Oklahoma City Thunder @ Golden State Warriors 02/06/10

[slick_watts]

Russell Westbrook / Thabo Sefolosha / Kevin Durant / Jeff Green / Nenad Krstic

@




Stephen Curry / Monta Ellis / Corey Maggette / Anthony Tolliver / Andris Biedrins

Matchup

Going for the hat trick against Golden State. I haven't liked how we started either of our games against these guys, but we were able to apply enough pressure defensively to beat them in the second halves.

I'd like to see Scott Brooks skip Nick Collison if GSW decides to go to their small D-League lineup. It seemed Serge Ibaka had a lot more success last time out.

I'd like to see better defense against their perimeter guys, and especially Corey Maggette who killed us getting to the basket whenever he wanted.

Some Numbers

Kevin Durant needs to score 32 or more points in this game to take sole possession of the scoring lead from Carmelo Anthony.

A Question

Winning this game will put us 8 games over .500 going into a huge game at Portland before the All Star break. Can we run the table?

[wizkid27]

Few comments on this nice game thread slick...

I think that Durant gets 32 easy. There's no reason at all he shouldn't set a career high against these guys every time!

I do kind of agree with you about Collison... last time Serge just seemed to be more on their pace. To me that decision resides with how well Krstic steps up against Biedrins on the boards.

I'm not usually a huge fan of the Thunder going big, but I think that sliding Durant to the 2 and Green to the 3 along with Serge/Krstic would cause some nightmares for the Warriors' short backcourt without causing nearly as many problems for us.

[wiff]

32 points coming our way. This a game where Serge can really do what he does best. Run the floor block shots and rebound all the shots GSW like to put up.

Will be interesting to see if Ellis and Maggette pass the ball to anyone else besides each other this game.

[slick_watts]

It's games like these where a shot blocking center would do well. The Warriors get a lot of dribble penetration, they're quick on the perimeter and most of our help defenders (Collison, Krstic) aren't exactly known for their foot speed. Serge has some success in that way, but sometimes it'd just be nice to have a traditional center..

[slick_watts]

One thing to watch out for is how the calls go on their home court. In our two wins at home against GSW we got to the line a combined 25 more times.

[wiff]

This is also a game where Jeff Green should feast. No real post presence for him to defend and visa versa.

[theokie]

I cant belive this is still a game.

When is it a good time to establish the "hack-a-Biedrens" strategy. Hes shooting 10% from the line...

[OzThunder]

i felt like we really could of put them away then, but durant started looking for points. The whole thing became too durant heavy and the offense stopped working.

[slick_watts]

Defense clamped down in the second half and Russ was amazing.. game ball to Russ. KD didn't have a great game IMO despite his points total, this one was Russ' game. A few more boards and a couple steals and he's got a quad dub. Impressive line for him..

[wiff]

Tonight was all Russell the muscle. Man, so impressive. Damn this kid has a chance to be so damn good. I know it's against GSW but still. DAMN! Only 2TO's to go with those ten dimes.

KD was off tonight still got to the line. Hard to fault the team for trying to get him the ball so he can lead the league in scoring at 21.

Honestly I thought Durant passed on a handful of times he could of tried to force up a shot. Especially on the break.

I honestly don't know if I have ever watched a PG dominate the way Westbrook did tonight with simply filling up the stat sheet. One of the better performances I can remember.