Dominant Westbrook leads Thunder past Mavericks, into 8th in West

The Oklahoma City Thunder made a serious statement Thursday night, kicking off the unofficial second half of the NBA season with a 104-89 thrashing of the visiting Dallas Mavericks, a game in which they never trailed.  

Fresh off carrying home MVP honors for his electrifying 41-point performance in Sunday's All-Star Game, Russell Westbrook came out with daggers in his eyes and flames shooting off him in all directions. 

Westbrook dominated the game from start to finish, carving through the Mavericks' defense, getting to the rim at will, knocking down shots from all over the floor, finding teammates with pinpoint passes in traffic and tossing up some gorgeous alley-oop lobs. 

Westbrook finished with 34 points and 10 assists, absolutely owning his head-to-head matchup with Rajon Rondo. In his return from a facial fracture, Rondo had just five points on 2-of-9 shooting, and was a game-worst minus-20 while on the floor. 

The Mavericks as a whole seemed to be sleepwalking through this game, unable to get into any sort of rhythm. They shot just 36.3 percent from the field, coughed the ball up 18 times and surrendered a ridiculous 21 offensive rebounds. 

Gobbling up seven of those was Serge Ibaka, who finished with a career-best 22 total rebounds to go along with 21 points - his first 20-20 game. 

Ibaka and Westbrook together were able to make up for an off-night for Kevin Durant, who looked to be suffering some lingering discomfort in his surgically-repaired right foot. Durant, who was dealing with soreness in the foot before the All-Star break, shot just 4-of-14 on his way to 12 points, and pulled himself out of the game in the final minutes. 

He did, however, have time for one thunderous dunk:

Durant said after the game that despite being sore, he's not at risk of re-injury. That may not be enough to assuage Thunder fans right now, but they have plenty of reason to rejoice. The win vaults them into a tie with the Phoenix Suns for eighth place in the Western Conference, and with a 2-0 head-to-head record, the Thunder own the tiebreaker.  

They also have reinforcements on the way, and if this game was any indication of what the Thunder are going to play like down the stretch, the race for the West's final playoff seed is already over.