students chanting "Air Ball!, Air B

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Not much about Oklahoma City point guard Russell Westbrook goes unnoticed. NFL Jerseys Supply . In the past week, while much of the NBA has focused on Kevin Durants run at a possible first MVP award, Westbrook quietly has been the Thunders most productive and efficient offensive player. Westbrook turned in another gem on Friday, finishing with 24 points and seven assists in just 28 minutes to help Oklahoma City beat the short-handed New Orleans Pelicans 116-94 on Friday night. Oklahoma City won its third straight and clinched the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference playoffs. Westbrook has been sitting in one game of back-to-backs, so he has played in just four of Oklahoma Citys past six games. In those four games, he is averaging 28.5 points, 6.8 assists and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 51 per cent from the field. "Hes well rested and hes taking advantage of a lot of matchups," Durant, who led the Thunder with 27 points against New Orleans, said. "Thats what we need from him. Hes playing extremely well. Hes picking and choosing his spots well. Hes playing with a lot of intensity for us." Westbrook said moving in and out of the lineup hasnt slowed him down. "My job is to always stay confident, regardless of if Im playing or if Im missing games," he said. "Just come out with a positive mindset and try to keep going." Serge Ibaka added 16 points, 10 rebounds and a season-high eight blocks for the Thunder. "It seemed like he had 10 or 11 blocks," Durant said. "He was protecting the paint. He was there on pick and rolls. He was there all night." The Thunder shot 54 from the field, made 23 of 27 free throws and committed just 11 turnovers. Oklahoma City led by 25 points at the end of the third quarter, so Durant and Westbrook rested in the fourth. Oklahoma City outscored New Orleans 28-0 in fast-break points. "They were able to steal a lot of buckets in transition," New Orleans guard Austin Rivers said. "I felt like every time we made one mistake, I felt like they capitalized on it, where when we got one, we werent able to." Darius Miller scored a career-high 18 points and Rivers had 18 points and eight rebounds for the Pelicans. New Orleans was without injured starters Anthony Davis (back) and Eric Gordon (left knee tendinitis). "Our guys, they just scrapped and clawed and tried to do what they can to help their teammates," New Orleans coach Monty Williams said. "Its a tough situation playing against a good team." The Thunder took advantage of New Orleans depleted lineup by taking a 30-23 lead at the end of the first quarter. Oklahoma Citys reserves helped the Thunder push the lead to 44-27. New Orleans went on an 11-0 run before Derek Fisher scored for the Thunder. On Oklahoma Citys next possession, Durant sent a nice pass to a running Ibaka, who dunked to put the Thunder up by 10. Durants jumper with three seconds left in the first half put the Thunder up 60-47 at the break. Westbrook scored 16 points in the first half on just 10 shots, while Durant and Ibaka added 12 points apiece. Midway through the third quarter, Rivers got ahead of the pack for what looked like an easy basket. Ibaka caught up with him and pinned his shot on the glass, then Durant dunked on the other end to give the Thunder a 75-56 lead. "Hes fast enough to keep up with guards," Rivers said of Ibaka. "When you have a 7-foot guy who can jump, running on a fast break on defence, its hard to get to the basket. Their defence is all on him. Without Ibaka, this is a whole different team." NOTES: Oklahoma City started its preferred lineup of Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha for just the 22nd time this season. Oklahoma City has played nine starting lineups. ... Durant was presented the Western Conference Player of the Month award for March before the game. He has won four out of five months. ... Rivers got his first start of the season, and New Orleans rookie F Jeff Withey got his second. ... New Orleans G Brian Roberts left the game with a left ankle injury and did not return. ... New Orleans G Tyreke Evans left the game with a right knee bone bruise and did not return. ... Perkins, Durant and Westbrook were issued technical fouls in the third quarter. Durant picked up his 15th of the season. Cheap Kirk Cousins Jersey . As for regular Olympic spectators, theyre being warned that most travel insurance policies wont cover acts of terrorism or war. The Games in southern Russia, which run from Feb. 7-23, are being staged amid unprecedented security and under global warnings of danger. Cheap San Francisco 49ers Jerseys . Former two-time Olympic gold medallist Evi Sachenbacher-Stehle tested positive for the stimulant methylhexanamine in both her "A" and "B" samples, the German Olympic Committee said. http://www.jerseyscheapest.com/ . -- The Los Angeles Angels have agreed to a minor league contract with reliever Brandon Lyon that includes an invitation to their big league camp for spring training.WACO, Texas -- Kansas coach Bill Self knows most people look at how Andrew Wiggins plays as a barometer for what to expect from the eighth-ranked Jayhawks. Dont make the mistake of overlooking the other players around the Big 12s top-scoring freshman. Naadir Tharpe scored 22 points, nine in a go-ahead run before halftime, and the Big 12-leading Jayhawks rebounded from their first league loss with a 69-52 victory at Baylor on Tuesday night. "Weve just got to be a team that its going to be a different guy most every night," Self said. "And (Tharpe) stepped up when we needed him to step up." Early on, there were three ties and nine lead changes. Tharpes short jumper with 3 1/2 minutes left in the half broke a 25-all tie and put the Jayhawks (17-5, 8-1 Big 12) ahead to stay. The tiebreaking shot was Tharpes third basket in a 14-3 spurt over the final 5 minutes of the first half, and he added a 3-pointer with a minute left. He then made another 3 on Kansas opening possession after halftime. Wiggins, a native of Vaughan, Ont., finished 4-of-13 shooting and didnt make his first basket until a half-court shot to beat the buzzer going into halftime for a 35-27 lead. "Well, we ran that play for him at the end of the first half to get him going," Self joked of Wiggins, who finished two points off his season average. "It was big. It gave a great momentum push going into halftime," said Perry Ellis, who had 14 points and 10 rebounds. "It was great that he knocked that down. It got him going." Cory Jefferson had 14 points to lead Baylor (14-8, 2-7), which lost its fourth consecutive game at the Ferrell Center after a 13-game home winning streak. Its the longest home drought since dropping six straight in 2005. The Bears, coming off a win at then-No. 8 Oklahoma State that snapped their overall five-game losing streak, was trying to set up for a final shot before halftime when Kenny Chery threw an errant pass that Wiggins intercepted. "Round 1 is over in the league. We have to do betteer in Round 2," Baylor coach Scott Drew said. Authentic China Jerseys. "The good thing is I believe we can win every game, but with the Big 12 being like it is we can lose every game. We have to make sure we play well to have a chance to win." Baylor has never won consecutive games over Top 25 opponents. The Bears shot only 29 per cent from the field (16 of 55) -- Drew, looking for a positive, pointed out they did have assists on all but one of those made baskets. They were outrebounded 45-31. Kansas was coming off an 81-69 loss Saturday at surging Texas. "We just came out there without energy. I felt like even though Texas played that tremendous game out there, we kind of beat ourselves," said Tharpe, who sat the final 10 minutes of that game when had only three points on 1-of-4 shooting. "We didnt come out with any kind of energy, we had nothing. After they made a play, we had nothing coming back. So we knew coming into today in Waco, we had to come out with some fire right away. And thats what we did." In their regular season finale last March, the Jayhawks lost 81-58 at Baylor. They still had a share of their ninth consecutive Big 12 title, but that loss kept them from winning it outright. Baylor was within 49-44 midway through the second half and Wiggins had just shot and missed the rim. But the Bears missed three free throws on the same possession. Then, with Baylor students chanting "Air Ball!, Air Ball!", Wiggins swished a 3-pointer from the right wing. Wiggins scored again on the next possession to push the lead to 54-44, and had the next basket as well with a dunk with 7:49 left. Brady Heslip had 12 points on four 3-pointers, but didnt score again after his last gave Baylor a 22-21 lead with 6:34 left in the first half. "We were just playing him behind his numbers. We were running behind him," Tharpe said of second-half adjustments on Heslip. "We just knew that he got a lot of good looks off in the first half, and we couldnt let that happen again." ' ' '