The Oklahoma City Thunder have looked like the best team in the NBA after losing out last year in the finals to the Miami Heat.
The team was riding a 12-game win streak entering Thursday night's game, but the streak was snapped by a scrappy, upstart Minnesota team that has pieced together a solid core of players. Minnesota was led by point guard J.J. Barea and power forward Kevin Love, who had 28 points, 11 rebounds and seven assists in the game.
"It's important," coach Rick Adelman said of beating the best in the West. "But I would like to see us get to a point where this is not a big deal. It's a big game against the best team, but this is something we can do."
The Thunder own the best record in the league, but they were stifled by Minnesota on Thursday, including by Barea, who has 12-straight points during one stretch of the game and scored 14 of his 18 in the fourth quarter. The team also got a solid game out of Nikola Pekovic, who had 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves.
Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 33 points, seven rebounds and six assists, but lost his cool towards the end of the game and was hit with a technical foul, leaving the score just out of reach.
"It's not the end of the world. A lot of people said the world is going to end today, tomorrow, but it's not the end of the world," Durant quipped to the Associated Press. "We lost to a good team (Thursday). They came out and played extremely hard and they beat us. We're 21-5 and we've just got to go back and work."
Durant has been stellar this season for the Thunder averaging 27.9 points and 8.4 rebounds. He has scored at least 31 points in four of the past five games, including 41 in a 100-92 win over the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.
"Seems like (Barea) and Kevin Love don't miss against us," Durant said. "Seems like every team has that guy and I think those are the guys against us. Next time we've just got to do a better job."
Barea was the key for the Timberwolves on Thursday. He signed with the team in the offseason to help with the injury to Ricky Rubio, but has been fantastic in his place, scoring 10.4 points and 4.5 assists. Barea has scored in double-digits in five straight games and hit two clutch 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to give the Timberwolves a 92-81 lead.
"I love it," Barea said. "We just needed a little bit more tonight, a little energy and I'm glad I was able to provide that for us tonight."
The Timberwolves have been one of the surprising teams in the NBA, going 13-11 while dealing with numerous injuries at the beginning of the season including to Love and Rubio. The team has gone 8-3 at home and is heading into an anticipated matchup against the New York Knicks on the road. Minnesota is ranked fourth in rebounding this season in large part due to Love and has also played very well on defense, ranking seventh in the NBA with 94 points allowed per game.
Russell Westbrook struggled for the Thunder, turning the ball over eight times and missing 19 shots. Serge Ibaka added 14 points and nine rebounds, but it wasn't enough to put the Thunder over the top.
The winning streak was the longest for the Thunder since moving the franchise from Seattle and the team had won its games by an average of 14.2 points over that stretch.
"We battled. We fought. I'm proud of our guys," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "We had a great streak, a great month going. But we lost to a very good team. We knew sooner or later they were going to get hot. They got hot tonight."
Point guard Ricky Rubio played in his third game since returning from a torn ACL injury, but still looked rusty on the court, missing all three of his shots and adding three assists and three rebounds.
The Thunder had their win streak snapped, but really has no reason to worry. The team has the best record in the league and is ranked first in scoring with 105 points per game. The Thunder has played solid on defense, allowing 96 points per game and are ranked 12th in the league in both assists and rebounding.
Oklahoma City will next face the Miami Heat on the road in a rematch of last year's NBA finals.
