Thunder outscore the Suns, 137-134 (OT)

BOX SCORE

Finally, the Thunder were whole again. Kevin Durant back after six games out with a sprained ankle, ready to wreck the league for the next few months, starting with a New Year’s Eve game in Oklahoma City against the team they’re chasing, the Suns.

And for 17 minutes, they had it all. Durant pouring in efficient points and Russell Westbrook did it in the loud way. Westbrook got tangled up with Alex Len on a jump ball, and the two lingered on it for a bit too long, with it escalating to mini-skirmish levels. Westbrook picked up a technical, Len a flagrant and everybody moved on.

Until Westbrook finished an and-1 and busted out his patented flex-and-roar, directing it slightly in the general direction of the Phoenix bench. Another tech for Westbrook, this one for apparently taunting, and he was done. No more Durant and Westbrook. Just Durant as the Thunder had to sort through the next half in a game they really, really, really needed to win.

Durant? Yeah, he was up for picking up the slack, pouring home a season-high 44 on 13-23 shooting, with 10 rebounds and seven assists. And it wasn’t just the raw numbers. It was the big plays in big spots, the timely shots to bail the Thunder out of what could’ve been another agonizing loss.

“I think this is what everybody was waiting to see from Kevin,” Reggie Jackson said. “He carried us in a lot of situations, making everyone’s job easier.”

It was a taste of the Slim Reaper, with Durant’s raining fire from all over the floor. That 3 he hit with six minutes left out a broken set as the shot clock ran down? That’s the kind of thing only he can give the Thunder, and the kind of thing they’ve been trying to win without the last month. Or that pull-up 3 with 1:23 left in the fourth to tie the game back up. He casually waltzed up the floor and calmly popped it to get OKC back level in a critical moment.

That’s what Durant does. The crunchtime problems the Thunder have had? They can get fixed pretty easily simply by the ridiculous ability of one Number Thirty-Five.

Except in overtime, Durant didn’t make a shot. He hit four free throws, but his biggest play was a pass. He drove and kicked to an open Anthony Morrow, who splashed from the corner plus a foul to put the Thunder up four with 1:54 left.

“It was an easy play,” Durant said. “I drove, they helped off, I kicked it. Simple. That’s how basketball is played. If somebody’s open, you kick it to them. I trust [Morrow], I trust Ish [Smith], I trust Reggie [Jackson], Serge [Ibaka], my whole team. If they make or miss, so what. You’ve got to make the right basketball play.”

It was an easy play, and the right one, but the kind the Thunder haven’t been making very often the last few weeks. Durant didn’t force the issue, trying to hero this thing home. He just made the simple play, and was rewarded for it.

More on the game for ESPN.com here.

NOTES:

• For whatever reason though, it just seems to be against the rules for the Thunder to play with Westbrook and Durant together. Is this what Adam Silver meant by installing parity? Is it too unfair to the league?

• It’s hard to really figure why Westbrook was ejected, but here’s my assumptive take: The officiating crew lost their cool, too. With tempers running hot and emotions boiling over, when Westbrook flexed, the crew bubbled up and wanted to restore order. I really think Westbrook was only called for the technical because of the recency to the previous skirmish.

• The Thunder definitely drew a B-team officiating crew. I’d never seen No. 64, Justin Van Duyne, with No. 56 Mark Ayotte not being a household guy and while James Capers is a household guy, he’s not typically in charge of crews.

• Possibly related: The Thunder took 49 free throws tonight. And made an OKC-era high 44 of them. That’s good free throw shootin’.

• Westbrook in his 17 minutes: 20 points, four rebounds, four assists.

• Westbrook gave a very Marshawn Lynch/Rasheed Wallace kind of postgame interview, responded to almost every question with “It was a good win for us.”

• Major spark for the Thunder tonight: Ish Smith, who was playing against a former team. He had that shocking transition dunk, then hit a layup and did a lot of good creating. In 11 minutes, eight points on 3-5 shooting.

• A lot of what the Thunder did down the stretch was isolating Durant, but I thought there was some excellent spacing and movement as well. One play late in regulation, Durant attacked out of a pick-and-roll with Ibaka, swinging out to a WIDE open Reggie Jackson who missed. Another play in overtime found Serge Ibaka WIDE open from 3 after an Ish Smith drive.

• With Durant back, the offense is just so explosive. They can rip off a 12-2 run at almost any moment. It’s incredible.

• The Suns were ridiculously hot in the first half. They ended up hitting 13-27 from 3, which is weird, because it felt more like 30-37.

• Scott Brooks: “They shot the lights out.”

• The game was chippy throughout, with heavy amounts of trash talking going on. Primary offenders: the Morris twins. Those two had something to say after EVERYTHING.

• My favorite play of 2014 happened in the second quarter. Durant pulled in a rebound, and Perk, who was hedging high on the pick-and-roll, leaked out and had his arm raised out in front of everyone, like at halfcourt. As if KD was about to throw one ahead to him.

• That Perry Jones alley-oop was pretty sweet.

• And then Jones had a play in transition where he didn’t hesitate and immediately attacked. It was great!

• Ibaka’s hands almost cost OKC big. He fumbled away a number of passes on the pick-and-pop, but also let one slip in overtime when Steven Adams deftly made an extra pass on what was sure to be a dunk.

• I thought Scott Brooks coached a near perfect game. He was spot on in matching Phoenix’s smallball, while still using the Thunder’s size to his advantage. Having Durant out there to play power forward helps those lineups a lot. But he used Perry Jones well, and the move to use Smith was good, even if it was keyed by Westbrook’s ejection.

• Reggie Jackson had a stinker. In 41 minutes, 10 points on 4-18 shooting, including 0-8 from 3. A number of those shots were just terrible too, with Jackson launching from deep instead of attacking the paint with a wide open lane.

• Jackson’s defense was tragically bad too. At one point in overtime after Eric Bledsoe had blown by him for the 80th time, Brooks clenched his fists and said, “Reggie! You’ve got to stop somebody!”

• How about Andre Roberson strutting up to the line and knocking down a big free throw with 1.2 seconds left?

• Amazing jumbotron proposal tonight — in Loud City, mind you — and to make it even more special, he put the ring on her right hand. I’m sure their wedding will be wonderful.
• So Kevin Durant’s last 58 minutes: 74 points on 24-37 shooting.

• That was a really good, albeit unpopular, call from ref Van Duyne on Durant’s travel. KD no doubt shuffled his feet all over the place.

• You guys know the “Come On Russssselllllll!” lady? Here’s my proposal: How about the whole arena does it? Wouldn’t that be kind of a cool thing?

• Anthony Morrow made one shot. And it was that and-1 3.

• Durant on Morrow: “He’s a big gamer. He likes taking those shots, he wants those shots and we believe in him. When it left his hand, I knew it was going down.”

• Morrow’s look to win it at the buzzer wasn’t horrible, and really looked like it was in. Morrow thought he hit it, too, throwing his mouthpiece some 20 feet in the air when it rolled off the rim. The play the Thunder ran was decent, and Durant was free for a brief second but Perry Jones didn’t try and force it to him.

• Steven Adams is a monster on the offensive glass.

• Jeremy Lamb with a DNP-CD.

Next up: Home against the Wizards on Friday