MANCHESTER, England -- A superstar in the United States, Kevin Durant has enjoyed being just a "regular person" during his time in Britain this week. On Tuesday, Durant was back to being the centre of attention. The Oklahoma City Thunder was behind 51-48 at halftime against Philadelphia 76ers in an NBA pre-season match in Manchester when Durant came alive, scoring 14 points in the third quarter to turn the game on its head and put his team 83-74 up. Durant stayed on the bench for the final quarter, giving him 21 points for the match, and although the Sixers pulled level at 85-85 with 8.43 minutes left, guard Reggie Jackson (29 points) led the Thunder home to a 103-99 victory. "I like what he has been doing in pre-season," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said of a player who has led the NBA in scoring in three separate seasons. "He has come back even better." Durant scored a game-high 24 points in the Thunders 95-82 victory over Fenerbahce Ulker of Turkey on Saturday but started slowly three days later, making just 3 from 10 from the field before halftime. If the Sixers thought he was off colour at that stage, they were to be mistaken. It wasnt just Durants third-quarter scoring, it was also his quick passing, his leadership. Barking orders from the bench during the fourth quarter, he could easily have been the Oklahoma City coach. "We demand a level of play and he is as coachable as any player I have seen in this league," Brooks said. "He is going to continue to get better. He has the talent, the skill, the body, the touch, the gifted game. But he also has an unmatched work ethic." Manchester can hardly be called the hotbed of basketball in Britain -- there were plenty of empty seats in the 21,000-capacity Phones 4u Arena -- but a sign of the sports growing appeal in the country is the staging of a regular-season NBA game between the Brooklyn Nets and Atlanta Hawks in London in January. And a slew of Premier League footballers, including Manchester United players Rio Ferdinand and David de Gea, were courtside to see the Thunder and the Sixers step up their preparations for the new NBA season. After missing out on the playoffs last season, the Sixers are in a rebuilding phase under new coach Brett Brown and have lost All-Star guard Jrue Holiday, who was traded to New Orleans on draft night. However, they held their own against one of the NBAs standout team for three quarters. It was Durants brilliance in the third quarter, which the Thunder won 35-23, that was the difference, along with 20 turnovers. "I am really proud of our guys," said Brown, who had 20 points from Tony Wroten. "I see carry-over (from training)," he added. "Thats the Holy Grail." Like the Thunder, Philadelphia has been on a week-long tour of Europe as the NBA looks to promote the sport around the world, and beat Bilbao Basket 106-104 in Spain on Sunday. The NBA season starts in three weeks time, but the league hasnt seen the back of Britain. "Its a great atmosphere here, the fans are unbelievable," said Durant, who won gold with the U.S. team at last years London Olympics. "I think they deserve basketball, especially regular-season basketball. Im sure well see that in the future." Earnest Byner Youth Jersey . Span, Danny Espinosa and Adam LaRoche had two hits apiece as Washington won the final two games of the series. The Nationals improved to 3-7 against Atlanta. They increased their division lead over the Braves to 1 1/2 games. Wes Martin Womens Jersey . The defending champions’ roller coaster season included trading offensive star Percy Harvin in the midst of the team’s 3-3 start. That move that reportedly irked several Seahawk players, but one management saw necessary to save the team’s chemistry. http://www.redskinsrookiestore.com/Redskins-Earnest-Byner-Jersey/ . In their first meeting for six years, the Frenchmen dropped serve twice in the first set, but Giquel broke Simon two more times in the second. Gicquel moves on to face sixth-seeded Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who advanced with a 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) win against wild card Pierre-Hugues Herbert, despite the Frenchmans 23 aces. Wes Martin Youth Jersey . - Skiing far more aggressively than in her season debut a day earlier, Lindsey Vonn was in provisional 10th place after the first 45 skiers in a World Cup downhill on Saturday. Alex Smith Jersey .B. -- Canadas Rachel Homan opened the Ford Womens World Curling Championship with a 7-5 win over Russia on Saturday. WINNIPEG -- Devin Setoguchi was hiding his face Friday night but not in shame, as his two goals lifted the Winnipeg Jets to a much-needed 4-3 win over the slumping Vancouver Canucks. He was wearing a player-of-the-game pilots helmet, complete with darkened visor, that the team has come up with as a new locker-room tradition. "This time of year youve got to find a way," Setoguchi said of his timely goals, which ended his seven-game goal-scoring drought. "Theyre ahead of us in the standings and the other night Nashville was and we let one slip away there. And if were going to try and crawl back up in this thing were going to have to make big wins late in the season here." Zach Bogosian and Michael Frolik also scored for the Jets (26-25-5). Captain Andrew Ladd picked up two assists. Alexander Edler, Ryan Kesler and Jason Garrison scored for the Canucks (27-20-9). Daniel Sedin picked up an assist but his goal drought didnt end and has now stretched to 15 games. The win means the Jets have won seven of the nine games theyve played since Paul Maurice took over as head coach. "Im really happy for him, its been a tough stretch of games," Maurice said of Setoguchis performance. Not much changed in the standings however. With Nashvilles 3-2 overtime win over New Jersey Friday, the Jets remain a point behind in the Central Division cellar. And, despite the loss, the Canucks sit in eighth place and cling to the final wild card playoff spot in the Western Conference with 63 points. Phoenix is next with 60, but things are tightening up with Nashville at 58, and Winnipeg and Dallas both with 57 points. It was also the last game Vancouver has to play without head coach John Tortorella behind the bench, as his suspension for his actions before and after a brawl with the Calgary Flames ends this weekend. Eddie Lack, in goal instead of Robert Luongo, made a lot of great saves to keep Vancouver in the game as the Jets outshot the Canucks 34-26. "Their goalie made some huge saves for them to keep them in it," said Ladd. Lack said it was tough to start the game by giving up the first goal. Though they battled back and twice tied it up, they could pull ahead. "Its not the first time that happened for us and it kind of feels like were talking about the same thing," he said.dddddddddddd Assistant coach Mike Sullivan took his time coming out to talk to reporters as Tortorellas stand-in and said late penalties were momentum killers. "It was frustrating because we fought our way back into the game," said Sullivan. "I thought we had all the momentum in the third period (but) we shot ourselves in the foot." The Jets outshot the Canucks 15-7 in the first period and Vancouver had managed just one shot when Bogosian scored from the point at 5:02, slamming one past backup Eddie Lacks glove. The Canucks rested Roberto Luongo Friday night. The Jets kept up the pressure and Vancouver called a time out just over a minute later as Setoguchi backhanded one in from the side of the net to make it 2-0. The Canucks got their first on a power play when Edler slipped a rebound behind Ondrej Pavelec from the side of the net at 10:27. Winnipeg continued to control the play, however, and Dustin Byfuglien thought he had another with about a minute and a half left in the period. But Lack caught a piece of it as the big winger swept past. The Jets started well in the second but turned over the puck in front of their own net and Kesler was right there to backhand his 19th of the season past an unprepared Pavelec at 4:48. The tie didnt last long. Frolik put the Jets back in the lead when he snapped in Ladds behind-the-net pass at 6:41 and that was it for the second. Winnipeg kept its edge on shots at 13-10. But the Canucks tied it up again in the third when Jason Garrison blasted one from the point and Pavelec went down as the puck went high. Setoguchis second of the game at 17:04 put the Jets back in the lead and the Canucks took a high-sticking penalty at the same time, their second of the period, to keep them from making another comeback. Notes: It was Vancouvers first visit to the new Jets at the MTS Centre. The last time they played the Jets at home was in 1996, the final season for the original Jets before they relocated to Phoenix and became the Coyotes. With Vancouvers visit, every team in the NHL has now played in Winnipeg. ' ' '