OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Since point guard Chris Paul went out with a knee injury, rookie Darren Collison has been able to duplicate the All-Star’s production against just about anyone the New Orleans Hornets play.Just not the Oklahoma City Thunder.Kevin Durant scored 29 points, Russell Westbrook added 17 points and came up just shy of a triple-double, and the Thunder beat injury-depleted New Orleans 98-83 on Wednesday night.Collison, who was held to eight points, has scored in double figures in all but two of the 27 games he’s started in place of Paul — both meetings against the Thunder. He also had his streak of seven straight games with at least 18 points and nine assists snapped. It was the longest string by a rookie since Oscar Robertson set an NBA record with eight in a row in 1960-61.”He (saw) a lot of guys when he was going into the lane, and I think that stopped him from being able to pass the basketball like he has and score the basketball like he has, too,” Durant said. “I think it was a good job by Russell and we just followed his lead.”The Hornets got off to a hot start in their latest return to the building they called home for two seasons following Hurricane Katrina, but it was short-lived with Peja Stojakovic joining Paul on the team’s injured list.Stojakovic is expected to miss at least two weeks with a lower abdominal strain, and the absence of the team’s most prolific 3-point shooter limited New Orleans’ ability to spread the floor and create room for Collison.The first-round draft pick had been averaging 18.9 points and 8.8 assists in his 26 starts. He finished with nine assists, but only three after the first quarter when the Hornets were keeping it close.”That’s not easy. He’s really been doing some incredible work for being a first-year player,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said.David West scored 33 for the Hornets, who recorded their highest total of the season two days earlier in a 135-131 shootout win against Golden State, but struggled to get anything going except when their power forward had the ball.West hit his first six shots and was able to maneuver inside for baskets with regularity, but little else was working for New Orleans. By the time West was lifted with 7:41 to play and the Hornets down by 18, he had scored 33 of his team’s 69 points.Collison and Marcus Thornton, the rookie tandem that kept the Hornets competitive despite Paul’s absence following knee surgery last month, combined for 19 points on 7-for-27 shooting in the team’s seventh loss in the last nine games.”We have to work through this stage and adjust without Peja on the floor, and that might take a little time but we’re going to keep moving forward and handle it,” Hornets coach Jeff Bower said.Time is quickly running out, though. New Orleans fell back below .500 and is fading from the playoff race, now 5½ games behind eighth-place Portland.”First and foremost, I think we have to be professionals. We have to come out with the intensity and concentration that we put in, in terms of a game plan,” West said. “Come out and try to compete to win a game that we have in front of us, regardless of who we’re playing.”It’s going to be difficult for the young guys but it’s going to be a great opportunity to get some experience.”Oklahoma City had lost 10 in a row against New Orleans before winning the last two with Paul on the sidelines. The Thunder have won 15 of 18 to move into a tie with fifth-place Phoenix in the West.”We’re not thinking about who we’re going to be playing against or anything like that, but we’re just happy to be right now in the playoffs,” guard Thabo Sefolosha said. “We definitely don’t want to take anything for granted or anything like that.”Oklahoma City took the lead for good in the second quarter and never got much of a challenge in the second half as New Orleans shot 43 percent.
Westbrook also had nine assists and eight rebounds, and had those totals entering the fourth quarter. He didn’t add to either in 4½ minutes of playing time before being pulled with the game out of hand. He has two career triple-doubles, one each of the past two seasons.”It just doesn’t always take your star players to play well to win,” Brooks said. “The good teams win because they have good players that can step up if somebody gets hurt.”—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s sports staff at [email protected].