Dogpile!!!!

Yahoo! Box Score

It's really no surprise at all that the Thunder won tonight. I'm not trying to take anything away from the playersa, but when the Jazz lose Milsap and Boozer, they're really in a pickle. It essentially eliminates their great inside defense, leaving Okaur, who is soft and stays on the perimeter a lot, and Kirilenko, who is undersized for a Power Forward. And I've never even heard of Kosta Koufos, because the only Kosta I know is Kosta Perovic. Nonetheless, Brooks saw something to exploit, and they exploited it. Hardly any 3s taken by the Thunder, and the Jazz were relegated to the 3 point line or bad jumpshots for most of the night.

Admittedly, I missed the first quarter, some of the second, and parts of the very end, but I still got a general idea of what was going on. I was pretty sick and tired going into this game, so I didn't think anything special would happen. But oh man, something did....I won the Ultimate Thunder Fan Contest!!!! I don't really know how it happened, but I stood up, started dancing, and somehow I won. I guess they liked my effort and dancing around in circles. Since I won in the 4th, they took me away from the game to sign some forms for my photo release, and I got a Prize pack for winning. Included in it was: A Loves Pen, a Loves stress reliever, a tub of Beef Jerky, a year of free Pepsi (one for every week of the year), a year of free Beef Jerky (one tub for every month of the year), and a $100 Loves Gift Card. And, I'll get to compete in the Thunder fan off. But, the prize means nothing to me, it was moreso about winning. I mean, having 19,000 fans cheer for you is like no other feeling. But, anyway, that's enough about me.

Part of the teams recent success is easily the awesome play of Westbrook (Thunder Down Under), Durant (Thunder Wonder), and Green (3rd Star). It took a while for them to get used to each other and to learn to stop taking stupid shots, but it looks like they've finally matured into a amazing team. Still, one can't take anything away from Collison or Krstic. In my eyes, Krstic isn't that great. I mean, he can score, but his rebounding is really scattered (his double-double tonight was the first time he had over like 5 rebounds), and his defense is a bit lackluster. But, he does have one endearing quality: He keeps Swift off of the floor. And that's a good thing.

Beyond the big men and the stars, there still is quality to be found in tonight. Earl Watson played very well. He wasn't in his usual assist role, but he still made nearly every shot he took, and never scrwed up the teams performace like he's done in the past. Mason did okay, he's off and on. Kyle Weaver (Thunder Blunder) had an off night, as his +/- ratio doesn't indicate that his "defensive specialism" was helping us very much. Lastly, we saw the debut of Chucky Atkins tonight. 50 seconds and no stats. I hope he's not on the Atkins diet!

On the Jazz side of the ball, Deron Williams (Thunder Plunderer) was easily the best player for them on the floor with 25 points and 6 assists. Aside from him Andfrei Kirlenko did okay (except for his 1-4 freethrows), but should have scored more given his time on the floor. Matt Harpring was....well, Matt Harpring. Kosta Koufos did well offensively, but he was weak on the glass and defense. Aside from these players, people like Kyle Korver, Mehmet Okur, Ronnie Brewer, and Brevin Knight were absolute disasters.

The game can be summed up thusly:

Coming into this game, Jerry Sloan had 1,112 Career Wins.

Scott Brooks had 5.

And we won.

'Nuff said.

Next Game: Friday, January 16th vs the Pistons.

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