BOX SCORE

At this stage in the season, meaning three games left, I could see how it might be easy to lose a little focus when playing a team 30 under .500. Especially when you jump out to a 20-point lead early in the first half and drop 42 first quarter points. I could see how maybe you coast a bit, letting the other team go on a 16-5 run and get back in the game. Heck, I could even see the game tightening in the third going into the fourth. It’s the NBA. It happens all the time.

But losing this game? That’s just ridiculous.

Now, the panic/overreaction button is a long way away from me. It’s one bad loss and the Thunder hasn’t had one of these in three weeks. The season is nearing it’s end and I’m sure it’s a little easy for a young team to start looking ahead to the postseason. I get that. But there’s just no excuse for it and with the loss, the Thunder essentially sealed their fate for the eight-seed in a showdown tomorrow with Portland.

It doesn’t take Dr. Jack Ramsey to figure out this was a defensive issue for Oklahoma City tonight. One thing you DO NOT want to do against Golden State is let them dictate the flow of the game. And the Thunder absolutely fell into that trap tonight. The pace of the game was a ridiculous 101 tonight with OKC taking 104 shots. And it was just a case of missing them for the Thunder. They were dropping in the first half, but not so much in the second. Without the Thunder’s outstanding work on the offensive glass tonight (22 offensive boards), OKC wouldn’t have been in this game at all in the fourth quarter. The Thunder turned into a jumpshooting team and when the shots aren’t falling yet you still keep chucking, you’re not set up for good offense.

And on the reverse, Golden State couldn’t miss in the second half. Now A LOT of the awesome Warrior shooting had to do with matador defense by the Thunder. That is absolutely for sure. But even if players are wide open, standing alone for 3, shooting the way Golden State did tonight from deep is pretty rare. I mean, hitting 3s on six consecutive possessions? That’s insane. The Warriors went 12-21 from 3 and won a game in which they took 17 fewer shots. Why? Because they made a lot of theirs (51 percent from the floor).

Here’s kind of the game summed up: Kevin Durant was awesome in the first half, scoring 26 points. He went 8-10 from the floor and was hitting everything in rhythm. In the third quarter, when things really unraveled for OKC, he went 4-15. That NEVER happens. And they were good looks too. Monta Ellis switched over to him so OKC got the ball to Durant in the post. It was the right play. KD just didn’t finish.

Notes:

• Like I said, a team shooting from deep as well as GSW is a two-part thing. Part bad defense, part stellar shooting. But if I wanted to pull out the blame stick, I’m pointing it at Russell Westbrook. He allowed far too much penetration, which forced his teammates to rotate and it left a man open on the perimeter. And if he wasn’t doing that, he was gambling and overplaying passing lanes, again forcing his guys to help and recover. It didn’t help things that the Thunder’s rotations were painfully slow and in some situations, lazy.

• I would like to kick Ronny Turiaf in the face. That’s all.

• Thabo rocked a headband tonight. I don’t think it was really that becoming of him. Plus, he went 2-6 from the floor for five points with it. I’d say ditch it.

• James Harden was a bright spot. He found his game a bit, getting to the rim (and finishing) and hitting 3s. Eighteen points on 7-11 shooting.

• Jeff Green has been so money in big situations all year, but missed out in a crucial place tonight. After getting poked in the eye, he double-missed a pair of free throws that could put OKC up two. That’s not like Uncle Jeff.

• As good as Jeff Green finishes and as physical as he is at bullying his way in the paint, I just don’t get why he takes nine jumpshots tonight. That doesn’t make sense to me.

• One more thing on Green: He is such an awesome out-of-bounds-saver. He seems to always find the right guy and sometimes tosses it back in from what looks like the fifth row. I just wanted to mention that.

• KD went for 40 and 10, but boy, it sure didn’t feel that great, did it?

• Serge Ibaka has just been great lately. Another nice game with eight points and 12 rebounds, plus two blocks.

• Steph Curry is just gifted. Every time he shoots, it feels like it’s going down. And he really makes some wonderful passes. He’s going to be terrific.

• OKC allowed 64 points… in the SECOND HALF. That has to be a season high. That just does not happen much. Very surprising, especially after the lockdown on Phoenix. Doesn’t leave you feeling good with the playoffs coming in less than two weeks.

Regardless of the fact that this is a bad, bad loss, it’s only that in the sense it hurts OKC with playoff seeding. Every team loses games like this when they shouldn’t. It’s life. Now of course that doesn’t make me want to headbutt concrete any less, but its true. The Thunder just went sour. This was the type of game where you just expected OKC to turn it on. You were waiting for the lockdown. We’ve seen the Thunder coast before against bad teams and get away with it. And I’ve said before that would surely come back to get them at least once. Well, here’s that once.

Next up: At Portland in a biggun tomorrow.

Ok. City Thunder (49-30, 23-16 road) at Golden State Warriors (24-55, 17-22 home)

TV: 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: 8:00 CDT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 108.1 (13th), Warriors – 108.0 (14th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 104.2 (8th), Warriors – 111.7 (29th)
Pace: Thunder – 93.0 (14th), Warriors – 100.3 (1st)

View from the enemy: Warriors World

It’s a good thing the Thunder remembered how to play defense on Friday. Otherwise, I’d be a little anxious about this one. You know, with playing the Warriors and everything. But here’s something neat about this game: After winning 23 games last year and losing 30 in just 34 games, the Thunder have a shot to win their 50th this year. Mind. Blown.

However, even with the Thunder being the superior team in darn every way, playing at Golden State always is a little scary. The Warriors have shooters that can get hot at any time, and most times, they play with no regard. They shoot, they run and they can score in bunches.

Golden State coming in: The Warriors played Friday against the Clippers which wrapped up a four-game road trip. They’ve won five of their last eight and are ?? at home.

THE MATCHUPS
Just like the other two games, the Warriors have no one to guard Kevin Durant, a light defensively at every position and don’t even have an interior advantage. Nenad Krstic is questionable, but I’m not worried about him playing or not. The Thunder’s inside group should handle the Warrior front court of Anthony Tolliver, Ronny Turiaf and Chris Hunter.

Corey Maggette plays hards and can score, Monta Ellis can score, Steph Curry can score and Reggie Williams has been great out of the D-League. Problem is, they just don’t really defend. But that’s just the Warrior way I suppose. If the Thunder bring their calling card defense and stays playing at that end at a high level, I don’t think there should be much to worry about.

You know what’s crazy? There are only three games left in the regular season counting tonight. That kind of blows my mind. It’s been a long, long season but at the same time it’s flown by. The best part is, we don’t have to worry about appreciating these last few games, because there are more to come after it’s finished. That’s fun to think about.

Tip at 8:00 CDT. Go 50.

Ok. City Thunder (28-21, 13-11 road) vs. Golden State Warriors (13-35, 9-13 home)

TV: 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: 9:30 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.4 (18th), Warriors – 106.2 (19th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.3 (6th), Warriors – 110.6 (28th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.1 (18th), Warriors – 100.4 (1st)

View from the enemy: Warriors World

I always hate when these games happen. Mainly because, what’s a guy to write about when his team just played the new opponent six days ago? Thw Warriors are fresh on our minds and we know what they do. Nothing has really changed. Monta Ellis is still fast, Steph Curry can still shoot and the front office hasn’t added 16 new D-Leaguers to the roster. Alas.

Golden State coming in: The Warriors have dropped seven straight, and are 0-2 since the Thunder last played them (lost at Houston and at Dallas). But at home this season, Golden State is dangerous. The Warriors are 9-13 at Oracle, with wins over Boston, Portland and Phoenix. So by all means, this game is dangerous.

THE MATCHUPS
The Warriors roster should still be fresh on everybody’s mind. Monta Ellis scored 46 against Dallas for GSW, but just like last time, OKC needs to make Ellis take shots to get his points. 28 points on 27 shots doesn’t scare me. 28 points on 20 does. Russell Westbrook did an OK job on him in the last game, with Thabo getting about half the matchup. That’s the beauty of the Thunder backcourt. It’s completely interchangeable.

Corey Maggette got his offense going a week ago, mainly by going hard at the bucket. He’ll be guarding Kevin Durant and we all know what happened last time. 45 points on 16-21 shooting. So yeah, that’s a reason to be excited about tonight.

Andris Biedrins hasn’t been seeing a lot of minutes for the Warriors but he’s still a force on the glass. So it’ll be key for Nenad Krstic, Serge Ibaka and Jeff Green to work hard there. I didn’t mention Nick Collison because we all know he’ll work hard. The Warrior bench isn’t very productive sans C.J. Watson. So OKC should be able to really separate itself when Golden State’s first five sit down.

So there it is. Nothing new about this matchup. OKC’s played three times since they last met and Golden State twice. The Thunder goes for a five-game winning streak tonight too, which would tie the longest of the season. But it’s not going to be an easy win. It’ll likely come down to some key possessions in the fourth and whoever gets the stop, grabs the rebound or executes the offense will get it done. Or maybe Uncle Jeff will just take care of things at the buzzer again.

Tip at 9:30 CST. Go Em-Vee-Pee! Em-Vee-Pee!

Golden State Warriors (13-32, 4-19 road) vs. Ok. City Thunder (25-21, 13-10 home)

TV: 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

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 105.7 (21st), Warriors – 106.4 (17th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.9 (5th), Warriors – 110.1 (26th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.2 (18th), Warriors – 100.6 (1st)

View from the enemy: Warriors World

I really like playing the Warriors. First of all, they aren’t that great. Second, they don’t play very good defense so there’s potential for big stat lines for Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green. And third of all, they’re kind of fun to watch.

If you remember, in the last meeting Golden State was playing with the Thunder extremely well through 32 minutes. It was 63-62 with four minutes left in the third when Corey Maggette blew his stack and picked up two straight technicals. OKC then went on a 16-5 run and closed the game outscoring GSW on a 42-26 run. Why is this important? Because Maggette actually can guard Kevin Durant and if he actually makes it through four quarters, it will be a little more difficult.

Golden State coming in: The Warriors have lost four straight and 8 of 10 overall. They last played Friday night at home, losing to Charlotte. On the road this year, the Warriors are just 4-19.

THE MATCHUPS
As mentioned, Corey Maggette is just about the only guy that can guard Kevin Durant. He’s physical, he’s not afraid to work hard and he’s athletic. Andris Biedrins is back so he’ll help the Warriors considerably on the glass. And Anthony Tolliver from the D-League has been starting at power forward and playing pretty well. So this isn’t the same Warriors squad OKC saw in early December.

Stephen Curry has played really well lately, but I absolutely love Thabo guarding him. Curry is smaller and a jumpshooter first and foremost, so I think Thabo will frustrate the young rookie. Russell Westbrook and Monta Ellis should be fun to watch, but I would assume Westbrook and Thabo will interchange on the two. This game really hinges on shutting down Curry’s outside shot and forcing Ellis into bad decision. He’s going to score some points, but often times he takes 28 shots to score 25 points. That should be the goal for OKC defensively.

Jeff Green had a big game in the first meeting, scoring 21 points on 9-16 shooting with 13 rebounds. But that was against the ultra small GSW lineup that featured Vlad Radmonovich at power forward and Mikki Moore starting at the five.

Golden State’s bench is not very good so the Thunder has an advantage there. Against Charlotte, GSW played 11 guys and only got 26 points. James Harden had a hot hand against Denver Friday, so more production from the Thunder bench will be big.

This should be a take care of business game and move on to the next one. Golden State has beaten a few good teams, but at home, there’s no reason to lose. It’s all about focus and early energy. This is a chance to get back to five games over. Which could potentially put OKC back in the playoff picture.

Tip at 6:00 CST. Go OKC.

(Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)

At halftime, Kevin Durant was 3-10 from the floor with just six points. And I’d bet you nobody was happier.

For really the first time this year, his Thunder teammates picked up the slack. It’s not like Durant was playing bad, but for once, he wasn’t forced to play good. The Warriors focused their defensive effort on KD and so Durant deferred to the other two Broingtons. Jeff Green was awesome in the first 24, putting up a double-double (17-10) and James Harden had 15 points (10-10 from the line), as OKC held a 51-50 lead at halftime over Golden State. Just hold down the fort and wait for KD to start cooking and that’s exactly what Harden and Green did.

And all it took was Durant remembering how awesome he is and the Thunder took control in the second half to run away from Golden State, 104-88, notching win No. 11 and finishing this homestand 3-2.

Here’s a good stat: This is the first time this season the Warriors have been held under 90 points. How’s that for defensive improvement? A 29-18 third quarter did the trick for OKC, though it didn’t go as smooth as the box score seems. The Thunder scored seven quick points out of the locker room in literally a minute. Russell Westbrook had five in 10 seconds. But after that, OKC scored six over the next eight minutes. The offense stalled, the team got lazy and GSW cut the score to 63-62. But OKC finished on a 16-5 run to really take the game over.

But back to Harden and Green. Uncle Jeff had his best game of the season, scoring 21 points on 9-16 shooting (1-2 from 3) along with pulling down 13 boards (seven offensive). Harden went 13-14 from the line to finish with 26 points, but The Bearded Wonder also had nine rebounds, five assists, two steals and no turnovers. This is exactly what OKC needed when it drafted Harden. A scorer that could pick up the slack when needed. Russell Westbrook didn’t play all that well (12 points, 4-17 shooting, three assists, seven rebounds, four turnovers), Durant had the underwhelming half and Krstic, Sefolosha, Collison and Livingston all combined for just 17 points. Without Harden stepping up, OKC loses this game.

Notes:

• Shaun Livingston looked really good in 18 minutes tonight. He didn’t score (just took one shot), but had seven rebounds and three assists. He didn’t look completely healthy, but I thought he looked solid.

• Thabo guarded Monta Ellis for virtually the entire night. Ellis finished with 28 points, but took 28 shots to get there. He also turned it over nine times. I’d say Thabo did pretty good.

• Westbrook looked lazy and tired and lackadaisical in the first half. I don’t know if he’s necessarily pouting, but I don’t see a fire in his belly like Durant or Green sometimes. Sometimes I wonder if he’s worried about his own rather than the scoreboard. He played a much better second half with a ton more energy, but I don’t like seeing extended minutes with Russ not going all out. I know his box score doesn’t look great, but he got picked up by his teammates and he made some crucial plays during OKC’s big run in the third. Still though, lately I’ve been worrying about what Russ sees as most important…

• OKC had 57 (!) rebounds. GSW had just 37. I knew the Thunder had an advantage on the glass, but sheesh.

• Nick Collison gives such a boost off the bench. Eight points, six rebounds in 28 minutes. He makes so many little plays it’s like he’s worth 20 points.

• No Serge Ibaka tonight. I thought he was supposed to be in the regular rotation? I bet Scott Brooks didn’t like a matchup for some reason. He typically plays nine guys, but just eight saw burn tonight.

• KD got it rolling in the second half. He finished with 28 (9-24, 2-6 from 3), nine rebounds, four assists and three steals. One thing Durant does is score well within the offense. He never really forced things and waited for his chance to score. Twenty-two points and 6-14 from the field is a nice second half.

• A big blow to GSW was Corey Maggette getting tossed. He was playing well inside and was adding a real physical presence for the Warriors. But he stupidly got himself tossed and OKC quickly went on its big run.

• What was the deal with that giant pad on Harden’s left knee?

• In case you were wondering, it takes Kevin Durant five steps (FIVE!) to go from halfcourt to the rim. Absolutely insane.

• With the game in hand, Scott Brooks kept his starters in late. I don’t really know why. Durant logged another 45 minutes and Green 39. I just don’t feel like it was necessary to keep them both on the floor up 17 late.

This is exactly what the Thunder needed as they head off to Memphis before hitting a tough stretch of games. A loss here would have really, really hurt. But instead the Thunder was (mostly) focused and played a solid game. The thing about these guys is that even when they shoot poorly and don’t execute, the defense can keep them in it. To hold GSW to 88 points is impressive. Most impressive.

Harden and Green get gold stars for the night, as well as Thabo for his solid D on Ellis. Three players accounted for 75 of OKC’s 104 points and that’s what’s so great – it was a team effort. Guys stepped up. Which is a really nice sign heading into a difficult run of games.

Next up is four days of rest and then a roadie at Memphis Friday night. Maybe that’s why Durant played 45.

Golden State Warriors (6-13, 2-8 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (10-9, 5-5 home)

TV: 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: 7:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 105.6 (21st), Warriors – 107.5 (15th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.5 (8th), Warriors – 111.8 (29th)
Pace: Thunder – 91.7 (19th), Warriors – 102.2 (1st)

View from the enemy: Warriors World

Another one of these. The “Slightly scary, but only because the Thunder is perfectly capable of dropping a stinker at any time, but at the same time, OKC should cruise to a victory” type of game. They terrify me. You win and it’s taking care of business. You lose and it feels like a disaster. I feel like I say this every time. But it’s true.

When you’re a team like Oklahoma City, you can’t afford to drop games like this at home. I had visions of a 4-1 homestand, but I’ll take 3-2 with losses against Houston and Boston. That means these guys beat everyone they should, played a good Rockets team tough and well, got obliterated by the Celtics. But a 2-3 home stay is bad. Bad news bears.

The Warriors are kind of your classic mediocre team. They’ve got some good players (Monta Ellis, Corey Maggette, Anthony Morrow), some young, talented but inconsistent guys (Steph Curry, Anthony Randolph) and then the fillers (Radmonovich, Mikki Moore, C.J. Watson). They’re good offensively, but hardly try on the other end. They’ve lost three straight coming in and are 2-8 on the road. They are 2-9 against plus .500 teams and have mostly beat up on the bottom feeders, although they do have nice wins against Dallas and Portland.

THE MATCHUPS
Other than Monta Ellis, you’ve got to like this matchup all the way up and down for OKC. Golden State has no one to defend Kevin Durant (undersized Maggette? Old Devean George? Anthony Morrow?), Radmonovich doesn’t really match well with Jeff Green and the Thunder bench is much deeper. I like Nenad Krstic against Mikki Moore (Andris Biedrins has been out with a lower back strain and is questionable tonight) and I don’t know who Thabo will guard, but I like him locking down whoever that is.

The real X-Factor is Ellis. Westbrook is clearly quick enough to guard him, but Shaun Livingston is supposed to get extended minutes behind Russ tonight and I just don’t see Livingston slowing down Ellis. Ellis gets to the rim at ease and with no real Thunder shot blocker patrolling the paint, it could be an issue. This could be a night to shine for Serge Ibaka and his crashing help defense.

It’s about getting stops and making open shots tonight. The Warriors are going to score some. It just happens. But they also are going to give back a fair share. If you get a couple stops, it’s easy to go on a 14-2, 17-5 run against these guys in a hurry. But they can return the favor if you rush shots, miss good looks or get lazy defensively.

It’s your classic offense versus defense game. However, the Warriors stink on the road, don’t rebound well, are relatively undisciplined and sometimes just don’t show up. All signs point to a Thunder win. But that doesn’t mean it’ll happen. It’s just one game, but these are the games you win if you’re a team serious about contending for a spot in the West.

Tip at 7:00 CST. Go Bad News Thunder.

(I’ve always liked Brian Davis’s call on that.) Finally, the Thunder flipped the script at the buzzer. After losing five or six times as the horn sounded, OKC did it to someone else for once. I remember being a little excited after that game.

(Deep breath)

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Woo.

Boy it feels nice to be on the other end of that. After watching it happen four times to us, seeing our guys jump all over each other after the buzzer was pretty stinking nice. Oh, and guess what? Nine baby. Nine.

But dang, what a great game that was. There were 14 ties and 22 lead changes. The first half was played at a hellish pace, with both teams combining for something like 480 points. At halftime I actually had to go towel off. The third quarter slowed down dramatically with Oklahoma City scoring just 17 and Golden State 25. The fourth quarter was all about who could get more stops, grab more rebounds and turn the ball over less. And I guess, who had the ball last. In this case, it was Jeff Green knocking down an awesome jumper as time ran out, lifting the Thunder to a 122-121 win over the Warriors. Woo.

There’s not a whole lot else to say about it. It was a great game that finally had a great finish… for Oklahoma City.

Wooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

Woo.

Boy it feels nice to be on the other end of that. After watching it happen four times to us, seeing our guys jump all over each other after the buzzer was pretty stinking nice. Oh, and guess what? Nine baby. Nine.

But dang, what a great game that was. There were 14 ties and 22 lead changes. The first half was played at a hellish pace, with both teams combining for something like 480 points. At halftime I actually had to go towel off. The third quarter slowed down dramatically with Oklahoma City  scoring just 17 and Golden State 25. The fourth quarter was all about who could get more stops, grab more rebounds and turn the ball over less. And I guess, who had the ball last. In this case, it was Jeff Green knocking down an awesome jumper as time ran out, lifting the Thunder to a 122-121 win over the Warriors. Woo.

The Thunder three were BIG tonight. I mean big. Russell Westbrook had 30 points and seven assists (20 points in the first half), Green 26 and Kevin Durant 27, 12 boards and five assists. So to spare you from grabbing your calculator, the three combined for 83 points, or 68 percent of OKC’s total points. It was funny that with about a minute left Fox Sports Oklahoma awarded the player(s) of the game to Durant and Westbrook and left Green out. Oops.

A major sequence was the 9-2 run the Thunder had mid-fourth to tie the game at 88-88. The Warriors looked poised to pull away, but OKC (NINE!-34) hung tough and clawed back in it. After taking a four-point lead minutes later, the Thunder dodged a huge bullet as GSW (13-30) got three cracks at the bucket but came up empty and OKC closed winning the quarter 33-26. Those type of things weren’t going the Thunder’s way when they were losing the close ones. Now, they’re learning how to scrape and claw and fight and win.

Check out some of these stats from tonight: OKC played at a ridiculous pace (98.0) and had an offensive efficiency of 124.5. Conversely, Golden State had an offensive efficiency of 123.5. OKC shot 49.4 percent from the field on 85 shots and GSW hit 52 percent on 75 shots. Some may disagree, but to me, it wasn’t about bad defense tonight. It was just about really, really good offense coupled with a fast game. And for another double-take stat of the game, OKC took 33 free throws and hit 30 and GSW took 40 (!) and missed just two — but none bigger than C.J. Watson’s with about a minute left. Remember when the Thunder were hitting just 60 percent of their free throws and losing games by seven? Yeah, that would’ve been the case again tonight if they didn’t hit 91 percent. Nice work guys.

Let me tell you, Russell Westbrook is going to be a star. An absolute star. He shot the ball tonight as well as I’ve ever seen, but most importantly looked confident and fearless taking those shots. The Warriors laid off, daring him and he just said, “OK, I’ll take that.” Swish. But probably the most impressive sequence of the night for Westbrook came with under a minute left in the half. First, he probed the Warrior defense at the top of the key, then dove into the lane. He used a nice hesitation dribble, and dropped a beautiful pass to Nenad Krstic for two. Very sweet play. Back in November, he would have launched at the rim, attacking the basket likely to be denied. That play alone showed RW’s incredible progress as a point man. Following an answer by Watson, Westbrook then took the inbounds pass with 4.7 seconds left and went flying up the court before stopping on a dime to hit a 23-foot, eight-inch shot as the buzzer sounded. We’ve got a player on our hands folks.

And how about Kyle Weaver? The box score doesn’t really light you up, but he played an excellent game off the bench. He hit two threes, scored six and had two assists. But I was especially impressed with his defense. He actually guarded Corey Maggette as well in the post as anyone. He’s got great instincts, long arms and bodies up really well against just about anyone. Krstic was off tonight, going 3-7 from the floor and netting nine. But they were wide open looks. One thing that’s extremely encouraging that was shown tonight is that Westbrook can free Krispy Nads up for that 18-footer almost at will. Krstic can hit that shot, it’s just that he’s still not totally back to form. But that little dribble-drive and over-the-shoulder kick-back to Krstic will be deadly in the future. It almost reminds me of CP3 penetrating and kicking back to David West actually.

This was easily the most enjoyable basketball game I’ve watched all year. It wasn’t sloppy, both teams were playing hard and holy crap the offense. The first two minutes of the second quarter were as fun to watch as animals close up with a wide angle lens. First you had Kid Delicious with one of his signature sensational super scoop-to-the-hoop soaring slam slammers (copyright: Matt Pinto). Then Dream Weaver knocked down an open three. And THEN Russell’s monster throw-down about .002 seconds after the Warriors scored. Up and down, back and forth. Exciting basketball. And also, after watching OU play on ESPN U tonight with the “Campus Connection” bull crap, Brian Davis sounded like Vin Scully to me. Just a fun game all the way around.

OKC looks to complete a West Coast sweep as the Thunder take on the Clippers Friday night in L.A. How about coming home with 10 wins? That sound good to anybody else?

Oklahoma City Thunder (8-34, 2-17 road) vs. Golden State Warriors (13-29, 9-9 home)
Wednesday, Jan. 22
Oracle Arena
Oakland, CA
9:30 PM CST

TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 101.1 (29th), Golden State: 108.2 (11th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 108.5 (19th), Golden State: 113.2 (29th)
Pace: Thunder: 93.8(6th), Golden State: 97.5 (1st)

So what is this, like the 14th time we’ve played the Warriors? Because holy crap, it sure feels like it. This is game one of a two-game West Coast road trip. This is OKC’s first trip to the left side of America, but is the third time the Thunder has played the Warriors. I guess that’s not so bad. The first matchup, Golden State beat OKC 112-102 but the Thunder got revenge with a 107-100 win on New Year’s Eve. Since Ron Adams joined the bench that night, OKC’s been the best team in the league. Well, maybe not, but it kind of seems like it compared to the first two months.

After winning two out of three during last week’s homestand, OKC is now 5-5 in its last 10. The Warriors have won two in a row and three of four. What does that mean? It’s a nice way to say these two teams have horrendous records but have been playing better lately.

Here’s the interesting part about tonight: In OKC’s seven-point win, the Thunder out-rebounded GSW 45-35 and had a +5 advantage on the offensive glass. And that’s exactly what OKC is doing best right now. Lately, the Thunder’s hitting the glass like a fly on a windowsill. (That was weak. I apologize.) And the Warriors are one of the worst rebounding teams in the league, giving up almost 48 boards a game. That’s where OKC has to focus and take advantage of tonight.

Kevin Durant has stayed awesome recently, averaging 27.5 over his last six. In the last meeting, Durant and Jeff Green combined for 51 and 18. The Warriors really don’t match OKC that well, because other than Andris Biedrins, nobody really crashes the boards all that much. Durant will be able to get his shot any time he wants it over the shorter Corey Maggette and Green should be able to muscle up Brandon Wright. The question is whether or not Russell Westbrook can slow down Jamal Crawford and keep pace with him offensively.

Expectations are of course low, due to the fact OKC has just won twice in 17 tries on the road, but then again, Golden State isn’t all that wonderful. This is the best basketball the Thunder has played this year and the mentality of losing is beginning to fade. Last time these two played for some completely unfounded reason, I had a sneaking suspicion the Thunder would win. Tonight? I’m thinking win mainly because of wishful thinking because I’m ready to put No. 9 behind us. But in reality, a split on this West Coast trip would be wonderful. Especially because that would mean Oklahoma City would be coming home with nine wins. Can you tell that I want to just go ahead and get over that hump instead of dragging it out for two weeks and then having to start worrying about not winning another game the rest of the season? Yeah, I don’t want that. Nine. NINE!!!