make its Brooklyn debut Tuesday night against the new-look Nets and return home Friday to host Dwight Howard, Kobe Bryant, Steve Nash and the Los Angeles Lakers.