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02/11/2012 - Salt Lake City, UT (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Russell Westbrook scored a game-high 28 points as the Oklahoma City Thunder cruised to a 101-87 victory over the Utah Jazz at EnergySolutions Arena on Friday.
Kevin Durant added 19 points and Serge Ibaka contributed a double-double with 16 points and 11 rebounds as the Thunder won three of their last four games to wrap up a five-game road trip with a 3-2 record.
Utah had all five starters in double figures, including 20 points from Al Jefferson. Raja Bell and Gordon Hayward scored 13 points apiece for the Jazz, who have dropped three straight and five of their last six.
"They [Thunder] played well," said Bell. "They took the game to us. They were aggressive. We got stuck in one mode and were never able to transition into something else to see if it could get going."
Utah would pull ahead by two, 58-56, on a Jefferson jumper in the third quarter, but Oklahoma City would rip off a 16-4 run to give the Thunder a 72-62 lead with just over three minutes left.
The Thunder would finish the quarter leading 74-65.
The Jazz clawed their way back into the game, but another 7-0 spurt by the Thunder pressed the lead up to 85-73 with just over seven minutes to play.
Utah was unable to put a run together in the closing minutes as the Thunder ran away with the double-digit victory.
The Thunder turned the ball over seven times in the first frame as the Jazz took a 30-27 lead into the second quarter.
"We have always been a good bounce-back team after a loss," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. "Tonight was a good indication of how we play. We didn't have a lot of things going for us early. We were turning the ball over, but we fought, we stuck together and we competed."
Utah grabbed a 40-36 lead midway through the second as C.J. Miles finished back-to-back alley-oop dunks around a Westbrook jumper, but Oklahoma City would score the next 10 points to jump out to a 46-40 advantage with 1:30 left in the half.
Westbrook scored 15 points in the first half, including a jumper from the wing that closed out the first half with the Thunder leading 49-44.
Game Notes
The Jazz will begin a back-to-back-to-back road stretch in Memphis on Sunday and finish with a rematch in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, which marks the Thunder's next game...The Thunder are now 12-5 on the road this season...Oklahoma City improved to 4-1 this season in games played after a loss...The Thunder were 4-of-20 from long range, while the Jazz were 3-of-9 from three-point range.
<< Kings place Stoll on IR
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Stoll suffered the injury in the latter stages of the third period of
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Denver, CO (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Ryan O'Reilly scored the game-winner with 1.2
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<< Detroit edges Anaheim in SO, extends home win streak
Detroit, MI (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Todd Bertuzzi supplied the decisive goal in the
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Following an e
<< Lin scores 38, Knicks down Lakers
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Jeremy Lin's coming out party continued on
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Korda takes lead at Women's Australian Open >>
Victoria, Australia (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - On a Saturday when many players near
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Thunder's Brooks to coach West All-Stars >>
New York, NY (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Oklahoma City's Scott Brooks will coach the
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NEW YORK (AP) -By staying away from the cupcakes, Southern California earned itself a slim new ranking.
No. 1 always seems to fit USC.
Southern California jumped two spots to No. 1 in The Associated Press Top 25 on Tuesday, rewarded by voters for opening the season with a dominant performance on the road against a BCS conference opponent.
Georgia and Ohio State, the preseason Nos. 1 and 2, respectively, started their seasons with glorified scrimmages at home against FCS (formerly I-AA) teams. USC, however, traveled across country to face Virginia and could not have been more impressive in a 52-7 victory.
Georgia fell to No. 2 and Ohio State to No 3.
"We realize that rankings so early in a season are certainly fluid. But rankings do help establish a pecking order for things later in the season," USC coach Pete Carroll said in a statement. "As for moving into the No. 1 spot, it's nice to know that people think highly of our team."
Since reaching No. 1 on Dec. 7, 2003, the final-regular season AP poll of that season, USC has been No. 1 in 39 polls, by far the most of any team during that time.
"Some have said the voters are taking our schedule into consideration," Carroll said. "Our philosophy has always been to schedule outstanding opponents. We need to play challenging games like we just did, traveling across the country to open the season at Virginia. Games like that bring out our best and make us stronger as a team."
The latest voting was close. USC received 21 first-place votes and 1,539 points from the 65-member media panel. Georgia had 20 first-place votes and 1,506 points. Ohio State got 15 first-place votes and 1,497 points.
"I'd say we've evolved as pollsters," said Stewart Mandel of SI.com, who moved USC up to No. 1. "In the past, voters just kind of automatically moved teams up and kept teams where they were if they won."
Georgia beat Georgia Southern 45-21 on Saturday and Ohio State opened with a 43-0 win over Youngstown State.
"There's a bit of a growing backlash for the amount of teams that open with I-AA cupcakes," said Mandel, whose book "Bowls, Polls and Tattered Souls" chronicles college football's controversies. "To see a team [USC] go on the road and play a New Year's Day bowl team from last season, and not only play them but destroy them, how could you not reward that team?"
USC also jumped past Georgia to No. 1 in the USA Today coaches' poll, which has the same top five as the AP poll.
"It's definitely a privilege to be No. 1. But it's not heartbreaking to me if we drop," Georgia offensive lineman Josh Davis said. "It doesn't matter right now what we're ranked. What matters is our next game and right now, that's Central Michigan. The only time the polls matter is in December. That's when the polls matter."
While the Bulldogs opened easy, their schedule ultimately should be as difficult as any team's. Georgia's big nonconference test is at No. 15 Arizona State on Sept. 20. The Bulldogs also face six Southeastern Conference rivals that've been ranked in the first two polls.
As for Ohio State, the Buckeyes play at USC on Sept. 13 before getting into the Big Ten schedule.
But of the teams in this week's top 10, USC and Texas are the only ones that don't play an FCS opponent, and the Trojans are the only team that doesn't play a team from a non-BCS conference.
Get the latest 2009 BCS Championship odds at MySportsbook.com.
The last team to drop from No. 1 after a victory was USC last season. LSU jumped from No. 2 to No. 1 when it beat Tulane 34-9, the same week the Trojans edged Washington 27-24 on the road.
The last preseason No. 1 team to lose the top spot after winning its opening game was Florida in 2001. The Gators beat Marshall 49-14, but preseason No. 2 Miami opened with a 33-7 victory over Penn State and the Hurricanes jumped to No. 1 with Florida slipping to second.
The next four teams in the new Top 25 stayed the same: No. 4 Oklahoma (two first-place votes), No. 5 Florida (five first-place votes), No. 6 Missouri (one first-place vote), No. 7 LSU (one first-place vote) and No. 8 West Virginia.
No. 9 Auburn and No. 10 Texas each moved up a spot, taking advantage of Clemson's big drop. Clemson, ninth in the preseason, fell out after losing 34-10 to Alabama on Saturday.
Also falling out after losses were Virginia Tech, Pittsburgh and Tennessee.
Moving into the rankings were No. 21 Fresno State, No. 22 Utah, No. 23 UCLA and No. 24 South Carolina.
Alabama moved up 11 spots after its big victory over Clemson.
The second 10 started with No. 11 Wisconsin, followed by Texas Tech, Alabama and Kansas. BYU and Arizona State were tied for 15th. Rivals BYU and Utah are both ranked for the first time since 1996.
South Florida was No. 17, ahead of Oregon, Penn State and Wake Forest at No. 20.
The final five were all the teams to move into the ranking, except for Illinois, which dropped four spots and tied South Carolina for No. 24.
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