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OKLAHOMA CITY -- There will be times the Oklahoma City Thunder will miss Russell Westbrook as he rehabs from another knee surgery, but Sunday certainly wasnt one of those nights. Kevin Durant had 33 points, 13 rebounds and five assists and the Thunder won their second straight game without Westbrook, beating the Houston Rockets 117-86. Jeremy Lamb added a career-high 22 points (on 8 of 10 shooting) and five assists for Oklahoma City, which has the NBAs best record at 25-5. The Thunder have won 12 of their last 13 and 20 of their last 22 games. Reggie Jackson, starting in Westbrooks place, had 16 points and eight assists as the Thunder never trailed and led by as many as 32 points against a team they beat in six games in the first round of last seasons playoffs. Durant said the experience of playing without Westbrook for the final four games of that series and the rest of the playoffs prepared the Thunder for what they must face now. "Its still tough not having him here, but we know what we have to do now," Durant said. "We learned from our mistakes last time. Hopefully we just keep getting better and when he comes back its kind of a seamless transition for us." Oklahoma City shot 57 per cent from the field (47 of 82) in dealing the Rockets their worst loss of the season. The Thunder held James Harden to eight points on 2-of-9 shooting, while Dwight Howard, often stymied by Oklahoma City centre Kendrick Perkins, had nine points on 4-of-13 shooting and nine rebounds. "That team is a very, very high-powered offence," Durant said. "Theyre so quick up the floor. We just wanted to let them see bodies and just play hard. . Weve got to do a better job (defensively) but tonight was a step in the right direction." Aaron Brooks had 17 points and Chandler Parsons scored 15 for Houston, which was playing its fourth game in five days. The Rockets, who had a three-game winning streak snapped, missed their first 12 shots and shot 36.5 per cent from the field (31 of 85). Houston coach Kevin McHale wouldnt use fatigue as an excuse for the Rockets performance. "Youre playing basketball," McHale said, shaking his head. "Youre not logging tall timbers, believe me. Four games in five nights ... next question. "We couldnt stop them. We couldnt run. We had nothing." Oklahoma City is 3-2 this season without Westbrook. The All-Star point guard underwent arthroscopic knee surgery on Friday, his third surgery since last April, when he tore his meniscus after Houston guard Patrick Beverley banged knees with him as Westbrook tried to call a timeout in Game 2 of last seasons playoff series. The Thunder have said Westbrooks latest surgery will sideline him until after the All-Star break. Oklahoma City won 89-85 at Charlotte on Friday night in their first game since that surgery, as Durant had 34 points and 12 rebounds. "The teams going to pick it up," Jackson said. "Were going to do things collectively. Were going to find a way to play, but we all know our limitations. We all know what were good at. . We dont know, necessarily, where well get it from each and every night, but were just trying to go ahead and find our shots and continue to take them." Oklahoma City jumped to a 13-0 lead as the Rockets failed to score until Howard hit a 3-foot jump hook with 5:27 left in the first quarter. The Thunder extended their lead to 22-5 on a driving layup by Thabo Sefolosha and were up 26-14 at the end of the quarter. The Thunders lead stayed in double digits most of the second quarter and Oklahoma City led 56-44 at halftime. Parsons opened the second half with a corner 3-pointer to pull the Rockets within nine points, but Durant hit two 3-pointers and Jackson had another during a 15-0 run to give Oklahoma City its biggest lead to that point at 71-47. Houston came no closer than 17 points the rest of the way. "We just had a tough time making shots tonight," Howard said. "That happens. Weve got to come out better. Weve got to find a way to get ourselves going. Thats it." Houston also struggled at the free throw line, hitting just 17 of 31 attempts (54.8 per cent). Sefolosha scored 13 points, one off his season high, for Oklahoma City. Omri Casspi added 15 points for the Rockets. Notes: Harden, a former fan favourite with the Thunder before being traded to Houston before last season, received a strong mix of boos and cheers during pregame introductions. Right before the tipoff, Harden walked over to the Thunder bench to greet some of his former teammates and coaches ... Houstons 14-point first quarter was a season low and the Rockets second-lowest quarter of the season . Brooks hit a halfcourt shot at the end of the third quarter, which pulled the Rockets within 90-70. Wholesale Air Max .com) - Sporting Kansas City announced Thursday that club has signed former on-loan midfielder Jimmy Medranda to a permanent contract from Colombian side Deportivo Pereira. Cheap Air Max Shoes . Maria Silvia Bastos Marques, president of the EOM (Municipal Olympic Company), will be leaving her post but will remain as an advisor, a city hall statement said Tuesday. http://www.cheapairmaxstore.com/ . -- Golden State Warriors reserve centre Ognjen Kuzmic is expected to miss at least six weeks after undergoing surgery on his fractured right hand. Discount Air Max . And fellow Leaf, Jake Gardiner, hiking in Whistler. Wholesale Air Max From China . The young man, never lacking confidence, thought he could be really good.LONDON -- One in four professional footballers said they suffer symptoms of anxiety and depression in a new study into the sports largely unexplored "dark side" of mental illness. The mental health of recently retired professional footballers was even more worrisome, with one in three reporting signs of anxiety and depression. Some 300 current and former professionals -- from the Netherlands, Major League Soccer, Scotland, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand -- took part in the study for the players union, FIFPro. While football can draw on reams of scientific study about players physical injuries, little research has previously been done into their mental health, and mental health problems have remained very much taboo in the sport, FIFPro chief medical officer Vincent Gouttebarge said. "There is definitely some dark side of professional football," he said in an interview. "We dont talk about mental health issues in football, or we didnt talk about this issue," he added. "Its quite a macho culture so people do not talk about it." Gouttebarge said the studys findings suggest that professional footballers are no less prone to mental illness than other younger people in the general population. He said that might surprise fans who believe footballers live comfortable, worry-free lives, with media attention often focusing on the wealth of the most successful players. "Contrary to what people think, professional footballers experience psychological problems just like other groups in the population," Gouttebarge said. Among the 180 active footballers who responded to the lengthy questionnaire, 10 per cent reported symptoms of distress, five per cent reported signs of burnout and three per cent said they suffered from low self-esteem. Nearly 20 per cent reported problems with alcohol, which Gouttebarge said could include binge drinking and regularly drinking too much, and seven per cent said they smoked. TThe 121 former professionals who responded on average had 12-year playing careers and have been retired for five years.dddddddddddd. Fifteen per cent showed signs of burnout and 18 per cent signs of distress. One in three reported drinking problems, 12 per cent smoked, and 39 per cent reported suffering from depression and anxiety. Gouttebarge said that could include worrying, mood swings, difficulties sleeping, feeling stressed, not being sociable or a combination of symptoms. "Mental illness seems to occur among former professional footballers more often than in current players, and more often than in other populations. Consequently, mental illness among former professional footballers cannot be underestimated and should be a subject of interest for all stakeholders in football," the study said. Retirement was "really a critical period," with players abruptly losing the structure of regular training and the support of being in a club, Gouttebarge said. "You have to find a new life," he said. "It can put you under a lot of stress." Long-term injuries and surgeries that take players out of the game and away from close, regular contact with teammates can also be factors in mental health problems. Being forced to stop playing professionally because of injury or because clubs wont offer another contract can be particularly hard to cope with, Gouttebarge noted. "This has been recognized in other sports as a huge cause of mental health issues," he said. "The guy who is willing to retire or to stop his career is really (in) a different kind of situation to the one who is forced to retire." He called the study "a good first step" toward identifying the scope of mental health issues in football. The survey is expanding to players in France and from French-speaking nations in Africa, with plans to also study players in Spanish-speaking countries and Japan, Gouttebarge said. ' ' '