• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers

Thunder look to break through against woeful Wizards

Dec 27, 2008 - 11:31 AM Oklahoma City (3-27) at Washington (4-23) 7:00 p.m. EST

WASHINGTON (Ticker) -- The Oklahoma City Thunder came close to a win against one of the better teams in the Eastern Conference on Friday.

They will try to break through against one of the worst on Saturday when they face the Washington Wizards.

The Thunder took the Detroit Pistons down to the wire on Friday, finally falling when Allen Iverson drained a fadeaway jumper in the lane with less than a second remaining to scrape out a 90-88 win.

Oklahoma City took some positives out of the loss, particularly with its ability to hang in down the stretch. The Thunder scored on their last five offensive possessions, capped when Joe Smith drained a jumper from the top of the key with 18 seconds remaining to tie the game at 88-88.

Kevin Durant was once again Oklahoma City's offensive star, collecting 26 points and eight rebounds and draining both of his shots in the last two minutes.

The Wizards are riding an eight-game losing streak and have scored 89 points or less in four of their last five contests.

They hung with the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday before faltering down the stretch, getting outscored 11-0 over the final 1:32 to suffer a 93-89 loss.