Kevin Durant, Thunder ramp up intensity in win over Raptors

The Oklahoma City Thunder, normally known for their dynamic offense, used a strong defensive effort to beat the Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night.

After dropping their previous contest at home, the Thunder came out energized and fed off the crowd to jump out to a 13-point lead in the first quarter.

From NBA.com:

"We started the game off with a lot of intensity," Durant said. "That's what we need every game from here on out, to start the game off with a lot of energy. We fed off our crowd, our bench was up and excited about every play. That helped us out a lot. Guys were moving the basketball and just helping each other on defense."

For the night, Oklahoma City forced 17 Toronto turnovers, blocked nine shots and held the Raptors to 35.7 shooting from the field. Points were tough to come by for Toronto in the interior of the defense as the Raptors scored only 34 points in the paint and hoisted 30 three-pointers.

For the Thunder, the defense seemed to translate to better offense as well, with six players scoring in double figures. Oklahoma City now ranks sixth in the NBA with 92.5 points allowed per game.

The Thunder will attempt to notch consecutive wins for the first time this season when they travel to face the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.