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Sports

Durant scores 32 as Thunder top Houston 117-105

Associated Press
Published | Updated

OKLAHOMA CITY – Kevin Durant scored 32 points, Thabo Sefolosha added a season-high 15 points and nine rebounds and the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Houston Rockets 117-105 on Wednesday night for their fourth straight win.

Durant was on the bench with four fouls late in the third quarter when the Thunder scored eight straight points to take control of the game. James Harden tacked on a 3-pointer to open the fourth and push Oklahoma City's lead to 90-76, and the Rockets were never closer than a dozen points after that.

Kevin Martin scored 22 points and Luis Scola added 18 for Houston, which was trying to win three games in a row for the first time this season on the same day it completed a pair of trades.

The Rockets added swingman Terrence Williams from New Jersey and traded Jermaine Taylor to Sacramento in separate deals before the game.

Oklahoma City shot a season-high 57.7 percent (41 for 71), making more than half its shots for the fourth straight game. The Thunder weren't able to keep up a similar streak of holding opponents to fewer than 40 points in the second half, but it didn't matter.

Durant headed to the bench after being called for his fourth foul with 6:45 left in the third quarter, but Oklahoma City was still able to extend its lead with the NBA's top scorer out of the game.

Jeff Green scored the first six points in an 8-0 run to finish the third quarter for the Thunder, and Eric Maynor's jumper in the final 2 seconds made it 87-76 before Durant returned to start the fourth quarter.

Rockets coach Rick Adelman pulled his starters while facing a 110-94 deficit with 3:38 left, and the Rockets fell to 0-5 when playing the second night of a back-to-back on the road this season.

Green finished with 21 points, Russell Westbrook scored 17 and Harden had 16 for the Thunder.

Kyle Lowry added 15 points for Houston. Patrick Patterson, the 14th overall pick in this year's draft, made his Rockets debut and had three points while playing in the final 3:38.

In a game that featured two of the NBA's top seven offenses, Oklahoma City came out ahead after a back-and-forth first half that featured big swings in both directions. The Thunder took the lead for good with a stretch of 10 straight points, going up 58-52 after Durant followed his two-handed dunk with a 3-pointer from the right wing.

NOTES: Durant, who led the U.S. to the gold medal at this summer's world championships, was named USA Basketball's male athlete of the year. ... Hall of Famer Bob Lanier, in town for an event Thursday to encourage vaccinations for teenagers, sat courtside. ... Martin, the NBA's leading free-throw shooter at 91.9 percent, missed three foul shots in a game for only the second time this season. He was 3 for 6.