Quarter by Quarter observations

First Quarter

How fitting that Houston one of the fattest cities in the United States would outfit their basketball team with a uniform that practically screams welcome to McDonalds.

Durant with a solid shot, his shot looks better but if this one comes down to the wire I wonder if we will see him start to press again. He also is getting it done on the defensive end of the court.

Westbrook from almost three, one of the big things Westbrook said he worked on this offseason was improved shooting and it is showing tonight.

Krstic makes a sweet shot; if he can get going he could have a great night against a relatively short Houston team.

Scola makes the jumper with Green all over him, great defense by Green but Scola makes a great shot.

KD for three, that's got to be one of my favorite calls, here's to hoping he gets hot and pushes the Thunder out to a lead.

Durant tries to force it to Krstic. He thought the weak side help was coming but the Rockets had already conceded the layup.

Westbrook is having trouble following Brooks around all the screens Houston is setting.

Budinger is getting into the lane at will; he is really hot right now.

The Rockets are pulling away here with two straight terrible Thunder possessions.

Score to end the Quarter 26-21 Rockets

Second Quarter

So far the Thunder have looked pretty stagnant on offense with Ollie running the show.  That was just their second shot clock violation of the quarter.

For a team with no real shot blockers we sure are having issues finishing around the basket.

Livingston is not looking at all hampered by his injury.

The Thunder are not getting back in transition, terrible defense and Westbrook just cannot seem to get in front of the Rockets point guards to try and slow them down.

The Rockets are just shooting hot tonight right now they are almost 57% from the floor.

Westbrook makes a great shot to cut the lead to 5.

Score to finish the half 50-45 Rockets

Half

Not a spectacular half of basketball, both sides played sloppy at times and nobody really was able to establish dominance over a substantial period of time. The Thunder are struggling with transition defense and are allowing some easy buckets. Westbrook is struggling to stay in front of Brooks; Budinger was smoking hot for a stretch as was Scola. The Thunder are 40%, Durant has shaken off the cobwebs and is 5-10. Westbrook is shooting well 6-11 but has only 2 assists, fortunately he has yet to turn the ball over. Krstic shot looked good early on but he is now 1-7 and looking to try and get back on track. The Thunder need to work on the transition defense and really need to get Krstic going against Chuck Hayes.

Third Quarter

Westbrook goes under the screen and that gives Brooks enough room to hit the jumper. With Brooks shooting as well as he is I don't think you can give him the screen, Westbrook is going to have to try and fight through or go over or Brooks is going to tear it up.

Sefolosha gets inside and scores some tough points down low.

Brooks is heating up he just hit another three, and again Russ went under the screen and by the time he was able to challenge the shot was gone.

The Thunder is now switching on Brooks around the perimeter.

Green is struggling from three he is now 0-4 from beyond, and he really isn't hitting from anywhere else either he is now 2-10.

The Rockets came out to start the third quarter and have outscored the Thunder 13-6 to extend the lead to 12. The Thunder are just playing sloppy careless basketball and it shows.

Score to finish the Quarter 69-80 Rockets

Fourth Quarter

KD is looking to singlehandedly put the team on his back and regain the lead. He has made his first two shots and just got the steal which he fed ahead to Westbrook for the easy finish.

The Thunder are trying to fight back but just cannot seem to gain any traction. Houston is shooting well over 50% any OKC is quickly turning into a two man band of Durant and Westbrook.

The Rockets are doing a good job of dictating the tempo to the Thunder; now that they have a lead late they are slowing down the pace and really draining the clock.

Score to finish the Game 105-94 Rockets

The Good and The Bad individually

The Good

Russell Westbrook

33 points on 14-25 shooting sounds good to me, he also had 7 assists and only 4 turnovers. The defense really wasn't there but few are the point guards that can keep up with the blazing speed of Aaron Brooks.

Kevin Durant

It's hard to say he busted out of his slump because in reality the game was pretty much in control throughout but 11-22 is still nice and 9 rebounds is nothing to sneeze at. While he only shot once from downtown it was a good one and showed he still has range, as if we could forget.

Nick Collison

Nick came into a bad situation and played all out which is about all you can ask from a player.  He again showed some range on his jumper and went 4-6 for 9 points and 8 rebounds add in his 2 blocks and that's a pretty good line for him.

I surrender

The Bad

Jeff Green was off all night and 3-15 really shows it. Krstic could not get it going against an undersized Houston team; he went 1-8 and lost most of his minutes to Nick Collison. The transition defense really broke down and allowed way too many easy points. Once the Thunder were down it was really just an issue of maintaining the lead for the Houston Rockets. The Thunder never really made a run in the second half and the Rockets were able to pretty much coast to the win. Coming off the near win over the Lakers perhaps hopes were too high but this loss will sting for a while due to the sheer sloppiness and lack of defense at critical times.

Photos from ESPN.com

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