BOSTON ( AP) — Russell Westbrook hit a 3-pointer and then shimmied his hands down his torso, bent his body at the knees and strutted down the sideline in celebration.
Just 39 seconds later — this time with less than a minute left in the game — he did it all over again.
Westbrook scored 26 points, including two of Oklahoma City’s four 3-pointers in the final 2 minutes, to help the Thunder beat the slumping Boston Celtics 97-88 on Monday night. Kevin Durant scored 28 with seven rebounds for Oklahoma City, which won its seventh consecutive game.
Paul Pierce scored 24 points, Kevin Garnett had 12 points and 12 rebounds and Jermaine O’Neal had 12 points and 11 boards for the Celtics. Rajon Rondo scored 12 points with nine rebounds and nine assists for Boston, which lost a fifth straight game for the first time in the New Big 3 era.
After trailing by 10 points to start the fourth quarter, the Celtics cut the deficit to two beforeDuranthita3that made it 81-76 with 4:42 left. Garnett made a pair of free throws, then Durant threw down a tomahawk dunk.
Oklahoma City then hit four 3-pointers in a row — one from Thabo Sefolosha, two from Westbrook and another from Sefolosha that made it 95- 85 with 24 seconds left. The Thunder were 2 for 11 from 3- point range in the first three quarters and 5 for 8 in the fourth.
Kendrick Perkins had seven points and five rebounds in his first game back in Boston since the trade that sent him to Oklahoma City and broke up the starting lineup from the Celtics’ 2008 NBA championship team. In the first quarter, his old team played a video on the scoreboard with highlights from his 7 1/2 years in Boston.
Perkins went over to the Celtics bench before the opening tip to hug the coaches and chest-bump some of his former teammates. The crowd gave him a standing ovation, which Perkins acknowledged by walking to center court alone and waving.
Boston cut the deficit to 83-80 with 2:25 to play, but Westbrook cut across the lane and whipped a two-handed pass to Sefolosha in the corner for the 3. After Rondo scored on a putback, Westbrook hit a 3-pointer of his own — then celebrated by strutting down the sideline.
Garnett hit Mickael Pietrus to set up a Celtics 3-pointer, but Westbrook answered again to make it 92-85.
The Celtics had not had a five-game losing streak since they lost seven straight and eight of the last nine games of the 2006-07 season, a year when they also had an 18-game losing streak that was the longest in franchise history. That summer they began assembling the New Big 3 — bringing in Garnett and Ray Allen to join Pierce, with Rondo and Perkins rounding out the lineup for a team that won the franchise’s 17th NBA title.
Boston returned to the finals in 2010, but Perkins tore up his knee in Game 6 against the Lakers and missed Game 7, which Los Angeles won 83-79.
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