Oklahoma City Does It Again With Thrilling Victory At Golden State

Grant Belcher, News9.com

OAKLAND, California – The Thunder had just completed a wild, intense, high-scoring victory the night before in Portland.

No reason not to make it two in a row.

Oklahoma City finished off the hot-shooting Warriors with yet another thrilling victory, this time 119-116 at Golden State on Tuesday.

In what seemed like déjà vu from the previous night's win against the Blazers, the Thunder executed to perfection in crunch time and had a couple of bounces go their way at the same time.

OKC had possession of the ball with 22 seconds remaining trailing by one point.

Russell Westbrook quickly drove and missed a layup, but the ball bounced off a defender and out of bounds.

Similar to the previous night against the Blazers, the referees spent some time reviewing the instant replay to determine possession, giving Scott Brooks an extra, free "timeout" to draw up a crucial play.

And that play call worked like a charm. Kevin Durant curled over a stack of screens at the free throw line, taking the inbound pass from James Harden and coolly banking in a 15-footer to take a 117-116 lead with 14 seconds left.

But given the type of night Monta Ellis was having for the Warriors, the game was far from over at that point.

Ellis torched the Thunder for 48 points on 18-of-29 shooting, tying Kobe Bryant for the highest point total in the NBA this season.

So there was no doubt where the ball was going on the Golden State end.

With four seconds remaining, Ellis missed one of his most wide open looks of the night, and Russell Westbrook followed it up with two free throws to seal the game.

Despite the huge offensive numbers, the Oklahoma City defense stepped up when it counted the most, holding the Warriors to just two of their final 13 field goals.

Ellis' explosive night marked the third straight game an opponent went off for a big night on OKC as LaMarcus Aldridge put up 39 the night before and the Spurs' Tony Parker had 42 the game before that.

Not coincidentally, the Thunder's Thabo Sefolosha would have been guarding two of those three players. Sefolosha missed his sixth straight game with what the team is calling a sore foot.

Forward David Lee also had a big night for Golden State with 25 points and a triple-double.

But several Thunder players put up big numbers as well. Kevin Durant led all OKC players again with 33 points to go with 10 rebounds and seven assists.

Russell Westbrook added 31 points and another seven assists.

James Harden added 19 off the bench and Daequan Cook had 17 on 5-of-6 shooting from 3-point range.

Both teams shot over 50 percent from the field but OKC was impressive from the free throw line, hitting 20-of-21 shots.

The Thunder improved to 20-5 overall while the Warriors fell to 8-14. Oklahoma City will stay on the road with a Thursday night trip to take on the Sacramento Kings at 9:30 p.m.