OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma City Thunder showed Wednesday night that they dont always need to have Kevin Durant score in the fourth quarter to win a close game. Durant scored just two of his 26 points in the final 12 minutes and his teammates -- including Derek Fisher, Jeremy Lamb and Reggie Jackson -- stood in the gap, helping Oklahoma City pull away for a 106-97 win over a Minnesota Timberwolves team without Kevin Love and two other starters. Jackson added 20 points (seven in the fourth quarter) and nine assists for the Thunder, who won for the 12th time in their last 13 games and became the NBAs first team this season to 40 wins. The Thunder won for the ninth straight time at home against Minnesota, which entered the game 3 1/2 games behind Dallas in the race for the eighth and final playoff spot from the Western Conference. The Thunder have won eight straight home games and are 15-1 this season against Western Conference foes at Chesapeake Energy Arena. "We just focus on doing our job every night and living with the results and theyve been pretty good for a while now," Oklahoma City coach Scott Brooks said. "We have expectations to a standard that we want to play at and I think weve done a good job with that going into the All-Star break. "This is funky time for a lot of teams because a lot of players are probably thinking about the break and what theyre doing, getting their plans together. Weve never been a team that has done that and I dont anticipate that happening this year." Love, an All-Star forward, sat out with a stiff neck after taking a hard fall Tuesday in a win over the Los Angeles Lakers. Center Nikola Pecovic (ankle injury) and forward Corey Brewer (family leave) also didnt play for the Timberwolves. Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said he was proud of the way his undermanned team fought. "I think it shows that these guys compete," Adelman said. "They werent afraid to go play them with three starters out. It gave the other guys an opportunity to play. I couldnt be prouder of the way they competed. We just ran a little bit out of gas at the end." With Minnesota devoting its defensive energies to stopping Durant, other Thunder players made the key plays in the final minutes. The score was tied in the closing seconds of the third quarter when Fisher attempted a 3-pointer from the corner that appeared to be long, but Minnesotas Gorgui Dieng accidentally tapped it into the basket to give the Thunder an 80-77 lead. Fisher finished with 13 points, his second-best offensive outing of the season. "Ive never seen that before," Durant said of the goaltending call on Dieng. "That guy is a rookie . so Im sure hes going to learn from that one. But that gave us a boost and at the start of the fourth those guys came out and played extremely hard and thats what we needed." Lamb opened the fourth quarter with another 3-pointer to push Oklahoma Citys lead to six points. The Thunder finished off the 16-4 run with a dunk by Lamb with 7:17 left that made it 93-81, but Oklahoma City suddenly went cold from the field. Durant was called for a technical foul with 4:39 left after protesting a no-call, but Ricky Rubio missed the ensuing free throw, leaving the score at 93-86. Minnesota pulled within 95-89 after a 3-pointer by Robbie Hummel with 3:45 left, but the Timberwolves came no closer. "We came into the game aggressive and we fought all the way through, but in the last five minutes, I think we missed too many free throws and easy shots while they made shots at the end," said Rubio, who had 19 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Thabo Sefolosha, who missed his first seven 3-point attempts, made one from the corner with 1:43 left to extend the Thunders lead to 100-90 and Minnesota came no closer than nine points the rest of the way. "Theyre NBA players, too," Durant said of his teammates. "Its not like Ive been scoring every point in the fourth. We play off each other. Guys hit big shots and we got stops. . We play a team game here." Durant, who also had nine rebounds and seven assists, continued his strong play against the Timberwolves. He had a triple-double in a home win over the Timberwolves on Dec. 1 and scored 48 points in a win at Minnesota on Jan. 4 before his outburst Wednesday. The Timberwolves led by as many as six points in the second quarter, but Oklahoma City took a 56-54 lead after Durant swished a 3-pointer at the buzzer. Durant had 16 points, six rebounds and five assists by halftime. Dante Cunningham added 18 points on 9-of-13 shooting for Minnesota. Serge Ibaka had 14 points and seven rebounds for the Thunder. NOTES: Brewer didnt travel with the team following the birth of his son on Tuesday. The Timberwolves say hes expected to return for Fridays game at New Orleans. Luc Richard Mbah a Moute replaced Brewer in the starting lineup. ... Durant was the Western Conference player of the month for January. He averaged 35.9 points per game while shooting 54.9 per cent during the month, leading Oklahoma City to a 10-game winning streak. He scored 30 or more points in 12 straight games. ... Olympic gold-medal winning gymnasts Bart Conner and Nadia Comaneci, who live in nearby Norman, attended the game. ... Hummel saw his first action since Jan. 6 at Philadelphia. He played 17 minutes and scored five points. .. Oklahoma City C Kendrick Perkins matched his season high with 12 rebounds. Trent Grisham Jersey . Torres tells Spanish daily AS "in football you never know where you will be inside one month. Im going to work hard, thats all you can do with this last part of the season so important. Jacob Nottingham Jersey . The Laval Rouge et Or defensive back/kick-returner gained the invitation following his showing Sunday at an NFL regional combine in Baltimore. https://www.cheapbrewers.com/489y-matt-a...ey-brewers.html. In their first meeting for six years, the Frenchmen dropped serve twice in the first set, but Giquel broke Simon two more times in the second. Gicquel moves on to face sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win against wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, despite the Frenchmans 23 aces. Hank Aaron Brewers Jersey . Halladays resume as a Blue Jay is among the elite in the franchises 36-year history. Over 12 seasons in Toronto, he was named an All-Star six times. He had arguably the finest campaign of his career in 2003 when he posted a 22-7 record, a 3. Christian Yelich Brewers Jersey .com) - Stanley Johnson had 18 points and No.For the first time since the preseason, there is a team other than the Indiana Pacers at the top of the TSN.ca NBA Power Rankings. Entering the All-Star break, the Oklahoma City Thunder have won 14 of 16 games to take over top spot, even without injured star point guard Russell Westbrook. Making a big move up, with the return of point guard Chris Paul, the Los Angeles Clippers jumped from 10 to four, and the surprising Phoenix Suns moved from 15 to 12. 14-5 in the past 19 games, the Brooklyn Nets are up to 15, from 19, their highest ranking since the preseason. The Minnesota Timberwolves are down two starters annd fall from 11 to 14 and the Atlanta Hawks, losers of five straight, fall from 14 to 17.dddddddddddd Down to their last option at point guard, and losers of four straight by an average margin of 25 points, the Denver Nuggets slide from 16 to 19 and the Philadelphia 76ers, losers of seven straight, drop from 26 to 29. The Toronto Raptors are down from one spot, from nine to 10, effectively losing ground to the Clippers upon Pauls return. Scott Cullen can be reached at Scott.Cullen@bellmedia.ca and followed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/tsnscottcullen. For more, check out TSN Fantasy on Facebook. ' ' '