Clippers vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer
vs. 
Los Angeles Clippers (3-7, 1-2 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (5-4, 2-2 home)
TV: NBA TV (Cox 256, HD 726) FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 6:00 CST
View from the enemy: ClipperBlog
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 101.6 (25th), Clippers – 102.0 (24th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 98.0 (3rd), Clippers – 106.6 (18th)
Pace: Thunder – 91.1 (24th), Clippers – 93.9 (13th)
Because it never, ever gets old. Fifth win last season: Jan. 6. Third road win: Jan 21. This season, Nov. 14 for both. That’d be two months ahead of schedule kids. That’s good.
But if this team wants to start taking steps toward .500 or even the playoffs, games like tonight have to be taken care. Have to. None of this, “Oh, came out flat and we’ll get ‘em next time” stuff. You’re playing a 3-7 team at home, without two of its best players. You should win. Simple.
I realize there are the excuses of tired legs from last night and coming down from a big win. You think the Lakers don’t have to battle that? Or the Blazers? Or the Suns? Those teams bring it every night, home or road. And when you’re at home and you’ve got momentum building, you need to take care of business. Especially with a tough two-week run ahead.
THE MATCHUPS
This is exactly the same matchup we saw under a week ago in Los Angeles. No Blake Griffin. No Eric Gordon. The Clips are going to rely on Chris Kaman to score inside and hope Rasual Butler and Baron Davis can give them something from outside. Nenad Krstic had some trouble in the first half against Kaman, but Serge Ibaka came in and gave great energy on The Caveman and even Krstic tightened up late in the game. This is where the game hinges: Keep Marcus Camby off the offensive glass (he didn’t have an offensive rebound in the first meeting) and limit Kaman’s low block touches. That’s a recipe for win.
You’ve got to love KD going against Al Thornton. Durant had 30 in L.A. in the first meeting and the Clips really had nobody to defend him. I’d suspect a potentially big night from Durant. James Harden was big off the bench last night in San Antonio and he’s going to be called upon again tonight I’m sure to add some supplementary scoring. Jeff Green may have some trouble getting lose tonight in the paint so he’s going to have to have his jumper going. And Krstic is going to have looks because the Clips bigs are paint dwellers and aren’t going to want to come out and defend the screen and roll.
Hopefully Russell Westbrook rides the wave tonight and has another solid game, making up for his stinker in L.A. a few days ago. Again, this is a game the Thunder should take care of. I’m having visions of 6-4 and it looks good. We all hoped to be 5-4 coming home after the short roadie, but I don’t think we had a victory in San Antonio in mind. So now the Thunder has an opportunity to get a win heading into a tough week.
And keep in mind, if you’re going, bring two cans of food and you get a voucher for a future game. Plus, it’s just a good thing to do.
Tip at 6:00 CST. Go TCB.
Thunder by 17
@Pennington
If they don’t get cocky and underestimate their opponent. Think of the Kings.
This one is going to be closer than we think, but we’ll pull away at the end and win 102 to 94 with Durant being the man again @ 36pts, 11 rebs and 6 asts. Win number 6 is coming, and a jump up to the 6th seed spot. Yep, I know it’s early, but it’s just a blasty blast seeing OKC up in the playoff standings.
I feel ya Dai but I have a feeling we are going off. Think opening night
@Pennington
Nice… The Peas just jumped in my head as I was reading that… “Tonight’s gonna be a good, good, niiiight!”
I’m going to play the precentages and predict a 101-98 Thunder victory. Me and the wife will be yelling our heads off in section 313- hope some of you guys and gals are going to make the scene as well. GO THUNDER!
Thunderz up!
I’m falling in love with my Thunder.
Thunder go off tonight. Durant goes for 40+ and Harden has his coming out party. Kristic will have no less than 3 between the legs dunks. Ibaka will have 7 dunks in garbage time when the game is out of reach.
Book it.
I’m a little concerned about the game. The Clips can play much better than they did against us last time. I just hope we play better than their better play. Does that make sense???
@Joe
Makes perfect sense… I’m still at the point where I worry about every game. They are certainly better, but they have only turned in a pair of really solid performances so far.
That said, they have also shown that if one or two guys are having a rough game, others can step up and get the job done. Thunder victory tonight me hopes….
Baron Davis v.s. James harden is the best beard contest of the NBA
Do you guys have the game on NBA tv or is it local??
ugly start so far for both teams
That was impressive Mr.Green.
@Joe
local tv. nba tv feed is blacked out.
Blech. Let’s get all those bad shots out of our system. Go Thunder!
Kareem Rush is still in the league? what the hell.
I know we just played last night, but we are at home vs. a clipper team with not a single player worth mentioning besides kaman and baron davis (who are both 3rd tier stars at best) and we are looking mediocre
God this is frustrating, we’re down 7 at home to one of the most worthless teams in the entire league
Down 10.
COME ON!!!!
this is hard to watch so far, hope it improves soon. They look flat and tired and I’m sure they are.
wow, this is garbage so far
The thing that sucks is that the game is on NBATV and before the game they were talking about how great the young thunder are and basically speaking about us in glowing terms…..then we come out and kay an egg like this.
This game will not go a long way in making us respected by the national audience.
I hate looking bad at home, but it’s some consolation that struggling makes THE DON act like an idiot.
I know I shouldn’t complain since I’m getting to watch the game for free on the atdhe stream but this is the second night the game has mysteriously switched the feed on me. Last night it changed to the Bucks game and now it just changed to the Pistons game…so annoying
Judging from the comments thought it sounds like I don’t want to watch what is happening.
And then I got smart and checked my NBA TV channel…
Holy mother of god, we are being humiliated by a bunch of no-name scrubs and who’s who list of washed up bums who were never good to begin with
If this team had griffin and gordon we would be losing by 30.
For god’s sake we are being man handled by the likes of telfair, craig smith, karem rush, rasual butler, etc.
*jumps out of window*
You come to this site just to read my comments…..admit it
The Don is my favorite poster ever.
This would be an entirely different game if Sefolosha could hit a shot
*tries to High fives Royce*
*misses, trips and falls*
Honestly, I’ll take an 8 point deficit if we’re playing that poorly. Yikes.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/mogklav/this_squirrel_is_a_communist.jpg
Just Thabo? Try everyone haha… 32% from the field in the first half, 1-11 from deep… gosh its frustrating knowing we are the worst 3 point shooting team in the league. They are pro’s can’t someone find the stroke to fill it up from downtown?
Gotta stay optimistic though, we played like crap, shot poorly, and down 8. We were down like 7 to the spurs last night at half? This is the clippers, I think the only way we lose is if we come out and just stink it up again. I think if we play solid we can win an ugly one.
this is rough
This. Is. Ugly.
Hey does anyone know how i can add a picture to that ittle box above my name?
if harden is 1-5 and thabo is 2-8, we’re only down 4
this game is far from over. any team with kareem frigging rush will never hold a safe lead, i dont care if they’re up 8 points or 28 points
@The DON
it’s easy, you just have to go into your bookmarks and delete “dailythunder.com”
hahah… good one dylan… i swear i get a bro-ner everytime i watch Ibaka…
@grant phillips
he’s so much longer and more athletic than everyone, that even though he doesn’t really know how to play basketball, he can still make a positive impact… as long as he leaves the paint every once in a while. He might get called for a 9 seconds one of these days.
@dylan
ya i know. he is an immediate impact on rebounding.. now if he could just make his freebies……….. i want an Serge jersey
A serge Jersey…
@dylan
That made me laugh out loud.
But The Don, just go to http://www.gravatar.com and follow the instructions from there.
http://i196.photobucket.com/albums/aa239/mogklav/Time_To_Stopjpgzzzz.jpg
Thanks Royce
I want to make sure every time Dylan reads my posts that he also has the privilege of seeing my gorgeous face as well
just a thought, Instead of saying kevin durant; we could be saying
Greg Oten.
KD is on fireee… and russ is lookin good. hell were all playin well now.
much better, now it’s a game