On Monday the Oklahoma City Thunder will take on the New Jersey Nets. Durant has only played in three career games against the Nets.

Scoring 17.7 points per game

5.3 Rebounds per game

1.7 assists per game.

Go Thunder! Go Durant!

The Thunder’s loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Friday prevented it from securing its fourth road win of the season, its second two-game winning streak and, most importantly, a chance to move ahead of Washington and the Clippers in the win column.

Instead, the Thunder remain at the bottom of the NBA standings at a league-worst 9-35.

“There’s not one time this team or myself has talked about the standings,” coach Scott Brooks said. “We talk about what we need to do each day and each game.”

Brooks called Kevin Durant “terrific” after his 46-point, 15-rebound performance against the Clippers but said one-man efforts such as Durant’s is not what’s going to help make the Thunder successful.

“We’re not concerned with how many points Kevin scores,” Brooks said. “We don’t like to go into a game having him have a monster game in order for us to stay in ball games. That’s not how we need to play. We’re not looking for individual guys playing monster games. We needed to play better defensively.”

Brooks said he is disappointed in the last two games because “it wasn’t the way we need to win ball games.”

One night after the NBA’s All Star starters were announced, Thunder forward Kevin Durant presented his best argument for a spot on the Western Conference reserves.

But Oklahoma City’s 107-104 loss to the short-handed Los Angeles Clippers on Friday summed up exactly why that selection figures to be a remote possibility.

Durant set career-highs with 46 points and 15 rebounds, but the Thunder’s loss to the lowly Clippers kept Oklahoma City in the pits of the NBA standings at a league-worst 9-35.

With a win, the Thunder would have moved ahead of the Clippers and Washington Wizards in the win column.

Adding embarrassment to the disappointing loss, the Clippers were without injured customary starters Baron Davis, Zach Randolph, Chris Kaman and Marcus Camby.

Clippers rookie guard Eric Gordon scored a career-high 41 in their absence, and second-year forward Al Thornton scored 34, giving the Clippers a surprising one-two punch the Thunder couldn’t counter.

Jeff Green scored 14 points for the Thunder, and Russell Westbrook and Earl Watson were the only other players in double figures for Oklahoma City with 11 apiece.

“We let two guys really just tear us apart,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “I give them credit, they hit big shots. That’s what guys do in this league. You have to make them miss, and we didn’t do a good job of making them miss.”

Gordon stole the spotlight from Durant with 14 points on 5-for-6 shooting in the fourth period. His acrobatic layup with 48.6 seconds remaining put Los Angeles ahead by 107-102.

But after a Nick Collison tip in, the Thunder had one last chance to tie the score at 107-all. Collison missed the first of two free throws, however, after being fouled following an inbounds pass with 6.5 seconds remaining.

He intentionally missed the second, and Durant rebounded the miss only to dribble out to the 3-point line and see his shot attempt air-ball as time expired.

“That’s a tough shot to make, running back and trying to turn around with a couple of seconds left,” Durant said. “I should have shot a better one. If I could go back I would re-shoot that one. But unfortunately, we dug ourselves a hole and it was tough to get out of.”

Rarely does a player from a team with as bad a record as the Thunder’s make the All-Star team. But Durant, with performances like Friday’s, is gaining recognition as an exception to that unwritten rule. The All-Star reserves will be announced Thursday.

Durant entered the game ranked seventh in the league in scoring at 24.2 points per game but sat on 25 points midway through the second quarter. He surpassed his previous career high of 42 with a pair of free throws with 1:40 left to play.

Durant also set a new Thunder/Sonics franchise record with 24 made free throws.

“Kevin was terrific tonight. You can’t take away his performance,” said Brooks. “He’s improving. He’s working at it, and we need that from Kevin.”

Said Durant: “To break records feels good, but I would have much rather have the win and score 15 points. I think guys around here respect me for that. I’m all about my teammates. It feels good, but at the same time I wish we would have won.”

Here are some 2009 Kevin Durant pictures to celebrate the new year!

Tonight: Thunder v. Nets!

Go Thunder!

Despite Kevin Durant having a pretty solid season, the Thunder are 6-32 overall this year. Ugh. They got to be better than that. They are just 2.5 games behind The Clippers in the West and 2 behind the Wizards overall. They can catch these teams. Salvage something from this season!

Go Thunder!

It’s not often Kevin Durant gets to hear the home fans boo their team when the Oklahoma City Thunder are on the road. So when it happened Saturday night, all he could do was grin.

Durant scored 28 points, Nick Collison added a season-high 21, and the Oklahoma City Thunder rallied to beat the Chicago Bulls 109-98 in overtime Saturday night.

“It felt good, but every win feels good,” Durant said. “No matter if you’re the best team or the worst team in the league, every win feels good.”

And for once, the Thunder had reason to feel good.

Trailing by seven midway through the fourth quarter, Oklahoma City had a chance to win it at the end of regulation. But with the score tied at 94, Durant a missed jumper from the top of the key, and Russell Westbrook missed a tip-in try.

The NBA’s worst team then took control, outscoring the Bulls 15-4 in overtime.

Collison’s three-point play broke a 96-96 tie with 3:19 left in OT. Earl Watson’s steal and layup, and Jeff Green’s basket made it a seven-point game, sending the Thunder to just their second road win and sixth victory overall of the season.

“Any win is huge for us,” Collison said. “I think everybody knows that, especially a close game like this.”

And few would argue that this was a brutal night for the Bulls, who split four games during a soft patch in their schedule.

After losing to Minnesota last week, they squeezed by Sacramento and had to hang on for a 98-86 win over Washington on Friday night. They let the Eastern Conference’s worst team trim a 21-point deficit to seven in the fourth quarter.

This time, they were leading the NBA’s worst by seven—88-81—midway through the fourth after baskets by Andres Nocioni, Drew Gooden and Larry Hughes, only to see it all disappear.

Green hit a pair of free throws with 2:22 left in regulation and added two more with just under 2 minutes remaining to give the Thunder a 93-92 lead. And after Ben Gordon buried a jumper, Collison hit one of two from the line to tie it at 94 with 1:20 left.

From there, both teams missed chances to grab the lead.

Derrick Rose drove and spun in the line, only to have his shot altered by Collison with 22 seconds left, and the reprieve the Bulls got after those misses by Durant and Westbrook was nothing more than temporary.

“Defensively, we just couldn’t stop them (in overtime),” said forward Joakim Noah, who threw the ball away after an offensive rebound and got called for an illegal pick on back-to-back possessions in OT. “We turned the ball over a lot. I turned it over once and then they called a foul on a screen. That’s two possessions right there. In five minutes, two wasted possessions—that’s a lot.”

Chicago got 22 points from Gordon, and 20 from Drew Gooden, who also had 12 rebounds. That gave him three straight double-doubles after missing eight games with a sprained ankle.

Rose and Larry Hughes added 16 points apiece, but the Bulls got outrebounded 59-37 and allowed the Thunder to grab 22 on the offensive end. That led to 28 second-chance points and 54 overall in the paint.

Kevin Durant’s stats page is updated through 1/12/09!

Go Durant!