Celtics steal the Thunder despite Durant's heroics
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The Boston Celtics brushed aside Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder 92-83 on Sunday to claim their fifth straight win.
National Basketball Association scoring champion Durant finished with 34 points but the Celtics used a balanced attack and stout defense to improve to 6-1 for the season, tying the Atlanta Hawks for the best record in the Eastern Conference.
"We played as well as a team can play in the first half, then we did the exact reverse in the third quarter," Celtics coach Doc Rivers told reporters. "Veteran teams shouldn't do that but we got away with it tonight."
Ray Allen scored a team-high 19 points for Boston, Paul Pierce added 17 and Rajon Rondo finished with 10 points and 10 assists.
Rondo entered the night as the league's commanding leader in assists, averaging more than 15 per game and he continued his strong start to the season.
Elsewhere in the National Basketball Association, it was: Rockets 120, Timberwolves 94; 76ers 106, Knicks 96; Suns 118, Hawks 114; Pistons 102, Warriors 97; and Lakers 121, Trail Blazers 96.
In Oklahoma City, Russell Westbrook had 16 points and 10 assists for the Thunder (3-3), who shot just 43 percent and committed 18 turnovers to lose for the third time in four games.
Oklahoma City played without forward Jeff Green who injured his ankle during practice.
"We can't worry about who's playing or not playing, the guys we have just have to step up," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks.
After winning consecutive overtime games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Chicago Bulls a few days earlier, the Celtics got off to a fast start against the Thunder.
In Houston, Luis Scola of Argentina scored 24 points and Kevin Martin added 21 to help the Rockets win their first game of the season with a rout of Minnesota.
Yao Ming, playing under a strict time limit while recovering from foot surgery, had 13 points and four rebounds in 16 minutes. Shane Battier added 17 points for Houston, which lost its first five games. The Rockets lost their first 10 games in 1982-83.
Kevin Love led the Timberwolves with 16 points and 16 rebounds. Michael Beasley added 15 points.
Yao came in with 9:17 to go in the second period and scored 11 points over seven minutes. The Chinese center sat out Saturday night's 121-124 overtime loss to the Spurs.
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