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Oklahoma City Thunder
at
Los Angeles Clippers
Preview
The History
The Clippers are coming off a loss in Monday night's game versus New Orleans. The Thunder are on the second half of a back to back, the first game last night was a discouraging loss to the Kings. While the Thunder were in the game and even had a good look at a last shot to force overtime they played with little energy. Hopefully tonight they come out with a sense of urgentcy and get back on track.
The Matchups
Baron Davis v Russell Westbrook
A tough matchup for Westbrook, he is going to have to be committed to defense if he wants to keep Davis from having a big night. Against Sacramento Westbrook had a poor shooting night but did have 6 assists. Beno Udrih and Tyreke Evans did not seem to have much trouble getting shots off against Westbrook last night that has to improve tonight since Davis can shoot the Clippers into a win if he gets hot.
Edge
Rasual Butler v Thabo Sefolosha
Thabo is also coming off a terrible shooting night, he was 1-7 last night including 0-3 from three. Early in the Kings game he was handling the ball and tried to force some passes the eventually led to turnovers. But Thabo makes his money on defense, and while he was definitely off last night defensively he still made Evans work for the points he did get.
Edge
Al Thorton v Kevin Durant
With Eric Gordon out Butler has been shifting down to the two guard and making room for Al Thorton. KD has to be disappointed in last night's loss, at one point it felt as if he was going to take control of the game and pull out the win, but in the end he came up just short. Hopefully he takes his frustration out on the Clippers tonight.
Edge
Marcus Camby v Jeff Green
Well Jeff Green abused whoever the Kings threw at him down low the Thunder just did not take advantage of that mismatch, in my opinion, but defensively he struggled to keep Thompson under control. At various times the Thunder appeared to go to a shell defense with the center on the interior and Thompson was open under the basket as the perimeter defender was turning over Thompson before the center was ready to take him.
Edge
Chris Kaman v Nenad Krstic
I expect to see a lot of Etan Thomas tonight as the Clippers really start two centers instead of a power forward. But the matchup that will determine the victor of tonights game is Chris Kaman vs whoever the Thunder put on him. Kaman is averaging 20 and 10 with almost 2 blocks. Krstic is going to have to play efficient effective defense on Kaman if he wants to stay on the court, because I don't think Brooks has any problems pulling him and letting Etan Thomas play. If either Krstic or Thomas can play a little defense down in the low post the Thunder should win.
Edge
Bench v Bench
Craig Smith, Ricky Davis, Sebastian Telfair, and DeAndre Jordon get most of the minutes off the Clippers bench. Ricky Davis played well in relief of Smith against the Hornets, he had been having some difficulty getting on the court but Smiths injury may have opened the door for him to get some more minutes tonight. Telfair is the most consistant player on the Clipper bench, he is averaging 8 points and 4 assists. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of scoring from the bench with is a good thing for the Thunder.
We saw him, hooray the mystery man that is Serge Ibaka played last night, he actually did not look bad in the 2 minutes he was in. He did not do anything memorable but that's not bad. Harden took a little bit to get going but he had a nice shot and did go 3-5 from three. Thomas did not get a lot of minutes last night which might have been perperation for tonights game because he is going to be called on early and often I think. Collison struggled last night against Thompson but did go 3-4. He is proving to be a better offensive option than last year.
Edge Push
The Prediction
After the embarrassment of last night's loss its put up or shut up time early in the season. Either you can beat the teams you should or its going to be another year of maddening inconsistency. I didn't think the Thunder would lose this game before the trip to Sacramento but now with that loss hanging over their heads nothing would surprise me. This game will tell a lot about the team, as long as they come out and play well I will be happy. I want the win, win tonight and they still have a chance to salvage this road trip. Between Kaman and Camby I think the Clippers are just too good down low to get beat by a half hearted effort from the Thunder. It is going to take a full effort from the entire team to get the win but I think Brooks will have them ready to play. Thunder win 102-100.
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