OKLAHOMA CITY - Kevin Durant told Dion Waiters to be ready.Waiters obliged.In his first home game with the Thunder since being acquired from Cleveland earlier this week, Waiters hit a 3-pointer on an assist from Durant with 23 seconds left to put Oklahoma City up by four. He finished with 15 points to help the Thunder beat the Utah Jazz 99-94 on Friday night.Waiters missed a 3-pointer a minute earlier, but Durant trusted his newest teammate.The first time he (Durant) found me, I was too excited, Waiters said. I was too open. I wanted to hit it real bad, and I kind of rushed it and was all off balance. When we came out of the timeout, he just said, Be ready, its going to come around again.Waiters said the confidence from his teammates and coaches was a breath of fresh air compared to what he dealt with in Cleveland.Its a lot different, he said. Im able to play. I dont got to look over my shoulder, anything like that, if I make a mistake. Coaches tell me to play, be aggressive. Be me. Once you get told that, the games easy.Durant scored 32 points and Russell Westbrook had 25 points and 12 assists for the Thunder, who lost their previous two games by a combined 47 points.Gordon Hayward scored 27 points, Derrick Favours had 22 points and 11 rebounds and Trey Burke added 20 points for the Jazz, who had won six of 10 and were coming off a 20-point win at Chicago on Wednesday night.I think we performed well, Jazz coach Quin Snyder said. It just was, we missed some shots at the end. There was nothing about what we did that we fell apart. We didnt turn the ball over late. I think it was more them raising their level.Waiters was 1 for 9 in his Thunder debut Wednesday at Sacramento. He entered this game with 5:37 left in the first quarter, and immediately made an impression. He made 4 of 5 shots in the period, had a nifty assist to Westbrook for a dunk and had two steals in six minutes.With 1:02 left in the first half, Utah lost the ball out of bounds with 0.2 seconds left on the shot clock and Trevor Booker checked in. Hayward bounced the ball to Booker, and he tipped it over his head, two-handed, into the basket from just outside the paint. Booker jogged down court with arms out and palms toward the ceiling, perhaps as surprised as the crowd.Well, I didnt know the play, he said. At first, I just went to the rim for the lob. It wasnt there, so I just tried to give G (Gordon Hayward) an outlet. I knew I couldnt catch the ball. He bounced it. I know you wont believe me, but I really do practice those shots. I guess you could say the hard work finally paid off.Bookers circus shot helped Utah take a 50-44 lead at halftime.An alley-oop dunk by Booker on a lob from Burke from the 3-point line put the Jazz up 81-76 in the fourth quarter, but the Thunder rallied. A baseline fadeaway by Durant tied the score at 90 with 3:18 to play, and he made another fadeaway from nearly the same spot the next time down to give the Thunder the lead.__TIP-INSJazz: C Enes Kanter missed his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle. He has started all 33 games he has played in and averages 13.9 points and 7.3 rebounds per game. ... Hayward scored 10 points in the first quarter. ... G Joe Ingles turned his right ankle in the second quarter after going up for a rebound. He left the game, but returned to start the third quarter.Thunder: Oklahoma City made 11 of 18 shots in the first quarter, but just 31 for 73 the rest of the way. ... The Thunder went scoreless for the first 3:48 of the second quarter. ... Oklahoma City improved to 10-4 when Durant plays.QUOTE OF THE NIGHT:Durant, on Bookers trick shot: It wont ever happen again.DYNAMIC DUOWestbrook and Durant broke out of slumps. Durant, who had made just 11 of 36 shots his previous two games, shot 14 for 21. Westbrook, who had made 27 of 99 his previous five games, was 9 for 17.UP NEXTJazz: At Houston on Saturday.Thunder: At Houston on Thursday.___Follow Cliff Brunt on Twitter: www.twitter.com/CliffBruntAP . Vans Old Skool Pink . Last years runner-up, Sara Errani, also reached the last eight in straight sets. Flipkens converted all four of her break points against Meusburger, and the third-seeded Errani broke Karin Knapps serve five times to win their all-Italian match 6-4, 6-3. Vans Shoes Clearance Sale . Hamilton signed offensive linemen Mike Filer, Joel Reinders, Landon Rice and Carson Rockhill. http://www.vansshoesclearancesale.com/. It will be their 15th head-to-head meeting and fourth in the post-season (Sunday at 2pm et/11am pt on CTV) and for his part, Brady isnt downplaying just how big the game is for him. "Im excited - Its everything you could ask for as an athlete," the New England Patriots quarterback told WEEI Radio in Boston on Monday. Vans Shoes Outlet . -- Coyotes coach Dave Tippett thinks of one thing when he watches Eastern Conference teams struggle against Western opponents before they get to Phoenix: His team must keep pace. Vans Old Skool Clearance . The Broncos quarterback earned the offensive award Wednesday after passing for 374 yards and three touchdowns in a 37-21 win over the Raiders Monday night. Manning completed 32-of-37 passes and had a passer rating of 135.The Washington Capitals overhauled their defence, by paying huge money to a pair of former Pittsburgh Penguins. Numbers Game breaks down the signings of Matt Niskanen and Brooks Orpik. The Capitals Get: D Matt Niskanen and D Brooks Orpik. Niskanen, 27, picked a terrific time to have the best year of his career, scoring a career-best 10 goals and 46 points while playing a career-high 21:18 per game. He was also a career-best plus-33, which is all well and good, but he was one of six regular defencemen (minimum 62 games played) to have a combined on-ice save percentage and on-ice shooting percentage (PDO) at 5-on-5 of 103.0 or better. An on-ice shooting percentage over 10.0% is difficult for any defenceman to sustain, but Niskanens 10.32% was the third-best of his career; basically, its the kind of good fortune that shouldnt be expected, but its not out of the realm of possibility from season to season for Niskanen. Where the puck luck really stuck with Niskanen last year, was that he also had a .928 on-ice save percentage during 5-on-5 play, so getting favourable percentages at both ends of the ice during the same year contributed to that strong plus-minus. That shouldnt diminish the evaluation of Niskanen entirely, though, because he has consistently been on the right side of the puck possession ledger, and that makes him an asset to any team that acquires him. While Niskanen hasnt typically played hard minutes, and in some years has been excessively sheltered, hes likely to face more difficult matchups now that hes the highest-priced defenceman on the Capitals roster. Signed for seven years and $40.25-million, Niskanen landed the biggest free agent contract of the year. There was probably an element of paying for the good fortune that Niskanen experienced last year, and it is a gamble that Niskanen is going to be able to live up to the money involved in that contract, but if a team is going to swing for the fences on a free agent defenceman, doing so on a guy with consistently strong possession numbers is at least a reasonable foundation on which to make that investment. Which brings us to Brooks Orpik, a 33-year-old who has made his bones as a physical, hard-hitting defenceman, registering more than 200 hits in five of the past seven seasons. The unfortunate part, however, is that Orpik in position to hit so much -- particularly in recent years -- because his team doesnt have the puck as often when hes on the ice and the problem with a defensive defenceman who is already on the wrong end of the possession game is that hes certainly not likely to get better as he gets older. For example, in the 2013-2014 season, there were seven defencemen that were over 35 and scored fewer than 20 points (as Orpik has in everyy season of his career, except one).dddddddddddd Its an okay list, some useful players, but six of the seven were 35 or 36. Orpik is signed through his age 38 season and the only -- the only -- NHL defenceman that played more than 60 games without scoring more than 20 points last season was Tampa Bays Sami Salo, who has never played the kind of physical, banging style that characterizes Orpiks game, in part because Salo was always hurt anyway. This doesnt offer much encouragement that the Capitals wont have massive regrets about the Orpik signing; the only question is how soon will those regrets occur? Can he give the Capitals a couple of solid years, maybe facing lower-calibre of competition than he did in Pittsburgh? Thats probably the best hope, but its a longshot that the last two, maybe even three years, wont have the Capitals paying big money for a spare part on their blueline. Orpik is signed for five years, at a cap hit of $5.5-million per season. Big money, long term. Pittsburgh anticipated that they would lose both Niskanen and Orpik and, in addition to having an opening or two for some prospects, they also signed Christian Ehrhoff to add stability to their defence. Its entirely understandable for the Capitals to make a move to upgrade their defence. They allowed 33.5 shots per game, ranking 27th in the league, last season, so the defence needed to get better. Ultimately, the Capitals are better today after adding Niskanen and Orpik, but that should never be up for debate when committing close to $11-million annually to two players. What has to matter is how much better they are, whether the money spent is worth it and what the fall-out will be. The Capitals dont have to make any moves --- they are under the $69-million salary cap -- but they have $28,762,500 committed to their defence, according to Cap Geek. The only teams spending in that neighbourhood for their defence are Philadelphia and Tampa Bay, who have Chris Pronger and Mattias Ohlund, respectively, on long-term injured reserve. St. Louis and Chicago are spending in the $24-million-to-$25-million on their respective bluelines right now, so its hard to imagine that the Capitals maintain the status quo, leaving a hole at second line centre while sticking with the most expensive defence corps in the league. We will see what other moves the Capitals have in mind this summer but, right now, it appears that they spent a lot of money to get better in the short-term; signing deals that appear to have more downside risk because of the long terms involved. 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. ' ' '