Kevin Durant dropped 26 points on the dysfunctional Denver Nuggets who are proving in the playoffs just how flawed their roster it. The Oklahoma City Thunder took a commanding 3-0 lead over the Nuggets with their first playoff road win since ripping the team from Seattle where it belongs.
The Nuggets put up a decent fight and had five players in double figures in the kind of balanced scoring that basketball purists love but the NBA Playoffs tended to punish. The Thunder got 71 of their 97 points from just three guys as Russell Westbrook (23 points, 8 assists, 9 rebounds) and Serge Ibaka (26 points, 16 rebounds) joined Durant as true playoff stars.
Former ASU Sun Devil stud, James Harden, chipped in 10 points off the bench as the Thunder's fourth-leading scorer. He and Ibaka, who was drafted with a Suns' pick traded away in the Kurt Thomas salary dump, will trade places throughout the Thunder playoff run as the third wheel. We'll see if that's enough to push the Thunder deep into the postseason, but for now it's clearly going to get the job done against the Nuggets.
Game 4 of this series is scheduled for Monday in Denver when the Nuggets will try and avoid the first round sweep.