The Oklahoma City Thunder are beginning to make their ascension up the Western Conference standings and the rest of the NBA should be on alert.
The Thunder have won five straight and seven of their last eight games, and will welcome the Phoenix Suns to town Sunday at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
Oklahoma City continued its rise with Friday's 111-92 triumph against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Russell Westbrook paced the visitors with 34 points, six assists and six rebounds. Steven Adams had 16 points and 11 rebounds, while Kevin Durant also scored 16 points.
OKC was coming off a 103-94 win over Cleveland the night before.
"I think we did a good job coming in with a good mindset, coming off a back- to-back," said Westbrook, who extended his streak of at least 20 points, five rebounds and five assists to seven games in a row. "Tough game. We came into another team's homecourt and took care of business."
The Thunder scored 39 points in the first quarter to set the tone and added an additional 31 points in the second stanza. The 70 first-half points were four shy of tying a team record.
Since Durant made his debut after foot surgery, the Thunder are 5-1. They have scored 100 or more points in five of those contests and are averaging 104.1 ppg in the previous eight.
Oklahoma City has won four straight at home and is 6-5 as the host. It will head west next for three games against Sacramento, Golden State and the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Suns have lost four in a row and will try to improve their 6-6 road mark.
Phoenix sustained a 105-103 loss to the lowly Detroit Pistons on Friday, as Andre Drummond led the visitors with 23 points and 14 rebounds. The Pistons were able to stop a 13-game slide.
Goran Dragic scored 18 points to lead the Suns, Markieff Morris posted 17 and both P.J. Tucker and Eric Bledsoe netted 16 points for Phoenix, which made 47 percent from the floor and committed 17 turnovers for 28 Detroit points.
There were 19 lead changes on the game and the Pistons grabbed some breathing room on a Kentavious Caldwell-Pope 3-pointer to break a 97-97 tie.
"We're a .500 team. That doesn't guarantee us wins over any team in the league," Suns head coach Jeff Hornacek said.
The 12-12 Suns have lost two in a row on the road.
Dragic is averaging 21.1 points in his last seven games and hopes to give the Suns a backcourt advantage against Westbrook.
Phoenix and Oklahoma City will play the first of four straight meetings this season. The Suns won two of three in this series a season ago.
OKC has won six straight at home versus the Suns.
[SportsNetwork.com]
