Thunder power by the Kings, 104-92

BOX SCORE

With 8:04 left, the Kings had stormed back on the Thunder to take a, 84-83 lead, the first time in some 150 minutes they had trailed. It was the kind of frustrating let off we’ve all seen from this team at times. The other team makes a push, the crowd gets into it and the Thunder tighten up and fail to execute anything in the halfcourt, and the game becomes a possession by possession thing, as OKC just isolates Kevin Durant over and over again.

This time around, after the Kings went back up 86-85 with 7:37 left, the Thunder shifted into another gear. Reggie Jackson soared for an and-1, then Russell Westbrook burst through the lane for a layup to re-establish a four-point lead. Then it was closing time. Kevin Durant and Westbrook then scored 12 of the last 14 points for the Thunder, a combination of loud, explosive plays and smooth, slick finishes. It was a clinic in closing, as the top dogs put a nice, neat bow on the Thunder’s seventh straight win.

I’m pretty convinced if this game was happening last season, the Thunder would’ve lost. Not necessarily because they were worse last season, but because there wouldn’t have been the same kind of sense of urgency, the same kind of killer instinct in a December game. With the Kings firing their coach, with the Rudy Gay-Perk beef, with a revved up road crowd, with it on national TV, it just seems like the Thunder often sleepwalk through these. They’ll play well for 40 minutes, then slack off and not overcome a late emotional push.

This time around, there was none of that. Instead, it was like Durant and Westbrook has a personal vendetta, a point to prove. There was a ferocity in the way the Thunder finished the Kings, like a prizefighter letting his opponent hang around for 10 rounds before unleashing a flurry of haymakers.

At this point, it was just another standard performance from Westbrook — 32 points, six rebounds, seven assists and four steals in 32 minutes. The dude has gone supernova. He’s running so hot that he’s leaving burn marks on the hardwood. And now, with Durant’s minute restriction being raised somewhere in the 35-minute range, he gets to spend more time on the floor with his buddy. Maybe you’d think that would mean less room for Westbrook to rule the world. But in all actuality, those two are better when working together, when opposing defenses are having their stomachs churn trying to solve them.

The story the Thunder want to tell after this one is how the defense suffocated the Kings in crunchtime, allowing Westbrook and Durant the room to take over. All very true. But I can’t shake how impressive this all played out. The shot Durant hit with 7:54 left to answer the Kings taking their first lead was the kind of cold-blooded knockdown that he routinely hits. Or that floater he hit with 4:52 that put OKC up six. Or the transition pull-up from Westbrook seconds later that capped a 9-0 run. It was almost dizzying the way the Thunder hit back at the Kings. It was a great team doing what a great team does.

They’re one step closer to .500, and even with them a game under, it’s obvious how good they are functioning at full capacity. I remember when things were bad, when they were 3-12 and the dark days were upon us. I kept saying things about how Westbrook and Durant were going to fix this, because they’re that good. Well?

NOTES:

• Kendrick Perkins 2, Rudy Gay 0.

• That said, woo wee, thank goodness that Rudy Gay dunk wasn’t on Perk.

• Best tweet I got about it: The virus is airborne.

• The Thunder are getting off to absurdly fast starts. They’ve won their last three first quarters by an average of 38.0 to 23.3. They’re averaging 67.0 points in the first half — 70, 70, 61 the last three.

• The buzz is finally catching on about Westbrook being an MVP candidate. It’s early, and he’s only played 11 games. But good lord almighty, he’s destroying the league right now.

• Last 20 years, only one player has had a longer 20-5-5 streak than Westbrook, who is at nine: LeBron James with 12. Incredible thing about that: In looking that up, LeBron has a LOT of 20-5-5 streaks of eight or more. He’s pretty good.

• Naturally, Perk didn’t play all that well tonight. But he was wearing a baller shooting sleeve for some reason.

• Outstanding game from Steven Adams though. Maybe one of the best of the season, quite honestly. His numbers don’t pop — five points, 10 rebounds — but his activity and physicality was obvious. He was a presence on the offensive glass and was excellent defending the Kings’ pick-and-roll.

• Did the game on ESPN look weird to anyone else? With the Kings court being so light, is just looked, I dunno, pale or something.

• On Westbrook’s monster two-handed I GET UP dunk: That was just a highly intelligent basketball play by Westbrook. The dunk was glorious, but the cut was even better. With 1.5 on the shot clock, the Thunder had two options: the Ibaka baseline pop, and then a Durant curl. Both were covered well, so the play was pretty much blown up. Instead of standing and watching, Westbrook saw the lane, saw his man asleep and exploded to the rim. Beautiful stuff.

• Since his good run of efficiency, Jeremy Lamb has progressively gotten worse at forcing shots. There’s a fine line between being aggressive and forcing, and Lamb is forcing right now.

• I tweeted that, and naturally a number of responses poured in — “he needs to be traded,” “bench him,” “he’s worthless” — such is Jeremy Lamb. When they’re going on, he looks pretty good.

• Reggie Jackson: Just 20 minutes, and took a good number of bad shots. Maybe it’s all in my head at this point, but there was a brief second where I thought Jackson was going to keep the ball himself on a runout with Durant out in front of him. Just for a moment, Jackson seemed to kind of run the thought through his head about taking it himself, but then fired it ahead to Durant for an easy dunk.

• Jackson did make a few good plays, like his fourth quarter and-1. In 20 minutes, he scored eight points with three assists. Not a bad night at all, but within the context of his situation, I can’t imagine him being all that thrilled.

• Season-high seven blocks for Serge Ibaka. However, for a lot of the game I felt like Ibaka was playing soft inside, primarily on the defensive glass. Jason Thompson and Carl Landry both outworked him a number of times.

• That’s 15,000 points for Kevin Durant, the second youngest ever to reach that milestone at 26 years, 78 days. Took him just 550 games.

• Steven Adams and Nick Collison’s pregame handshake is fantastic.

• Three good recipes for winning: 21 fast break points, 54 points in the paint, only 12 turnovers.

• Anthony Morrow: first half scorer. He had 10 tonight, all coming in the first half. He hit his first three shots — all 3s, including an and-1 — and then missed his only two in the second half.

• Was it just me, or was Andre Roberson’s tip-in in the fourth not ridiculous? He got WAY up for that, and went over a lot a bodies. Incredibly athletic play.

• Collison’s play in the fourth where he put the ball on the floor then got caught midair between a shot and a pass was hysterical. He’s never looked whiter.

Next up: At the Warriors on Thursday