The Magic dropped their second game in as many days tonight falling to Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder in a barnburner 125-124. Durant led the way with 36 points and Russell Westbrook had his 4th career triple double as he had 32 points 10 rebounds and 13 assists (and only one turnover). Dwight Howard led ALL scorers with 39 points matching a season high and perhaps more impressively, despite being known for his poor free throw shooting, he hit 17 of 20 free throws. For the game the Magic hit 14 of 28 3-pointers and only turned the ball over 5 times, but it wasn't enough as Oklahoma City shot over 56% from the floor. The Thunder have now won 4 games in a row and are averaging over 117 a game in their last 3.
THE CAVS AREN'T THE ONLY TEAM WHO STRUGGLE WITHOUT LEBRON
Lebron James injured his ankle in the 4th quarter of the Heat's loss to the Clippers last night and was unable to go tonight against the Denver Nuggets. The result? Not pretty. For the second night in a row, the Heat found themselves in a huge hole early. Last night they were down 18 after one quarter, and tonight it was a bad second quarter that found them down 17 at the half, a lead that Denver would push to as much as 32 in the 3rd quarter. Denver would finish with 130 points, Miami's worst defensive output of the season (they came in allowing just 92.7 a game). Denver's points came from everywhere as they had 7 players score in double figures, including 4 coming off the bench (J.R. Smith, Al Harrington, Melvin Ely and Ty Lawson). Smith hit 8 3-pointers en route to a game-high 28, while Carmelo Anthony added 21 and Chauncey Billups dished out 13 assists. The Lebron James-less Heat started James Jones who finished with just 6 points. Mike Miller also saw extended playing time in Lebron's absence and finished with a season high 4 points on 2 of 7 shooting. This actually increases his field goal percentage on the year from 8% (1/13) to 15% (3/20). Chris Bosh led all Miami Heat players with 24 points, but just 6 rebounds in 30 minutes.
WHAT'S THE OPPOSITE OF ROAD WARRIOR?
Whatever it is, the Washington Wizards are that. After falling to Minnesota tonight 109-97 the Wizards dropped to 0-19 on the road this season. In case you were wondering, that's not good. The sad thing is that they're actually a winning team when they play at home. The Wizards got 14 points and 10 assists from John Wall and 19 points from Rashard Lewis, but Kevin Love stole the show in this one. Love and Darko Milicic more than made up for the absence of Michael Beasley as Love scored 35 points and 11 rebounds and Darko added 14 points and 11 boards of his own to lead the way for the Wolves who won for just the 10th time this year. Love, whose rebounding averaged actually went down as a result of his "only" pulling down 11 boards, is quietly having a monster year in Minnesota averaging 21.1 points and 15.8 rebounds. He's averaging a full 2 1/2 more rebounds a game then Dwight Howard, who is second in the league at 13.3 rebounds a game. If he keeps it up, it will be the highest average for a season since Dennis Rodman pulled down 16.1 a game back in 1996-97 with the Chicago Bulls.
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