What does this picture have to to with the game? Nothing, that's what! Pip-pip, cheerio!

Well well well....we meet again.

But, this time, things are supposed to be different. After they beat us in overtime, they had a 5 game skid. Nevertheless, this stat should be taken with a grain of salt, as their 4 opponents during that stretch were Boston (x2), Portland, New Orleans, and San Antonio. Even though it was a hard stretch, the team went through a bit of drama as Lawrence Frank benched the entire starting lineup for the rest of the game vs. Boston after a terrible first half. They came back with a win vs. the recently coach-changed Memphis Grizzlies, but it remains to be seen if the Nets can truely return back to prominence. Well, not nessessarily prominence, but rather the 6th or 7th seed in the East that they seem to have been glued to for the past 5 years.

Matchups:

C- Brook Lopez vs. Nick Collison

Brook Lopez is somewhat of an anomoly. One game, he'll explode for something like 20 Points, 8 Rebounds, and 5 Blocks, but the next game, he'll settle for something like 8 Points, 5 Rebounds, and 1 Block. This can usually be explained by the caliber of center he was facing, or written off because he's still just a rookie. Reguardless, expect Nick Collison to have his hands full with Lopez tonight, and don't expect much from Collison on the offensive end. I'd expect most of Lopez's points to come when Krstic is on the floor.

PF- Ryan Anderson vs. Kevin Durant

Undoubtedly Durant will have the better game, but Ryan Anderson is more of a true Power Forward, so he might be able to take advantage of Durant inside.

SF- Bobby Simmons vs. Jeff Green

This is where the Thunder should really exploit the Nets. Bobby Simmons is mostly a scoring forward and is arguably the weak point in the Nets lineup. He should score a lot of points, but Jeff Green should be able to have his way with him. However, Bobby Simmons will be slighty more motivated tonight because he's been involed in a trade rumour involving him being traded to Chicago for Larry Hughes, so that's something to watch for.

SG- Vince Carter vs. Desmond Mason

Sorry D-Mase. If this were an Over-30 Dunk contest, you'd have a chance, but Vince Carter is far better of a player. Everyone knows who Vince Carter is and what he does, so there's not much to put here. Tally-ho!

PG- Devin Harris vs. Russell Westbrook

This is the matchup to watch for. At first glance, they are both similar players. Young combo guards who have an affinity for passing, driving inside, and scoring. But at second glance, they are in different molds. Devin Harris is more of a Monta Ellis type player. Very quick, able to drive to the basket and get lots of And-1s, but his jumper is very shaky. Russell Westbrook is more of a complete player. He's an excellent rebounder (for a guard), and he is developing a deadly outside shot. Who is better is simply a matter of opinion, and it will be lots of fun watching these guys go at it.

Bench Play-

The Nets most notable bench player (for me anyway) is NBA Journeyman and straight up hustla, Eduardo Najera. He played 4 years for OU back in the 90s, and I've been a faithful follower of his NBA career ever since. The Warriors made me fall in love with the NBA, but it was Najeras Sooners that made me fall in love with college basketball. He's mainly out there to give it all he's got for a short time, and could be a nice defender against Green and Durant off the bench. Other than him, Magic outcast Keyon Dooling is a nice shooter. Jarvis Hayes is an excellent veteran backup forward, who specializes in rebounding. Josh Boone is an average center who can't shoot freethrows worth a damn. I really know nothing about their 9th man, Chris Douglas-Roberts, but I hate combined last names, and he can't be all that good. On the Thunder side of things, expect Kyle Weaver to get a lot of minutes attempting to guard Vince Carter, and expect Nenad Krstic to have a nice offensive game, because he can draw Brook Lopez outside of the paint.

Coaching and Intangibles-

There might be a bit of chaos on the Nets side of things, so the Thunder have the upper hand in terms of stability. The Thunder have had a nice run of things recently, but they have also had a couple of sloppy games vs the Heat and Clippers, so who knows which team we'll see tonight. It's the first home game in a week, so I'd expect the good team to show.

Prediction: Thunder 96, Nets 84

We'll never get PJs ties back, but at least we can rest assured in that Mike Dunleavy Sr. will always sport the stylish pocket handkerchief in true yelling fashion.

Yahoo! Box Score

Uhhhh....WHAT?!?!

The night of January 24th, 2009 was a weird, wierd night for the NBA. The Bobcats beat the Suns, the Timberwolves beat the Hornets, the Pacers beat the Rockets, Golden State lost to Cleveland on a miracle LeBron deep 2 against Ronny Turiaf, and Oklahoma City....lost to a 9-Person-Manned Clippers team. If I told you that Chris Kaman, Baron Davis, Marcus Camby, Brian Skinner, and Mike Taylor were all out, would you think we won? If I told you that Eric Gordon and Al Thornton were the top scorers on the other team, would you think we won? If I told you Kevin Durant scored a monster 46 Points, would you think we won? Well, make sure that I asked you those questions after December.  Anyway, you'd most likely answer yes, and you'd be wrong.

Game Summary:

Chucky Atkins was in such shock that he thought he was watching a movie, so he got some popcorn. He follows in the footsteps of George Gervin (scroll down after clicking the link).

As this game went on, I was in pure shock. The Thunder were playing equally with the other team through the first quarter, and not totally dominating as I thought they would. Then, unfortunately, I fell asleep after having been up some 20 hours, about 2 of those playing basketball. I'll be honest, I can't really infer what went on during the game except for the highlights. But, the good news is that I'm getting a DVR on Friday, so stuff like this won't happen again.

Analysis:

After reading the other recaps, it looks like there's two sides of argument to this game. Papagiorggio over at Thunder in OKC says that the Thunder really just played uninspired ball, and they made a bad coaching decision at the end of the game. Joe over at Daily Thunder has some of the same thoughts, but he thinks that the Clippers also did their part,. with normally very shot happy players like Ricky Davis being willing to pass the ball for deep jumpers.

The Olympics Has a New Event: Synchronized Dunking! I'd give them about a 5.5.

I never saw the game, but from what I know this game is enough to convince me that we just don't have enough players in the right positions. I mean if you think about it, in our current lineup of 8, we have:

1 Center: Nenad Krstic

1 Power Forward: Nick Collison

3 Small Forwards: Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, and Desmond Mason

1 Shooting Guard: Kyle Weaver

2 Point Guards: Earl Watson and Russell Westbrook

Now, it may not look like much, but half of those players are playing out of position. At Shooting Guard we have a guy who dunks but can barely make his freethrows, and a defensive specialist that contributes almost nothing offensively but a couple of 3s a game. At Center we have a slightly undersized Nick Collison and a soft shooter in Nenad Krstic. And who backs up Durant at Power Forward? Collison and Krstic are almost never on the floor at the same time, so we inevitably have to turn to Jeff Green, who is a bit more outside-oriented. Thus, the talent is there, just not in the right places. That is why that we can beat Utah and Detroit some nights, yet get killed by Minnesota and the Clippers on others.

Again, I didn't see the game, but it's pretty evident that Kevin Durant won the Thunder Wonder award tonight. 46 Points, 15 Rebounds, 4 Assists and 2 Steals? I guess that anything is possible. I never thought that this guy was near All-Star talent, but after this performance I think people might start turning their heads. The Thunder Down Under goes to Kyle Weaver for the first time, who had 8 Points on 2-3 3 Point Shooting, 5 Rebounds, and 5 Assists. Congratulations to the first time winner! I knew he could do it!

It's pretty evident that Earl Watson was, again, the Thunder Blunder. He had 11 Points, but only on 3-8 Shooting, 5 Rebounds, 2 Assists, and a whopping 6 turnovers. Sometimes he's lukewarm, and sometimes he stinks like a rotting whale. On the Clipper side of things, I would feel bad if I didn't give the Thunder Plunderer award to a trio of players. These three guys carried a team full of dead weight to a stunning victory. Eric Gordon had a amazing 41 Points, Al Thornton had 34, and Ricky Davis finished with 11 Assists, which is an amazing mark for someone who normally never sees a shot that he didn't take.

Next Game: Monday, January 26th vs. The New Jersey Nets

The Thunder return to the Ford Center as they hope to get revenge for the overtime loss a few weeks back....

Side Note: I have added another Thunder Blog, After the Lightning, into our sidebar! They've been blogging since the beginning of the season, and have done a pretty good job of it, too. Check them out!

I can't speak for the whole nation, but here in OKC at least, home advantage has always been a point of pride. I mean, does the term "Loud City" ring any bells? Recently, we've all been hearing a lot about home court advantages, especially concerning the Thunder. So, I set out and tried to determine the team that gets the best boost from the home crowd in the metropolitan area. Keep in mind, this doesn't mean most raucous crowd. It's a ranking of which team's play at home is the most significantly better than their season averages. Also, because the Thunder are new to OKC, I only included stats from the most recent season, including seasons in progress. So, here we go...

6) Oklahoma City Blazers

Current Season Win %: .688   Home Win %: .545   Difference: Down 14.3%

Current Season PPG: 3.563   Home PPG: 3.091   Difference: Down 13.2%

Current Season Opp. PPG: 2.719   Home Opp. PPG: 2.5   Difference: Down 8.1%

Final Home (+/-): -19.4

This is really stunning. The Blazers usually have one of the best home ice advantages in the league. This year in particular it's bizarre. Attendance is down because of the Thunder, but they still lead the league. They're also first in their division. For whatever reason though, they do much better on the road. If there is a plus though, it's that they allow 8.1% less points at home as opposed to their season average.

5) Oklahoma City Thunder???

Current Season Win %: .209   Home Win %: .261   Difference: Up 5.2%

Current Season PPG: 96.0   Home PPG: 95.48   Difference: Down .5%

Current Season Opp. PPG: 102.8   Home Opp. PPG: 100.09   Difference: Down 2.6%

Final Home (+/-): 7.3

How'd this happen? I thought this was the loudest crowd in the league. I can testify that they're easily pound for pound the best crowd in the 405 area code. One answer: they play teams capable of beating them every single night. Outside of the major league ranks you're bound to play someone who is completely out-manned. There's just a bigger difference in talent disparity.

4) Oklahoma City Redhawks

Previous Season Win %: .528   Home Win %: .553   Difference: Up 2.5%

Previous Season RPG: 5.13   Home RPG: 5.553   Difference: Up 8.2%

Previous Season Opp. RPG: 4.92   Home Opp. RPG: 4.908   Difference: Up .2%

Final Home (+/1): 10.5

Also a little surprising. As with most OKC area teams, they do well, winning their division and coming just short of a AAA Championship last season. They play well enough at home for it to be a significant difference, but they definitely aren't too much different on the road. Will the new logo help? I doubt it.

3) Oklahoma Sooner Basketball

Current Season Win %: .947   Home Win %: 1.00   Difference: Up 5.3%

Current Season PPG: 79.21   Home PPG: 82.09   Difference: Up 3.6%

Current Season Opp. PPG: 64.21   Home Opp. PPG: 62.46   Difference: Down 2.7%

Final Home (+/-): 11.6

The Sooners do better offensively, defensively, and in the win column at the LNC. However, these are all moderate improvements. The Lloyd Noble crowd has always been notoriously dim, but I will say, I have been there a couple of times this season, and they are getting better. Is it the new Starbucks in the arena that is helping the Sooners? No way Jose. I think it's spelled B-L-A-K-E. And the Starbucks line is always the shortest at the game. That's right, people would rather buy pitiful pricey personal pan Pizza Hut pepperoni pizzas (alliteration anyone?) than coffee at a basketball game.

2) Oklahoma Sooner Football

Previous Season Win %: .857   Home Win %: 1.00   Difference: Up 14.3%

Previous Season PPG: 51.14   Home PPG: 52.67   Difference: Up 3%

Previous Season Opp. PPG: 24.5   Home Opp. PPG: 19.67   Difference: Down 19.7%

Final Home (+/-): 37

As we all now, the Sooners under Bob Stoops have been near unbeatable at home. Granted, their toughest game of the year, Texas, is at a neutral site every season, and that does help. Still, look at that defensive improvement, 19.7%. Not bad for the Big XII. Owen Field has, is, and always will be kind to the Sooners. If only the BCS were as nice...

1) Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs???

Previous Season Win %: .375   Home Win %: .625   Difference: Up 25%

Previous Season PPG: 43.25   Home PPG: 52.75   Difference: Up 22%

Previous Season Opp. PPG: 57.06   Home Opp. PPG: 58.63   Difference: Up 2.8%

Final Home (+/-): 44.2

I'm as shocked as you are. How did the worst team in OKC have the best home boost? Well, it helped that most of their early games, when they sucked so terribly, were on the road. Still, the improvement in winning percentage and offensive production is amazing. Sure, the defensive unit actually did worse at the Ford Center, but that is easily masked by the other huge numbers. Interesting Note: The Yard Dawgz recently signed former OU quarterback Tommy Grady. You remember, the guy who transferred to Utah because he couldn't pass Paul Thompson or Rhett Bomar. He didn't start at Utah either. All signs seem to indicate that he'll be on the bench in OKC as well.

Okay guys....don't....touch....the....floating....ball.

Yahoo! Box Score

I'm gonna start a new format for the recaps, and see how it goes. It will now be in two parts: Game Summary, and Analysis. I analysed the heck out of this game because it was Thunder-Warriors, but I think I might go with this format from now on. Also, I apologise in advance for the lack of picture, but right now I'm stuck on a 56k connection that finds it very difficult to load pictures. I'll add more later. (Added.)

Game Summary:

Early in the first, it was pretty apparent that the Thunder are having the better game, and had the upper hand going forwward. Without Biedrins, or his usual replacement, Brandan Wright, the Warriors are forced to extreme small ball. Thus, the lane was wide open for the Thunders taking. Midway through the first, the Thunder are getting into a 3-Point Shooting and Fast Break contest with the Warriors, and they were losing. Weaver was really effective here, because he's probably the best player defensively on the Thunder. Sadly, Scott Brooks wants to have him guarding Corey Maggette for some reason, and he's getting overpowered.

Midway through the 2nd, the refs gave the Thunder 2 horrible calls, resulting in a Durant Dunk and a Weaver 3. I had a feeling this could be a turning point in the game. As Brian Davis said, "Goodness, there's some nasty business being played out on the floor here!" But, the Warriors battled right back, because they continued to control the tempo. As the quarter went on, both teams stopped taking shots and started driving. At that point, the game was largely a back-and-forth affair. The Thunder took the 4 point lead into the half on a huge Westbrook buzzer-beater.

After the half, the Thunder exploded out of the gate, going up by 8. However, the lead was quickly diminished as the Warriors fouled themselves back into the game. Their team policy should read, "If you can't score, run into the other guy!" At this point, the Thunder had finally started to control the tempo, but the Warriors were still getting the fouls on the other end. As a result Green had 4 fouls early on, and the Warriors were staying in the game. In the last 5 minutes, the Warriors finally started to get the tempo back, and tied it on a huge Maggette dunk. They continued on to get a 6 point lead going into the fourth, and have all the momentum. Meanwhile, Durant and Westbrook were looking tired.

Before.

After.

In the 4th, the Thunder came right back to put the tempo in their favour and even take the lead, going on a 7-0 run. After that, the Warriors continued to find their stride by driving the lane and getting 3 pointers the old-fashioned way. After going down 106-98, the Thunder copied the Warriors game and started to drive down the lane and draw contact. Thus, they went on a 8-1 run to bring the game within 1. From there, it was back and forth until a Durant dunk with 2 minutes to go to make it 116-111. Then, the Warriors had 2 quick buckets and a freethrow to tie it at 116. The next possession, Westbrook drove on Maggette to foul him out. Eventually, the Warriors had a 1 point lead with about a minute to go, and Westbrook got a quick 2. The ball was turned over once by both teams, and Crawford hit a quick layup with 1.6 seconds left. With the Warriors up by one, there was a quick dish into Green at the right junction. He fooled his defender, and sunk an open jumper off of the glass, resulting in another Thunder win.

Analysis:

JAM!!!!

Even though the Thunder won, my first reaction to tonight was: Where the hell was Wilcox? I mean, sure, he doesn't play defense, but he was the perfect player to destroy the Warriors tonight. They were completely lacking interior defense aside from Turiaf, who could be easily faked out. If you put Wilcox in there, he could have had so many easy buckets.

On top of that, the game tempo was completely in favour of the Warriors for all but about 10 minutes. In those 10 minutes, the Thunder still took a lot of long jumpers and allowed themselves to constantly get fouled on the defensive end.

I may be sounding unnessessarily harsh at this point, but think about this: The Warriors were without Andris Biedrins, who is the cornerstone of their team. He is the rebounding of that team, and he is the blocked shots. If the Thunder can only outrebound the Warriors by 7, and the tallest guy they put on the floor Ronny Turiaf, then something is going wrong. I can pretty safely say that if Andris was on the floor tonight, the Warriors would have had a 10 point win. No joke.

Our best player on the floor tonight was Kevin Durant, who had 27 points, 12 rebounds, and 5 assists. Yet, he only wins the Thunder Down Under award, because there's nothing compared to getting the game winning shot. That's why Jeff Green snags the Thunder Wonder award tonight, despite having only 26 points, 4 boards, and 3 assists. Russell Westbrook grabs the 3rd Star, but he still had an excellent game with 30 points, 4 rebounds, and 7 assists. To be honest, naming these awards is getting a bit boring, because the Thunder have become a 3 headed monster.

But, if there was a player rather than a strategy to blame for the closeness of this game, it has to be Earl Watson, who wins the Thunder Blunder award. There were so many possessions where he'd just dribble it all around the floor and then take some horrible shot. He finished with 9 points on only 4-10 shooting and no 3 pointers. Now, for a guard that may not seem that bad, but all of his shots were 2 pointers and his misses were usually late in the shot clock. That really killed the Thunder momentum whenever it seemed like they might establish a lead.

Jamal Crawford's Futile-Yet-Still-Clutch Layup

On the Warrior side of things, Steven Jackson was finally back in form. He had a lot of turnovers and misses, but he had to do a lot of ballhandling for a Shooting Guard/Small Forward, and most of his misses turned into freethrows. He and Maggette double-handedly kept the Warriors in the game by drawing fouls when the tempo slowed or the shots didn't go down.

Still, there was no hand hotter than the hand of Kelenna Azubuike, who accounted for a lot of the Warriors shooting success. He had 21 Points on 9-10 shooting, which is just insane considering most of his shots were jumpshots. He is the Thunder Plunderer, and I recommend that Earl Watson takes notes.

The Warriors also were able to find success from the small minute guys like Rob Kurz, C.J. Watson, and Anthony Morrow who were all very efficent scorers in the few minutes that they played.

Nonetheless, a win is a win, and I'm looking forward to see if the Thunder can extend their success on the road....

Next Game: Friday at the Los Angeles Clippers

On a small side note, the Thunder have finally achieved 9 wins! If they lose the rest of their games, they'll only tie the 76ers record for suckiness. It seems like a long time ago that we were still talking about that, so it's amazing to see how far we've come in just a month.

The players will be stampeding down the floor tonight!

I can't begin to tell you how big this game is for both teams. Both have been at the bottom of the West all year, for very different reasons. The Thunder were a young team that was trying to find its footing, and the Warriors were a team that had undergone massive roster turnover and was plagued with injuries. But, both have stuck to their New Years resolutions and (relatively) turned things around for the new year. The Thunder have had a Big 3 of Westbrook, Green, and Durant who do all of the work, and then occasionally a role player will step up when one of tthe big 3 isn't ready to perform. In addition, Earl Watson learned to stop taking dumb shots, Robert Swift, Johan Petro, and Damien Wilkins were finally off of the floor, and Nick Collison rediscovered himself. The Warriors have really not changed much, but they've started to learn to feed the hot hand and keep it away from "Stone Cold Steve Jackson". Recently, they've been on a hot streak, beating Indiana, Atlanta, and Washington while losing to Sacramento in triple overtime after having to play third stringers. Thus, even though both only have a remote shot at the playoffs, this game is still going to look very high-class.

Disclaimer- The Warriors Lineup is constantly changing, so it's hard to tell who's going to start. I'm going to base my lineups off of who started the last game, but it is very subject to change.

Matchups:

C- Andris Biedrins vs. Nick Collison

Andris Biedrins is arugably in the top 10 of the Centers in the NBA, and is an extremely efficent basketball player. He's a great defender, sucks up all of the teams rebounds, and can even score. His achilles heels are free throw shooting and foul trouble, but if he can stay out of those situations he's golden. To be honest, he's the best player on the Warriors right now, because when he's out, they usually go on huge slumps. Nick Collison is going to have some trouble scoring and defending against him, because he's a bit undersized for a center. If the Thunder are going to win, they've got to attack Biedrins and get him into foul trouble as soon as possible.

PF- Anthony Randolph vs. Kevin Durant

This is no contest. The only reason Randolph is starting is because the Warriors are having lots of rebounding troubles. Otherwise, Randolph won't be able to compete with Durant, even size-wise. If he starts, he'll probably get benched within a few minutes in favour of Maggette.

SF- Kelenna Azubuike vs. Jeff Green

Special K has been hot offensively as of late, and that's a good thing considering that he mainly focuses on defense. Still, he is facing the force known as Jeff Green, who has consistently performed every game. Look for Azubuike to score better than Green, but for Green to have a more well-rounded stat sheet.

SG- "Stone Cold" Steve Jackson vs. Desmond Mason

Steven Jackson is mainly out there for two things: Defense, and Moral Support. He is the unquestioned leader of the team, so he needs to play minutes in order to get the guys motivated, and he is probably the Warriors best defender. Still, he's been injured and offensively he's had a huge slump. At one point, Don Nelson went so far as to call him, "The Worst Player on the Team". I would encourage the Thunder to isolate him and try to make the Warriors put the ball in his hands. Defensively, give it to the guy that's not guarded by him. I don't think that he'll be guarding Mason. But, if he is, if Mason can take Jackson to the rack, he should have the advantage.

PG- Jamal Crawford vs. Russell Westbrook

Jamal Crawford is not a very apt distributor, and should be treated as more of a scorer. He'll shoot the lights out of you if you let him, so it's important that Westbrook keeps a tight lock on him defensively. He isn't a liability defensively, but he's a lot easier to exploit than Azubuike and Jackson, so expect Westbrook to have a big game by driving to the hole against Biedrins.

Bench Play-

On the Thunder side of things, when Biedrins gets taken out, so should Collison. Put in either Krstic or Wilcox, and get ready for an offensive explosion. The Warriors can be easily exploited inside without Biedrins, so expect both (especially Wilcox) to have a field day offensively. On the Warriors side of things, the Bench should still be pretty thin. Expect only C.J. Watson, Anthony Morrow, Corey Maggette, and Ronny Turiaf to come in. Pretty much every one of them are streaky outside shooters, with only the exception of Watson, who can distribute to an extent, and Turiaf, who serves the same purpose to the Warriors as Anderson Varejao does to the Cavaliers. Comes off the bench, lays it all out on the floor, and then goes back on the bench. He's not a good rebounder (because he wastes all of his energy blocking) so he can be exploited easily.

Coaching and Intangibles-

The Oracle is one of the loudest Arenas in the NBA (I can attest, I was there), but it remains to be seen if the Warrior fans will actually follow through on another losing season. From my best judgement, they'll still be at least 90% full though, and it's gonna be loud. ON the coaching side of things, Don Nelson can be very stubborn with who he keeps in the game and who he puts in the doghouse to a fault, so that might be the Warriors downfall tonight.

Final Score Prediction- Warriors 105, Thunder 100

Also, a huge Congratulations to Joe and Royce (formerly of The Thunderworld and Thunderguru, respectively) for getting a new blog on Henry Abbotts True Hoop Network! The best of luck to them, and I'm looking forward to the ultimate blog combination!

But the fish was THIS BIG!!!!

Yahoo! Box Score

Refs, Refs, Reffity Refs.

Many people felt that this game was horribly officiated. With Dwayne Wade, it seems blatantly obvious. He's not even that good of a basketball player. All he does is drive down to the lane, goes up for a layup, and then pretends that he got hit by a brick wall. Every time, he gets the call because he commands "respect" around the league. Give me a break, why can't the refs just treat everybody the same? Granted, Dwayne Wade can hit clutch shots, but other than his blatant flopping, his game is very limited. I mean, is that even satisfying? To fall down every time and then get points off of freethrows. Tonight was different though, as he actually utilized his midrange jumper to perfection, and knocked down shots even though he was double teamed. Much respect to him for doing that tonight. It really did go a long way for him to earning my respect (as if he cares).

But, even if Wade got no ref love, we still would have lost this game. The Heat just did a fantastic of getting it to Cook, Diawara, and Chalmers at the right time. The score is much closer than it looks, because the Thunder were in danger of going down 20 before they made a run in Garbage time.

The first quarter was an even game until the Heat started to pull away on the back of Yakhouba Diawara and never really gave it up. The Thunder stayed consistently down by about 10 until the fourth quarter, when Durant hit two successive threes to bring the Thunder within 5. But, Dwayne Wade (Thunder Plunderer) and Mario Chalmers consistently would score when they needed to. The game was marked by lots of runs by the Thunder, but they just couldn't stop the Heats deep jumpers, so they could never start a big run. The game was never really in doubt for the Heat.

\

Yawn.

On the Thunder side of things, it was another field day for Kevin Durant (Thunder Wonder). He dropped 31 points on 10-20 shooting, 6 rebounds, and 5 assists. He made or got fouled almost every single shot, while Wade missed a lot, so I'd say Durant had the better game production-wise. Jeff Green (Thunder Down Under) followed him up with a solid 22 points and 6 rebounds. Aside from that, no one really had a excessively good game. Westbrook had 14 points, but it was on 4-12 shooting and he played almost 37 minutes. That is a bad game, but not as bad as Nenad Krstic (Thunder Blunder) who had 6 Points on 3-9 shooting and 7 rebounds in 24 minutes. Honestly, I think we were geting exploited on the interior a lot by Jamal Magloire, and it would have made a difference if we could've had Robert Swift or Saer Sene with a hand in his face instead of Nenad Krstic bricking jumpers. Everybody seems to have forgotten that Magloire skipped town right before the Hornets came to Oklahoma City, because he didn't want to play on such a bad team. Oh, how times have changed....he goes from being an All-Star on a team about to be on the rise to being forgotten on the Heat bench.

Lastly, to anyone who may have seen my mug or this website in the game program, welcome! I hope you enjoy our analysis of Thunder Basketball, and be sure to check out any of the other Thunder blogs or Bloguin blogs on the left sidebar. I do appreciate all of the fans in the arena cheering me on to being the "Loves Ultimate Thunder Fan", and my appreciation goes out to you. Here's the welcome post for our site if you need or would like a tour.

Shoutout to the Serbian guys sitting next to me and Brick Guy!

Next Game: January 21st at the Golden State Warriors.

Anyway, lets hope that we can recover from another bad loss against the....Warriors? Wait, nevermind.