Oklahoma City beat the San Antonio Spurs at their own game, using defense to post a 78-76 win in front of a sellout crowd and NBA TV audience.

"This means a lot to beat a phenomenal team like the Spurs," said Thunder star Kevin Durant. "Defense won the game for us. The Spurs can attest to that. They win a lot of games defensively."

San Antonio had won 41 consecutive games when holding opponents to 78 points or less, a streak that dated back to the 2004-05 season, when the Spurs were winning the second of three NBA championships this decade.

"We beat one of the best teams in Basketball," said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. "They're a team that always cranks it up two or three levels every March going into the playoffs. After falling behind, we easily could have fallen off, but we battled back, fought hard and defended."

Oklahoma City shot 35.8 percent from the field, its second worst shooting outing of the season. The only game the Thunder shot worse was 35.4 percent Nov. 26 at Cleveland - a 35-point Thunder loss.

This was the marquee win of the season.

After trailing the entire first three quarters on Monday, down by as many as 17 points, the Thunder took control by holding the Spurs to 29.4 percent shooting in the fourth quarter.

"They have three All-Stars, three possible future Hall of Famers," said the Thunder's Jeff Green. "We knew we had to come out and contest the shooters and get some stops."