Denver had an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter and all looked good on the edge of the Rocky Mountains in the Nuggets’ drive to knock-off league-best Oklahoma City. Kevin Durant (37 points, seven boards and eight assists on 7-of-20 shooting) and Russell Westbrook (36 points, 10-of-26 shooting) were being contained via constant harassment, as much as the superstar tandem can be anyway. The Nugs looked like they were about to make amends after a sloppy loss in OKC last week. These two always make for great games and Denver’s eventual 121-118 win in OT was one of the very best, with two endings that were crazy. Westbrook turned the entire Pepsi Center against him when he goaltended the half-court shot of Denver’s mascot, Rocky. The mascot shoots it every game for a chance for fans to win burritos, but about two feet before it met the rim Russ plucked it out of the air and fans were furious as if someone played the replay of last week’s epic secondary fail by the Broncos. And then he did it again. The boos were merciless every time Russ took the ball the rest of the game — including his three-pointer to tie the game with 22.9 seconds left in the fourth. Russ did his best good Russ/bad Russ to perfection by trolling the fans while sending the game to OT. Kenneth Faried‘s layup (16 points, 10 boards) in OT clinched the Denver win, and Westbrook had the ball stripped as he went up and didn’t get a call (one wasn’t needed there). However, both coaches have legit beef with the officials over offensive foul calls on screens. … Corey Brewer (26 points in 34 minutes off the bench) continues to show he’s playing as comfortably as he ever has since leaving Florida. He put Denver up two in the second quarter with a beautiful loop drive where he took the ball at the arc’s corner, left Durant frozen on a crossover and change of direction at the elbow, and finished at the rim while getting popped on the chin by Serge Ibaka (16 points). He’s had those spurts his whole career but now we’re seeing him combine plays like that into whole stretches for the first time. Denver’s next hoop came when Brewer caught a pass while cutting along the free throw line and, without a second thought, got a 15-foot hook shot to go over Kendrick Perkins. Brewer saved his best for halfway through the last quarter. Dude hit three triples in a couple minutes, two with an added degree of difficulty being on the fast break, to get the Nugs an 11-point lead. We don’t think this is oversimplification: Brewer is playing now like Denver always hoped J.R. Smith would. … A corner three by Darren Collison (11 points) took the air out of Orlando in the Mavericks’ 111-105 win on the road. The Magic had cut the lead to two when Collison nailed a triple with less than a minute remaining. Rookie Jae Crowder‘s development has been a nice sign to watch for the Mavs, though it won’t really factor into the macro storyline of this season. Still, his tip-in after he flew in from the left wing untouched (bad blocking out, Magic) halfway through the fourth was nice. The Magic play-by-play team even called it a Faried-type rebound, a high compliment. … Dirk Nowitzki is still feeling his way through games, getting 12 points on 4-of-11 shooting, but wasn’t The Guy down the stretch as he would have been in any other Dallas season. Rick Carlisle said he might take until February to get back to full strength. … Hit the jump to hear about how a deal in Seattle is very close. …
Only league approval is needed before the Sacramento Kings become the 2013-14 Seattle SuperSonics. The Maloof family has reportedly agreed to sell their 65 percent stake in the team and receive nothing in return (read: no control over Seattle’s operations) besides the $340 million they would receive for their stake, part of the franchise’s $525 million selling price. Proposed new owners Chris Hansen and Steve Ballmer want to buy out the other 35 percent of minority owners, too, and then blow it all up, according to Yahoo!. Adrian Wojnarowski reports the Spurs’ R.C. Buford and former Pacer exec Larry Bird are favorites to be the GM of this new team should it all be approved by the NBA. Sacramento mayor Kevin Johnson will get to appeal to David Stern himself before the March 1 deadline to relocate the team. … Doc Rivers doesn’t make personnel decisions in Boston, and in the past GM Danny Ainge has made trades (Kendrick Perkins) that Rivers vehemently disagreed with. So we don’t know what kind of weight is behind Rivers’ comments to CSNNE.com on Sunday after a dismal loss to Detroit (the Pistons are probably still jet lagged from London): “I gotta either find the right combination or the right guys, or we’re going to get some guys out of here.” It came after a 103-88 loss in Detroit where the Celtics never led and Rajon Rondo had eight points, 15 assists, nine rebounds and nine turnovers. Charlie Villanueva doubled up Boston with barely three minutes gone in the second with his three to go up 36-18. No one was even close to him. Not to make any excuse for Boston but the Celtics were so preoccupied, with reason, with Will Bynum‘s playmaking (15 points, four assists) run in that second-quarter stretch that Villanueva wriggled free. Still, just six minutes later the Celtics were within five points, the Pistons’ run seemingly gone dry, and Brandon Knight (15 points, six boards, seven assists, seven turnovers) rolled his ankle. But that fight disappeared in the second half. … The Lakers have to go 24-18 to finish this season 41-41 and, well, have you seen this team lately? After losing to Toronto for their fifth straight road loss, 108-103, few would bet this team can pull it off. Jose Calderon had 22 points and nine assists and Landry Fields had 18 points and 10 boards for Toronto and Kobe Bryant had 26 points but probably couldn’t will this team to agree on a postgame restaurant by himself, let alone a win. … We’re out like Tom Brady and Matt Ryan.
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