Durant shines as Thunder pull level

DPA/Los Angeles

The Oklahoma City Thunder kept going to Kevin Durant. Now they are going back to San Antonio all even in the Western Conference finals. Durant scored 18 of his 36 points in the final seven minutes Saturday night as the host Thunder held off the Spurs, 109-103, to tie the series at two games apiece. Congo’s Serge Ibaka made all 11 of his shots and scored a career-high 26 points for the second-seeded Thunder, who won two home games after losing the first two on the road. The pivotal fifth game is today at San Antonio. “We know this is just one step closer,” said Durant, who made 13-of-20 shots and 9-of-9 free throws. “We did what we were supposed to do - win at home. We just gotta keep believing and we’ll be fine.” The three-time defending scoring champion, Durant had scored just 10 points on 1-of-5 shooting in the fourth quarters of the first three games. The Thunder needed him to take over down the stretch after the Spurs cut what had been a 15-point deficit to 86-82 with 6 minutes 54 seconds to play. Durant did just that, scoring on six straight possessions as the Thunder rebuilt the lead to 10 points with less than three minutes to go. “The Spurs’ defense was so good early in the game. I was picking and choosing my spots,” Durant said. “I just tried to finish strong.” Durant repeatedly came off screens, caught the ball above the foul line and went to work, sinking jumpers or making tough shots off the dribble. His jumper as he was fouled and ensuing free throw gave Oklahoma City a 93-86 lead with 4:47 left. The Spurs still were within 95-90 with 3:33 remaining on a tough running bank shot by Tim Duncan, who scored 21 points. But Durant answered with his own runner, then converted a lob from James Harden into another three-point play for a 100-90 advantage with 2:48 to go. “When a player that talented gets hot, he’s really hard to contain,” said Spurs guard Manu Ginobili of Argentina. “We tried different things and they didn’t work.” A pair of three-pointers by Kawhi Leonard around a jumper by Durant pulled the Spurs within 102-96 with 1:24 to play before Harden sealed it with a three-pointer off a pass from Durant, who also led the Thunder with eight assists. The Thunder improved to 7-0 at home in the postseason as they shot 56 percent (44-of-78) and held a 41-31 advantage in rebounds. Leonard scored 17 points and Ginobili added 13 for San Antonio, which has dropped two in a row following a 20-game winning streak. “French Flash” Tony Parker was limited to 12 points. Oklahoma City usually relies on its “Big Three” of Durant, fellow All-Star Russell Westbrook and Harden. But Westbrook managed just seven points on 2-of-10 shooting and Harden had 11 on 4-of-13. Instead, the Thunder trotted out a new “Big Three” of frontcourt players Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Nick Collison. Usually relied upon to defend and rebound, the trio collected 49 points on 22-of-25 shooting. “If you did a shooting drill with no one guarding you, I don’t think you could do that,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. Ibaka fell just short of tying the NBA playoff record of 12 shots made without a miss set by Larry McNeill of Kansas City-Omaha in 1975. Perkins scored 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting and Coillison added eight on 4-of-5. “He didn’t miss a shot? Wow!” Durant said. “He played phenomenal. We rode him tonight.” Perkins had just 12 points in the first three games but scored nine in the first quarter, which ended in a 26-26 tie. “They were jumping out on Kevin and Kevin was doing a geat job of finding (Perkins),” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. For the second straight game, the Spurs stumbled to just 17 points in the second quarter. They shot an awful 7-of-22 from the field in Saturday’s second period. “We haven’t played the second quarters in both these games here,” Popovich said. “We’ve had to recover from that both nights.” Meanwhile, Ibaka scored 14 points on 6-of-6 shooting, including a handful of jumpers as the Thunder built a 55-43 halftime lead. A jumper by Ibaka gave Oklahoma City its largest lead at 68-53 midway through the third quarter before San Antonio began chipping away. Ginobili and Stephen Jackson drained three-pointers in a 10-0 spurt that cut the deficit to 73-71.