Durant, Westbrook spark OKC’s upset

Associated Press

OAKLAND, CALIF.

Kevin Durant scored 26 points and made a key 17-foot jumper with 30.7 seconds left, and the Oklahoma City Thunder handed the Golden State Warriors their first home loss of the playoffs with a 108-102 victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals Monday night.

Russell Westbrook scored 24 of his 27 points in the second half for Oklahoma City, which trailed 60-47 at halftime. Westbrook also had 12 assists and seven steals in the opener of the Thunder’s fourth West finals in six years.

“We’ve just got to compete,” Westbrook said. “It’s going to be a tough game. It’s a tough building. They have a lot of great players on their team, but I know we’re a great team and when we put our minds to it, tonight we didn’t play our best game and we came out with a win.”

Game 2 is Wednesday night at Oracle Arena. If this one was any kind of preview of what is coming, this should be a dandy of a series between the NBA’s highest-scoring teams from the regular season.

Steven Adams made a pair of free throws for Oklahoma City with 1:01 remaining, and Klay Thompson missed a reverse lay-in moments later on the other end.

MVP Stephen Curry had 26 points and a playoff career-high 10 rebounds, but the Warriors missed too many shots down the stretch.

With his team down 105-102, Steve Kerr begged for a traveling call on Westbrook at midcourt with 17.2 seconds left, with the NBA Coach of the Year signaling with his arms before going into a squat. Oklahoma City got a timeout instead. Westbrook made one free throw with 14.5 seconds to go.

Thompson scored 19 of his 25 points in the first half, but shot 3 for 10 over the last two quarters. Curry’s 3-pointer to beat the halftime buzzer gave Golden State a 13-point lead at the break.