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Without Russell Westbrook, OKC Still Easily Handles Jazz

Posted byBy ABS Contributor | Published on: | Updated on September 2, 2016 CommentsComments (0)

Kevin Durant netted 19 points and then left the rest of the work for his teammates who had no problem putting away the Utah Jazz 95-73 at the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Serge Ibaka scored 17 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and Jeremy Lamb contributed 15 points off the bench for Oklahoma City, which dominated the game from the late first quarter.

Russell Westbrook sat out this game to rest his surgically repaired right knee.

“Of course, we would love to have Russell out there,” Durant said. “But everybody stepped up.”

Utah shot a dismal 39.4 percent from the field and only Enes Kanter and Rudy Gobert finished in double digits with 10 points apiece.

“When you’re not scoring, it puts a lot of pressure on your defense to stop a team to keep the game close,” Jazz forward Marvin Williams said. “Unfortunately for us, the team we had to stop was Oklahoma City. That’s how a game can kind of get away from you pretty quickly.”

Utah went dry in the third quarter, hitting only 4-of-15 from the field and that’s when OKC broke the game wide open.

The Thunder generated a 37-point lead going into the fourth quarter, at which time both teams cleared the bench to replace their starters.

Oklahoma City is now 6-0 at home, which is the best franchise win streak to begin a season since the Seattle Super Sonics won their first nine in the 2004-05 season.

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