Sorry, no high-five for you, Earl.

Yahoo! Box Score

Game Summary:

Jeff Green: No, don't go towards the light!!!!

A win is a win.

The first quarter was pretty even for both teams, marked by very sloppy offensive play by the Thunder. It was very low scoring, and the energy wasn't very alive in the arena.

Halfway through the 2nd, the Thunder gained a 38-31 lead on a break away Wilcox alley-oop. As Brian Davis said, "Boy, when he smells that bacon cooking, he sure does get down the floor, doesn't he?" This set the prescadent for keeping that 7-point-lead until half time, when it ballooned to 11.

To open the half, the Thunder went on a 6-0 run punctuated by another fast break dunk, this time by Russell Westbrook. The Thunder played excellent defense, creating opportunities for them on the offensive end. As the quarter rolled on, the Nets were, according to Brian Davis, "standing like statues". By the end of the 3rd, the Thunder were up by 28, and it was apparent that the Nets had all but given up. Then, all of a sudden, Brian Davis'es voice got loud out of nowhere, and he said that the Thunder had a, "WICKED" 3rd quarter, and that they were, "RUNNING THE NETS OUT OF THE GYM!!!!", which was true, but there wasn't that much energy in the arena, and nothing prompted him to have that much energy. Still, it was the largest lead of the season over any opponent, so I guess he was somewhat justified.

In the 4th, it took forever for Scott Brooks to put in his reserves. He was still wasting minutes playing Kevin Durant when he clearly wasn't needed. When there was 9 minutes to go, he finally put in Damien Wilkins. Wilkins has joined the Wilcox-Atkins headband club, which is always a good thing, though it does look odd on him.

At first, I thought, "I appreciate the fight that Brooks puts up, probably thinking that we don't have enough wins to dole out garbage time minutes, but being as stubborn as an ox is not the answer in this particular situation." With 6 minutes to go, Atkins finally came in. FSOK then proceeded to interview a couple who got married during the game.

Noooo! The ball is going to eat us! Stay away from it at all costs! Don't put it in the basket, either! That only feeds its energy!

Then, the Thunder reserves saw the lead cut down to 7, mainly because they played like poop. I then knew that I was wrong. Good 'ol Damien Wilkins was jacking up shots, and Chucky Atkins, at one point, threw it right to a defender. Still, considering we were playing 4 guards and a Wilcox, it wasn't that surprising. Eventually, it got so bad that Durant had to come back into the game. When he did, the point total hovered around 10 or so and stopped getting smaller. A lot of the plays that happened before that looked like they belonged on the Globetrotters court, with the ball rolling all over the floor and some hilarious missed dunks and layups, courtesy of Wilcox and Watson. We came away with a victory, but I think I can understand why Brooks doesn't play his reserves all that often.

Analysis:

First off let me say that my 96-84 prediction was only 3 points off in total! Thank you, thank you. It was much better than Grant Longs Marv Albert impression, which consists of him screaming, "YEAH!" and Brian Davis having his eardrums blown out.

This game was won by defense, pure and simple. The whole game the Thunder had some excellent pressure on the Nets, who just seemed like they didn't give 100%. It only took a little bit of Thunder offense for the Nets to stand around like statues. It's pretty apparent that Vince Carter and Devin Harris want to be elsewhere.

There wasn't any huge performer tonight, so I'll give the Thunder Wonder to Nick Collison for having a great game while keeping Brook Lopez at bay. He had 12 Points on 5-7 Shooting, 8 Rebounds, 3 Assists, 2 Steals and 2 Blocks in only 24 minutes. For those of you saying that Lopez had a good game as well, remember the fact that Lopez played a lot of catchup garbage time. It's hard naming a Thunder Down Under in a game that essentially only lasted 24 minutes, so I'll give it to Kevin Durant by default. 18 Points, 5 Rebounds, and 4 Assists round out a somewhat sub-par night for Durant.

The Thunder Blunder goes to Bedlam, the Thunder Bench, and Ice. Who needs to watch OU-OSU when you've got a Najera-Mason battle going on? Why does ice have to prevent the Ultimate Thunder Fan from going to the game and seeing himself in the program? Ugh, just so many things wrong with this night.... Usually, I'm really strict about naming an actual player to this award, but in this case, it just can't be pinpointed on one guy. Props to the people who actually did show up amongst all of the treacherous ice. Pretty much everyone played equally crappy on the Nets side of the ball, but I'll give the Thunder Plunderer to Brook Lopez for putting the smackdown on some of our superstars like Damien Wilkins. 18 Points, 8-13 Shooting, and 7 Rebounds complete his night.

Hey, at least he scored!

For those of you wondering, even though he tried hard, Eduardo Najera had a very paltry 3 Points, 2 Rebounds, and 2 Steals. Meanwhile, Desmond Mason had 8 Points, 4 Rebounds, 3 Assists, and 2 Blocks. So, I guess the Cowboys won the real Bedlam tonight, but at least the Sooners still won the fake Bedlam up in Stillwater.

Next Game: Wednesday, January 28th, vs the Memphis Grizzlies

It's time to eat up some more puppy chow.

Side Note: Officially, the attendance to tonight was 18,264. Obviously, that's because that's the amount of tickets that were sold, but not actually used. But still, those attendance figures are as inflated as a weather balloon.

Other Side Note: This win finally puts us out of worst team ever contention. Woo hoo!

Other Other Side Note: Scott Brooks got a little bit more adventurous with his tie tonight, but sadly, I couldn't find a picture of it. A sad day for those who miss P.J.s ties....(me).

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