About Last Night

About Last Night: Thunder stun Pacers with 24-0 run

Booker goes for 50 again; Durant efficient as ever; Conley makes Grizzlies history

Lonny Krasnow, NBA.com

Talk about a shift in momentum.

A 10-point deficit turned into a 14-point lead when the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 24 unanswered points in their 107-99 victory over the Indiana Pacers.

Paul George led the way with 31 points, including seven during OKC’s third-quarter eruption, while Russell Westbrook added 17 points, 12 assists and 11 rebounds for his 29th triple-double of the season.

The Pacers contributed to the biggest run by any team this season by missing 14 consecutive shots in a span of six-plus minutes.

After Tyreke Evans finally made a layup at the 3:57 mark to end the run, Westbrook immediately hit a mid-range jumper over Cory Joseph and broke into his rock-the-baby celebration.

It was a critical win for Oklahoma City, which had lost five of six.

The Pacers, meanwhile, who have lost nine straight road games, are in danger of losing their No. 4 seed in the East and homecourt advantage in the first round of the playoffs to the No. 5 Boston Celtics. Those teams play at TD Garden on Friday.

Booker: ‘I’m going for 50’

Two nights after scoring 59 points against the Utah Jazz, Devin Booker was still feeling it.

With 30 points at halftime, Booker was seen saying to a fan near the court, “I’m going for 50.”

And Booker scored exactly 50 points, which was a career high at home.

Booker, 22, became the youngest player in NBA history with consecutive 50-point games, but his latest scoring binge was wasted once again by the Phoenix Suns in a 124-121 loss to the Washington Wizards.

It marked the first time a Phoenix player reached 50 in back-to-back games. Tom Chambers had been the only member of the Suns to score even 40 in successive games.

Booker is the seventh player to score 50 points in consecutive games since the NBA-ABA merger (1976-77), joining Kobe Bryant, James Harden, Allen Iverson, Michael Jordan, Antawn Jamison and Bernard King.

Durant’s ruthless efficiency

“He can get any shot he wants.”

That was Steve Kerr’s take on the most efficient shooting game of Kevin Durant’s career.

Durant and Stephen Curry each scored 28 points — with Durant hitting 12 of 13 from the field — and the Golden State Warriors beat the Memphis Grizzlies 118-103.

Durant made all seven of his shots in the first half and didn’t miss a shot until 6:33 remained in regulation. He also added nine rebounds, five assists and two steals in 35 minutes.

“I feel like he could’ve been 24-for-25 if he wanted,” Kerr told reporters after the game. “But he was distributing the ball and trying to get everyone involved. He was brilliant.”

Milestone night for Conley

With a 3-pointer at the 2:50 mark of the second quarter against the Golden State Warriors, Mike Conley became the Memphis Grizzlies’ all-time leading scorer once again.

Conley moved past Marc Gasol, who scored 11,684 points during his 10-plus seasons with Memphis before he was traded to the Toronto Raptors last month.

Conley actually passed Gasol for first place during the 2016-17 season before Gasol reclaimed the lead last season as Conley missed 70 games with an Achilles injury.

Already the franchise leader in games played, assists, steals and 3-pointers made, Conley becomes just the third player to currently lead an NBA franchise in all of those five categories. The others: LeBron James (Cleveland Cavaliers) and Reggie Miller (Indiana Pacers).

Conley, averaging a career-high 20.9 points this season, finished with 22 points and eight assists in the Grizzlies’ 118-103 loss to the Warriors.

Dunk of the night

Jeff Green added Dragan Bender to his poster collection.

Stat of the night

With 30 points in the first half on the heels of a 32-point second half Monday night, Devin Booker became the third player in the past 15 seasons with consecutive 30-point halves. The others: Allen Iverson in Feb. 2005, Kobe Bryant in Dec. 2005.

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