By Paul Levine Nov 9, 2009, 7:14 GMT
Los Angeles - Orlando Magic head coach Stan Van Gundy isn't one to mince words, so after watching his team get pounded by the Oklahoma City Thunder, he came down hard on them.
The Thunder's Kevin Durant scored 28 points, while Russell Westbrook had 17 with 10 assists, helping the Oklahoma City Thunder embarrass the reigning Eastern Conference champions, 102-74 on Sunday night.
'We're not a good basketball team right now. I've been saying that, but nobody's listening,' said Van Gundy, whose club fell to the NBA Champion LA Lakers in the finals last spring. 'We're totally predicated on shooting. We do not have any kind of defensive mindset, we don't have much toughness and we're not very smart.
'We play very soft and not with much intensity,' he continued. 'Quite honestly, until that changes, we're going to have a lot more games like that.'
Van Gundy would like the Magic (5-2) to play with the same intensity the Thunder displayed in the blowout.
'They've got some toughness on their team to go around their main players,' he said. 'We need to find some toughness somewhere on our roster. We don't have it right now.'
Nenad Krstic netted 14 points, Swiss Thebo Sefalosha contributed 13 with three from behind the arc and grabbed 10 rebounds as Oklahoma City (3-3) snapped a three-game slide.
After taking the Lakers into overtime earlier in the week, the young and hungry Thunder dominated the Magic in the second half (49- 30), en route to arguably their biggest victory at the Ford Centre since relocating from Seattle two years ago.
'This was probably our best ball-moving game of the season,' Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. 'For the most part we played good basketball. We played together, we played hard. We did a good job of not having them have a big three-point shooting game.'
'We're playing with a lot of confidence, we're having fun out there and I think it's showing,' Sefalosha said. 'We're playing pretty well and it's very encouraging.'
Dwight Howard had 20 points, Frenchman Mickael Pietrus added 15 for short-handed Orlando, which, without Vince Carter (ankle), Rashard Lewis (suspension) and Ryan Anderson (ankle) shot just 37 per cent from the field in its most lopsided loss since last February.
Elsewhere:
LA Lakers 104, New Orleans Hornets 88
Kobe Bryant poured in 26 of his 28 points in the opening half, reserve Shannon Brown added all 15 of his after intermission and the short-handed Lakers rolled to their fifth straight victory.
DJ Mbenga collected 10 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers (6- 1), who opened the third quarter on a game-breaking 17-3 run as injured centre Andrew Bynum (elbow) and Spanish forward Pau Gasol (strained right hamstring) watched from the bench.
Chris Paul had 15 points and nine assists for visiting New Orleans (2-5) losers in four of its last five.
Phoenix Suns 102, Washington Wizards 90
Jason Richardson scored 22 points, Steve Nash dished out 17 assists, and the surging Suns beat the Wizards for the sixth straight time.
Channing Fry scored 18, Amare Stoudemire finished with 17 and 12 rebounds for visiting Phoenix (6-1), matching its best start in franchise history.
Gilbert Arenas netted a team-high 20 points in Washington's (2-4) fourth straight loss.
Detroit Pistons 88, Philadelphia 76ers 81
Ben Gordon scored 23 points, Ben Wallace pulled down 16 rebounds and the host Pistons (3-4) limited the 76ers to four free throws in the final six minutes.
Andre Iguodala topped Philadelphia (3-3) with 24 points.
Portland Trail Blazers 116, Minnesota Timberwolves 93
Andre Miller scored 21 points, LaMarcus Aldridge and Travis Outlaw added 19 apiece, as the Trail Blazers (4-3) handed the visiting Timberwolves their sixth straight loss.
Nathan Jawai had 16 points off the bench for Minnesota (1-6) losers of nine in a row to Portland.
Sacramento Kings 120, Golden State Warriors 107
Rookie Tyreke Evans erupted for 18 of his 23 points in the second stanza, leading seven teammates in double figures and the host Kings posted consecutive victories for the first time since last November.
Slovenian Beno Udrih scored 20, Jason Thompson had 19 with 10 rebounds for Sacramento (3-4) which lost its leading scorer Kevin Martin for the next two months following wrist surgery on Friday.
Stephen Jackson paced Golden State (1-4) with 21 points.
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