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Warriors-Thunder Preview

Jan 30, 2010 - 6:28 PM By ANTHONY GIORNALISTA STATS Senior Writer

Golden State (13-32) at Oklahoma City (25-21), 7:00 p.m. EDT

Kevin Durant clearly deserves plenty of credit for the Oklahoma City Thunder's strong first half of the season. So does their defense.

With Durant on a tear, the Thunder look to shut down another top scoring team as they host the Golden State Warriors on Sunday night.

Durant is coming off another big game, scoring 30 points in Oklahoma City's 101-84 win over Denver on Friday night.

The Thunder (25-21) avoided their first four-game losing streak of the season, shooting 51.9 percent after being limited to 38.5 percent over the previous three contests. They were just as good at the defensive end, holding Denver - ranked third in the NBA in scoring - to its lowest point total of the season on 40.3 percent shooting.

Durant, 21, scored at least 25 for the 20th straight game, making him the youngest player ever to accomplish that feat. He's the NBA's leading scorer since Dec. 17, averaging 30.9 points in 22 games, and is third overall behind Denver's Carmelo Anthony and Cleveland's LeBron James.

Durant was picked as a reserve for the Western Conference All-Stars on Thursday night, becoming the first player to represent Oklahoma City in that game.

"I've been fortunate enough to be around him and watch him progress from his rookie year, where he was trying to find his way and was pretty inefficient," teammate Nick Collison said. "Now, his efficiency and the way he scores, very few guys in the world can play like that.

"He's shooting a good percentage, he's scoring a lot of different ways and he's worked really hard at it. He deserves it, for sure."

Durant is averaging 32.5 points 10.0 rebounds in his last six games against the Warriors (13-32). He was one of three Thunder players to score at least 25 in a 104-88 win over Golden State on Dec. 7.

It was the lowest-scoring game of the season for the Warriors, who are second in the NBA in scoring at 107.5 points per game.

Oklahoma City has been one of the league's top defensive teams, holding opponents to an average of 95.5 points after surrendering 103.1 last season en route to finishing 29-53. The Thunder are 21-6 when keeping teams under 100 points, compared to 4-15 when they don't. They've limited the opposition to 43.7 percent from the field - best in the West.

Golden State is the conference's worst in that category, letting opponents shoot 48.3 percent, and allows a league-high 111.3 points a contest.

The Warriors fell 121-110 to Charlotte on Friday for their fourth straight loss and eighth in 10 games. Golden State has been particularly bad in the third quarter of its last two contests, getting outscored by an average of 10.0 points.

"It's hard to come back at that point," center Andris Biedrins said. "I know we need really to come together and think about that because we're not playing with a lot of energy right now."

After its ninth home game of the month, Golden State is opening a three-game road trip. The Warriors are 4-19 away from Oracle Arena, winning once in their last 11.

Monta Ellis has averaged 20.5 points in two games after missing two with an ankle injury. He averaged 30.7 in 16 games before getting hurt against New Jersey on Jan. 22.