Baseline to Baseline recaps: Kevin Durant carries Thunder to win

Welcome to PBT’s roundup of the games yesterday in NBA action. Or, what you missed while taking a car through a drive-through with an invisible driver…

Lakers 113, Cavaliers 93: Dwight Howard was back playing for the Lakers and it showed — he was blocking shots, drawing double teams and generally opening up the Lakers offense. Sure, it was the Cavaliers — the second worst offense in the NBA — but after six straight losses the Lakers will take any win they can get. Brett Pollakoff broke it all down for us in a post.

Knicks 100, Hornets 87: Carmelo Anthony got off to another slow start then admitted he has been fasting for the past 15 days. Turns out a professional athlete not eating doesn’t have a lot of energy. Who knew? He found the energy in the second quarter, went 6-of-7 and the Knicks started to pull away. I detailed it in another post.

Thunder 87, Trail Blazers 83: This was a defensive struggle — the winning team had an offensive rating of just 95.9 (points per 100 possessions). The Thunder took the lead with a 15-4 run in the third quarter behind Kevin Durant, who had the kind of game an MVP has. Durant had 33 points in the game and 22 of the Thunder’s 45 in the second half.

Portland made it close at the end with a 9-0 run that got them within two 85-83, with 8.5 seconds left. Portland went to LaMarcus Aldridge who had been their guy all night — 33 points and 11 rebounds. He got a shot he had hit all night, an 18-foot turnaround and proceeded to airball it. Russell Westbrook was fouled on the rebound and that was the ballgame.

Nets 97, Pacers 86: The Pacers defense looked like it might win them another game as they led 75-69. Then the fourth quarter happened. The Nets shredded the best defense in the league, going on a 17-0 run at one point and scoring 28 points on 57.1 percent shooting for the quarter. Meanwhile the Pacers shot 13.6 percent in the quarter — 3-of-22 shooting. That was the ball game.

David West had 27 points to lead the Pacers. Deron Williams had 22 but needed 18 shots to get there for the Nets.

Nuggets 116, Warriors 105: The Nuggets looked like the team we expected from the start of the season — they pressured the ball, forced turnovers, ran off them and showed real balance scoring. Well, not all game, for a long time the Warriors seemed to get open three look after open three look and they led by eight heading into the fourth. But the Nuggets cranked up the defensive pressure and an 18-2 run to open the fourth quarter helped them pull away for good. Denver got great games out of Danilo Gallinari (21 points) and the point-guard tandem of Ty Lawson (20 points) and Andre Miller (12 points and he was aggressive all night).

Golden State made a run and got it down to three point at one point in the fourth. But a Corey Brewer three changed the momentum back to Denver.

Bucks 107, Raptors 96: The first two quarters were like completely different games. In the first Jose Calderon had 15 points and the hot Raptors were off to a 20-point lead. In the second quarter the Raptors shot 27 percent and had 10 turnovers.

The second half was close until, with just over three minutes left, Larry Sanders blocked DeMar DeRozan and that sparked a 9-0 run that was the ballgame. Brandon Jennings had 19 points and 10 assists, and we had a rookie John Henson sighting with 19 off the Milwaukee bench. DeRozan had 23.

Spurs 106, Timberwolves 88: This is a dozen straight home wins for the Spurs. This one came with runs in the second half, particularly as the Spurs went to some smaller lineups that let them space the floor better. Tony Parker scored 20 points and Tim Duncan had a dozen plus was a defensive anchor.

Slightly worrisome for Spurs fans is Manu Ginobili straining his hamstring, he limped the locker room in the second quarter and didn’t play the second half. A strain is not usually that bad, but we’ll have an eye out for the official diagnosis on Monday.