Thunder hang on to defeat Mavericks

Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook, right, drives around Minnesota Timberwolves’ Shabazz Muhammad in the first quarter of an NBA basketball game Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016, in Minneapolis. Raymond Felton added 14 points on three of 11 shooting as the Mavs fell to 22-18.

Out of a Dallas timeout the Thunder got a stop that eventually led to an Anthony Morrow three-pointer, and that was all she wrote.

The Barea-Westbrook feud flared up again late in the first half and Westbrook was hit with his second technical foul and ejected from game. “We have to get on a plane and go to Oklahoma City”.

LaVine, who was shooting 25 percent over his previous nine games, converted a three-point play and hit a 3 from the wing before Nemanja Bjelica hit another 3 to help the Wolves cut the deficit to three points with 3:15 to play.

The Mavericks (22-17) know how tough Kevin Durant is, but it’s Russell Westbrook that always seems to drive them insane. The refs reviewed it though, and once they noticed that it bounced off of the shot clock support, they called the basket off and LaVine got two free throws instead.

Zach LaVine broke out of a miserable slump with 21 points, nine rebounds and four assists.

On the season, the Thunder average 108.7 points, 47.2 rebounds and 21.5 assists per game.

At the moment, they are doing well in their respective divisions as the Mavericks are second in the Southwest Division and are only behind the San Antonio Spurs in the standings.

“It felt like I need to get it going in the first three quarters“, Durant said. The loss ended a Mavericks six game win streak. “It’s not going to get easier going forward, so we’ve got to lock in get back at it tomorrow”.

Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan and Durant said they didn’t agree with the second technical.

Thunder guard D.J. Augustin hadn’t seen the court in eight games entering Wednesday, but he entered the game at 4:40 in the third quarter – his first game action since December 27 against the Denver Nuggets.

“(Durant) and Westbrook, those two are just great”, Timberwolves coach Sam Mitchell said.

The biggest statistical advantage the Thunder enjoyed throughout the game was on the glass, where it out-rebounded Dallas 54 -41 in a concerted effort to address a recent concern over allowing too many second chances to the opposition.