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Durant leads Thunder past Magic

Mar 23, 2013 - 5:14 AM Orlando, FL (Sports Network) - Kevin Durant poured in 25 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead the Oklahoma City Thunder to a 97-89 win over the Orlando Magic on Friday.

Russell Westbrook added 19 points, nine assists and six rebounds and Serge Ibaka finished with 14 points and 13 rebounds for the Thunder, who had dropped two straight entering the game. Kevin Martin scored 15 off the bench in the win.

Maurice Harkless scored 25 points and pulled down nine rebounds and Jameer Nelson added 16 points and 10 assists for the Magic, losers in six straight.

Orlando guard Arron Afflalo left the game in the second quarter with an apparent hamstring injury and did not return.

"It's just an unbelievable overall effort from every guy," Magic head coach Jacque Vaughn said. "As a coach you want to be proud of your team and what they're doing. Tonight's effort typifies who we want to be."

The Magic trailed by 13 points, 47-34, at the start of the second half, but managed to tie the game at 62 following a Harkless trey with just over four minutes left.

Oklahoma City then opened up a small 7-2 burst to take a 69-64 edge and led 70-66 entering the final frame.

Orlando took a 78-76 lead following a Beno Udrih jumper with 7 1/2 minutes to play, but Westbrook scored all seven points on a 7-2 run to give the Thunder an 83-80 edge just over one minute later.

The Magic tied the game at 86-86 with 3:55 left, but the Thunder outscored Orlando 11-3 the rest of the way to secure the win.

"In the third quarter they got hot on us. I think we took their punch and were able to get some stops and make some big plays in the fourth," Durant said.

The Thunder closed the first quarter on a 9-0 run to take a 22-14 lead after the first 12 minutes.

Oklahoma City stretched its lead to 27-18 following a Nick Collison jumper with 8 1/2 minutes left in the second.

Following Harkless' three-point play, the Thunder outscored Orlando 7-2 to take a 34-23 lead with just under seven minutes remaining.

The visitors' edge swelled to 45-30 with just under 2 1/2 minutes left before taking a 47-34 lead into the break.

Game Notes

Collison finished with 11 points for the Thunder ... Oklahoma City was just 5- for-21 from long range ... Udrih scored 13 points, while O'Quinn and Tobias Harris finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the loss ... The Magic scored 20 points off 13 Thunder turnovers.