OKLAHOMA CITY — Kevin Durant scored 31 points, Russell Westbrook had 29 and the Oklahoma City Thunder stretched their winning streak to seven with a 111-92 victory over the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena.

The Thunder, who had won their past six games by an average margin of more than 16 points, took advantage of the Spurs resting four of its five regular starters.

Kawhi Leonard, LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker didn’t suit up for San Antonio. Neither did sixth man Manu Ginobili.

In their absence, David West and Jonathon Simmons each had 17 points to lead the Spurs.

The Thunder used their regular lineup and after a sluggish first half eventually got going.

Oklahoma City went on a 8-0 run midway through the third quarter to open a 13-point lead with 4:05 left in the quarter. The Thunder eventually outscored the Spurs 35-19 in the quarter — the most points given up by the Spurs in a quarter this season.

Both teams are virtually locked into their playoff positions in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City will likely be the No. 3 seed and San Antonio figures to be No. 2 behind Golden State, leaving Saturday’s matchup without much of a dramatic feel.

That appeared to be the case for the Thunder after they trailed in the first quarter and led just 48-44 at halftime.

All five Thunder starters were still in the game with four minutes to play and the Thunder ahead by 16.

Westbrook finished the first half with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and Durant had 13 points and seven rebounds before the break.

Durant scored more than 20 points for the 58th game in a row. He’s the first player since 2006 (Kobe Bryant) to have a streak that long. He was 13 of 20 from the field and made 5 of 7 3-pointers. He also had 10 rebounds.

NOTES: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich held out starters Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard. The starting five consisted of Danny Green and Patty Mills in the backcourt, and Boris Diaw, Kyle Anderson and Boban Marjanovic in the frontcourt. … The Spurs have essentially locked up the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Asked if he was concerned about his bench players getting into a rhythm, Popovich replied succinctly, “Yes.” … Meanwhile, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said playing against non-regulars from the Spurs presents a challenge. “We’ll probably never play a Spurs’ team that will look like this. There will be a lot of differences out there.” … Donovan said F Kyle Singler, who has missed the past three games with lower back soreness was available Saturday. … Oklahoma City SF Kevin Durant and PG Russell Westbrook entered Saturday as the highest-scoring duo in the NBA. They are combining for 51.4 points per game. … This was the third meeting between San Antonio and Oklahoma City this season. The Spurs will play their final home game of the season against the Thunder on April 12.

OKLAHOMA CITY — The Thunder chose rhythm and the Spurs chose relaxation Saturday night in Oklahoma City.

You might be able to guess how it turned out.

Despite the two teams virtually locked into place for the upcoming playoffs, the Thunder went with its regular starters and regular rotation while San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich rested four of his five starters on the second night of a back-to-back.

The result was predictable. The Thunder pulled away in the second half and cruised to a 111-92 victory, their seventh in a row, inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Kevin Durant scored 31 points and Russell Westbrook had 29.

“It’s not their full complement of players, and I think we continued to evolve and get better,” Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan said. “I think we can hopefully learn and get better from this game. I still think, for us, it’s about getting more consistent all the way through.

“For our team, I’ve seen steady growth and I’d like to continue to see that. They have gotten better and we want to keep getting better.”

Donovan said he wasn’t even considering resting his starters even after learning San Antonio was planning on it.

“Just because San Antonio made a decision that’s best for them, we (don’t) have to do the same thing here,” Donovan said. “It has nothing to do with who we’re playing. It’s about what’s best for us. If we need to do that, we’ll do that. I never thought we should have rested our guys today.”

The Thunder, who had won their past six games by an average margin of more than 16 points, took advantage of the Spurs resting four of their five regular starters.

Kawhi Leonard (quadriceps), LaMarcus Aldridge, Tim Duncan and Tony Parker didn’t suit up for San Antonio. Neither did sixth man Manu Ginobili.

In their absence, David West and Jonathon Simmons each had 17 points to lead the Spurs.

“We had a lot of young guys get some time and found out some other things about certain players and certain situations,” Popovich said. “That what you try to do. We will take all the positives from it.”

The Thunder used their regular lineup and after a sluggish first half eventually got going.

“It was going to be a different game,” Donovan said. “It’s a challenging game to play because as you are getting prepared, it takes time to get adjusted. We got better and better as the game wore on.”

Oklahoma City went on a 8-0 run midway through the third quarter to open up a 13-point lead with 4:05 left in the quarter. The Thunder eventually outscored the Spurs 35-19 in the quarter — the most points given up by the Spurs in a quarter this season.

Westbrook said he didn’t care what players were suiting up for the Spurs.

“Honestly, I’m playing the same night no matter who we’re playing,” he said.

Both teams are virtually locked into their playoff positions in the Western Conference. Oklahoma City will likely be the No. 3 seed and San Antonio figures to be No. 2 behind Golden State, leaving Saturday’s matchup without much of a dramatic feel.

“It wasn’t on us that they didn’t play their starters,” Durant said. “We just have to continue to play our game and stick to what we do. We got stops and we ran out and got easy points.”

Oklahoma City did, but it took a bit of time. The Thunder trailed in the first quarter and led just 48-44 at halftime.

“We are professional,” said San Antonio’s West. “When you are down a few guys like we are in a game like this, you almost have to be mistake-free to give yourself a chance. We’ve just got to take it as what it is.”

All five Thunder starters were still in the game with four minutes to play and the Thunder ahead by 16.

Westbrook finished the first half with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting from the field and Durant had 13 points and seven rebounds before the break.

Durant scored more than 20 points for the 58th game in a row. He’s the first player since 2006 (Kobe Bryant) to have a streak that long. He was 13 of 20 from the field and made 5 of 7 3-pointers. He also had 10 rebounds.

NOTES: Spurs coach Gregg Popovich held out starters Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, LaMarcus Aldridge and Kawhi Leonard. The starting five consisted of Danny Green and Patty Mills in the backcourt, and Boris Diaw, Kyle Anderson and Boban Marjanovic in the frontcourt. … The Spurs have essentially locked up the No. 2 seed in the Western Conference. Asked if he was concerned about his bench players getting into a rhythm, Popovich replied succinctly, “Yes.” … Meanwhile, Thunder coach Billy Donovan said playing against non-regulars from the Spurs presents a challenge. “We’ll probably never play a Spurs’ team that will look like this. There will be a lot of differences out there.” … Donovan said F Kyle Singler, who has missed the past three games with lower back soreness was available Saturday. … Oklahoma City SF Kevin Durant and PG Russell Westbrook entered Saturday as the highest-scoring duo in the NBA. They are combining for 51.4 points per game. … This was the third meeting between San Antonio and Oklahoma City this season. The Spurs will play their final home game of the season against the Thunder on April 12.

SAN ANTONIO — This is more like it, more like what fans were led to expect from a down-to-the-last-possession battle between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs, two of the NBA’s heavyweights, with a little controversy thrown in on the side.

Oklahoma City laid a colossal egg in the opening game of its Western Conference semifinal series against San Antonio on Saturday but roared back with a vengeance on Game 2, showing doubters it is not afraid to go toe to toe with the Spurs by outlasting San Antonio for a 98-97 win Monday.

The result evened the best-of-seven, Western Conference semifinal series at one win apiece.

The series switches to Oklahoma City for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on Sunday before returning to San Antonio for the fifth game on May 10.

Russell Westbrook scored 29 points and handed out 10 assists, and Kevin Durant added 28 points as Thunder handed San Antonio just its second loss at home this season and its first defeat in six playoff games.

“It was an up-and-down game — the whole game was a grind-out,” Durant said. “I don’t really know what happened that last minute. I just know we came out on top. We have to get back to the drawing board and see how we can get better. We know San Antonio is going to come out with a lot of energy and desperation in Game 3, so we have to match it.”

Durant canned a floating jump shot off an assist from Westbrook with 33 seconds left to give Oklahoma City a 96-91 lead, but the Spurs responded with an LaMarcus Aldridge 3-pointer, just his second of the season.

Westbrook made two free throws with 18.3 seconds left to push Oklahoma City’s lead back to 98-94.

Aldridge, who finished with a season-high 41 points, hit three free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt with 13.5 seconds left to bring the Spurs within 98-97.

On the ensuing inbounds play, San Antonio’s Danny Green stole the ball from Durant, and it was eventually passed in the corner to Patty Mills, who missed a 3-pointer with two seconds left. The teams scrambled for the rebound under the basket, but the Spurs could not get off another shot.

“We got a really good effort from everybody, and we were fortunate to close up the game the way we did,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “Being out of a timeout and having a hard time inbounding the ball, we got fortunate. We did a lot of good things, and there are things we can get better at, but it’s only one game.”

After the game, NBA crew chief Ken Mauer said that after the a review of the inbounds play, an offensive foul should have been called on Thunder guard Dion Waiters before he inbounded the ball ahead of the last sequence. Waiters contacted Spurs guard Manu Ginobili before passing the ball to Durant.

“On the floor, we did not see a foul on the play,” Mauer said in a statement provided the media after the game. “However, upon review, we realize and we agree that we should have had an offensive foul on the play. It’s a play we have never seen before, ever.”

If a foul would have been called, the Spurs would have been given possession of the ball for a final shot attempt.

Mills said he was rushed at the end but had a good look at the final shot.

“I didn’t know how much time I had, but I just missed the shot,” Mills said. “Everything happened so quickly, and we were just trying to get a hold of the ball and make something happen. Offensively, we moved the ball better in Game 1 and had more uncontested shots.”

Serge Ibaka, Enes Kanter and Steven Adams added 12 points apiece for the Thunder, and Adams pulled down 17 rebounds.

Kawhi Leonard had 14 points on 7-of-18 shooting for San Antonio, and Ginobili hit for 11 points.

“We were not as sharp as we were in Game 1 and for sure,” Ginobili said. “Oklahoma City was determined to attack and played better defense. They came back strong, and we were a little complacent, which is what happens when you win like we did in the first game. Westbrook was going hard to the basket,

The Thunder flipped the script from their ragged Game 1 start by going right at San Antonio and building a 9-2 lead four minutes into the game. Oklahoma City wound up on top after each quarter — though it was by just one point after the third and the fourth.

Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said, “I thought we lost the game three times tonight and got back in it. Give our guys credit for hanging in there on a night when they weren’t very sharp.”

NOTES: The Spurs recorded 39 assists on 51 made baskets in their Game 1 win in this series, the highest total by any team in the playoffs this year. The last time any NBA team had 39 or more assists in a playoff game occurred on May 4, 1994, when Golden State dished out 40 assists in a 140-133 loss to Phoenix. The last time San Antonio had 35 or more assists in a game was on April 26, 1996, in a 120-98 victory over Phoenix. … In Game 1, Spurs F/C Tim Duncan won his 156th playoff game, moving him past Robert Horry and into second place on the NBA’s all-time postseason wins list. Derek Fisher is first on the list with 161 playoff victories. … The average age of the Thunder’s top seven leading scorers in the regular-season is 26 years and 68 days. As a comparison, the Spurs top seven scorers average 31 years and 182 days.