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Durant helps Thunder thump Hornets

Dec 2, 2012 - 6:20 AM New Orleans, LA (Sports Network) - Kevin Durant poured in 20 points and grabbed eight rebounds, despite sitting out the entire fourth quarter, to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 100-79 win over the New Orleans Hornets on Saturday.

Russell Westbrook had 18 points, 10 assists, five rebounds and three steals and Kevin Martin added 19 points for the Thunder, who have won five straight.

Nick Collison added 12 points and Kendrick Perkins chipped in with 10 points in the victory.

"If you contest shots in this league you usually make the teams miss, and this is what we did tonight," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We did a good job rebounding, and it was just a good offensive game and defensive game for us."

Ryan Anderson had 21 points and 10 rebounds and Robin Lopez netted 12 for the Hornets, who have dropped nine of their last 10 overall.

"They were taking it to the basket, they were the aggressor out there," Hornets forward Jason Smith said. "We knew the first game (earlier this season) they were hitting the outside shot. We ran out hard, a lot of times too hard, and they just had a lot of drives on us."

Oklahoma City led 30-21 after the first quarter. Martin led the way in the first with eight points while Perkins and Westbrook each added six in the frame for the Thunder. OKC shot 60 percent from the field in the quarter, and forced seven turnovers.

Oklahoma City led 45-27 near the midway point of the second period, but an 8-0 run by New Orleans made it a 10-point game. A Perkins tip-in followed by a Westbrook 3-pointer gave the Thunder a 50-35 lead with just over three minutes to play, but the Hornets outscored OKC 9-4 the rest of the way, and trailed 54-44 at the break.

The Thunder busted the game open in the third, outscoring New Orleans 30-13 in the period. Oklahoma City shot 63.2 percent from the floor, and were 4-for-6 from 3-point range, in the quarter while holding the Hornets to just 30 percent shooting from the field.

OKC called the dogs off in the fourth and sat its starters over the final 12 minutes. New Orleans outscored the Thunder, 22-16, in the frame, but it wasn't nearly enough as Oklahoma City cruised to its fourth double-digit win in a row.

Game Notes

The Thunder have outscored their opponents 556-449 over the five-game winning streak ... OKC forced 17 turnovers ... The Thunder were 7-for-16 from 3-point range. The Hornets were just 6-for-24 from behind the arc ... Anderson posted at least 20 points and 10 rebounds in three games this season and has four double-doubles on the year.