Red-hot Thunder go marching on

Kevin Durant continued his sensational run of form to help Oklahoma beat San Antonio 111-105 in Wednesday's NBA clash.

Oklahoma City Thunder's Kevin Durant against the San Antonio Spurs

The Oklahoma City Thunder have beaten the San Antonio Spurs 111-105 in their fifth straight NBA win. (AAP)

Kevin Durant scored 36 points and Reggie Jackson added 27 as the in-form Oklahoma City Thunder beat the San Antonio Spurs 111-105 for their fifth straight win.

It was the ninth consecutive game Durant had scored 30 or more points as the Thunder (33-10) recorded their second impressive victory in as many nights after knocking off mighty Portland, to move half a game ahead of the Spurs (32-10) at the top of the Western Conference.

Frenchman Tony Parker poured in a season-high 37 points, while Tim Duncan had 14 with 13 rebounds for the Spurs, who had won seven of their previous eight contests but dropped to 0-3 this season against the Thunder.

Already without injured starters Danny Green and Tiago Splitter and top reserve Matt Bonner, the Spurs lost small forward Kawhi Leonard in the second quarter with a fractured finger in his right hand.

Jackson then reeled off 11 straight points in the final frame, helping the Thunder to a 94-89 advantage with 7:13 remaining.

Durant missed his first four shots of the quarter, but converted a layup off a lob pass, making it 100-94 at the 3:12 mark.

Two free throws by Parker brought the Spurs to within 100-96, but Durant drilled a pair of three-pointers to open up a 108-98 advantage with 68 seconds left that sealed the decision.

In Wednesday's other matches, Gerald Green scored 23 points, Slovenia's Gordon Dragic added 21 to help the Phoenix Suns snap the league-best Indiana Pacers' five-game winning streak with 124-100 win.

Paul George scored 26 for the Pacers (33-8), whose league-best defence surrendered a season-high point total.

DeMar DeRozan fired in a career-high 40 points, and the Toronto Raptors stormed from 21 points down in the opening quarter to beat the visiting Dallas Mavericks 93-85, who rested German star Dirk Nowitzki.

Gerald Wallace hit the game-winning layup with 2.5 seconds remaining in overtime and Jeff Green had a season-high 39 points with eight triples to end the Boston Celtics 10-game losing streak on the road by beating the Washington Wizards 113-11 for just their second win in the last 14 contests.

John Wall led the Wizards with 28 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists for his second career triple-double.

In other games: The visiting Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-87; the Charlotte Bobcats surprised the visiting LA Clippers 95-91 and the visiting Atlanta escaped the Orlando Magic 112-109.

The visiting Philadelphia 76ers stopped the New York Knicks 110-106; the Houston Rockets routed the injury-hit Sacramento Kings 119-98; and the league-worst Milwaukee Bucks beat the visiting Detroit Pistons 104-101.


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Source: AAP


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