04/11/2010 Thunder @ Warriors (regular season 80 of 82)

[KDisNotNice]

Oklahoma City Thunder (49-30) at Golden State Warriors (24-55), 8pm Central time tipoff on Sunday night at Oracle Arena in Oakland, CA.

This is the last of four games this season between these same conference teams. The Thunder won the first 3 meetings by 16, 8, and 9 points.

The game will be shown on Fox Sports Oklahoma.

The Thunder have won 25 of their last 34 games overall and are 23-16 on the road this season. They clinched a playoff berth in Dallas 8 days ago and are now trying to beat the odds and gain first round home court advantage but are a 6th seed now.

The Warriors are 17-22 at home this season and are coming off a 107-104 loss to the Clippers the night before.

[Tordön]

:okc: 107
GSW: 95

[Colonel Thunder]

Okc - 112
gsw - 102

[Tydude]

OKC 110
Golden State 90

[Jimmy Early]

Never thought we'd be playing a MUST-WIN game against the Warriors on April 11th!

THUNDER 119
Warriors 108

[Thunderstruck83]

No reason we shouldn't win this game, we're clearly the superior team and they just played last night. Gotta win this one and the Memphis game and just play our best @ Portland and see what happens. Luckily they play the Lakers today, hopefully the Lakers actually play and don't throw in the towel so they'll be worn out tomorrow night.

Thunder - 117
Warriors - 105

KD gets 40 and 10.

[Colonel Thunder]

At least a 50-win season! Wow.

[Thunderhead]

:okc:118
GS 105

[RedDirt717]

OKC 112

Golden State 98

[Thunderdomesooner]

:okc:106
Warriors woosh! 99

[Tx Thunder]

:okc: 103
not so Golden State 88

[OKCDrummer77]

Current Thunder 112
Former Thunder (mascot) 88

[McThunderLovin]

Okc - 108
gsw - 94

[KDisNotNice]

Here are tonight's game notes:

http://www.nba.com/thunder/media/warriors_notes100411.pdf

My prediction:

Thunder 107
Warriors 101

tiebreaker: 14 (points + rebounds by Ibaka)

[Rod4soonrs]

117-96 okc

[HotRocNRol]

Thunder favored by 7 1/2; over under 224 1/2 or 225; odds makers don't think the defense shows up for this game.

OKC...117
GSW....97

Lets rest our starters for the fourth quarter and hold the lead.

Go THUNDER !!!

[Fast | Break]

I can see no Defense tonight.

Thunder - 118
golden showers - 109

[HotRocNRol]

From twitter, via DarnellMayberry:

"Nenad Krsitc (knee) is out tonight at Golden State, Monday against Portland and doubtful for the season finale against Memphis"

[KDisNotNice]

From twitter, via DarnellMayberry:

"Nenad Krsitc (knee) is out tonight at Golden State, Monday against Portland and doubtful for the season finale against Memphis"

We could use him tomorrow night too.

[HotRocNRol]

Thabo in headband? uh-oh its contagious. Jhard13 started it, now swisschocolate :)

[Thunderstruck83]

Ba-dop-ba-ba-ba...I'm lovin it. :)

Great start fellas. Keep the foot on the gas.

[Thunderdomesooner]

OKC looks like a well oiled machine tonight so far! :)

[OKCDrummer77]

I didn't think this would be a tough game, but I also didn't think it would be this easy so far. GS can't buy a bucket.

[Thunderdomesooner]

I didn't think this would be a tough game, but I also didn't think it would be this easy so far. GS can't buy a bucket.

That will change i'm sure. But good to see the Thunder play such a good 1st qtr on the road

[OKCDrummer77]

FIVE straight 3's?? Are you freakin' kidding?? Somebody defend the perimeter already!

[Rumble]

What a change from the fielrst period. This sucks.

[OKCDrummer77]

We embarrassed them for one quarter, they embarrassed us for the other three. Disgusting.

[Tydude]

we are in the 8th seed now so if the playoffs starts right now we are playing the Lakers bad Loss

[Rumble]

That game freakin sucked. My gosh

[SMOKELAHOMA]

can we get another curse thread? this is crap.

[Rumble]

They prett much handed us the lakers. Thank you golden state, you suck.

[KDisNotNice]

This just proves once again it is tough for any NBA team to beat another NBA team 4 straight times in a season. We had a lot of sloppy turnovers in the last 2 minutes of this game when we had a chance to pull the game out.

Oh well, a victory on Monday night against Portland will change things around in a hurry!

[Tx Thunder]

What just happend?:confused:
man I can not believe we blew it and to freakin Golden State none the less.

we better get it together before the playoffs start, this blowing leads in the 4th Q needs to get stopped.

[the_Mont]

Any chance they got complacent with just making the playoffs? Seems to be a lot of defensive lapses the last few games.

[KDisNotNice]

can we get another curse thread? this is crap.


Sorry, no, maybe for the playoffs. This was just a regular though tough loss. We couldn't get home court 1st round advantage anymore anyway with the earlier Phoenix win. This loss just made it harder to avoid the defending NBA champs.

[Rumble]

I'm so sick of having big leads and totally blowing it. And they aren't learning from it. We keep getting told it's a learning experience, but they keep blowing it

[Rumble]

This game tomorrow is HUGE! Gonna be very tough.

[OKCDrummer77]

We're 2-3 since clinching. 2 of the 3 losses came after blowing 13 point second half leads. We'd better re-learn to play all 48 minutes or our first playoff experience is going to be short and painful.

[Rumble]

6 and 4 the last 10 games

[StormFan93]

Tomorrow night a must win if we want to avoid the Fakers in the first round!

[KDisNotNice]

Tomorrow night a must win if we want to avoid the Fakers in the first round!


To be exact, if we lose on Monday, there is a 14/16 chance we will end up 8thSeed. If we end up 8th, I am changing my name back. :)

[Thunderstruck83]

No reason we shouldn't win this game, we're clearly the superior team and they just played last night. Gotta win this one and the Memphis game and just play our best @ Portland and see what happens. Luckily they play the Lakers today, hopefully the Lakers actually play and don't throw in the towel so they'll be worn out tomorrow night.

Thunder - 117
Warriors - 105

KD gets 40 and 10.

3 out of 4 ain't bad, unfortuantely the one number I got wrong was Golden State's final score. Man, that one really stung. No one to blame but ourselves on that one though, I mean really two times in a row late in the game we can't even get the ball inbounds? That is the difference maler in a one possession game. Looks like it's do or die tomorrow. And also, thanks to the Lakers for blowing it against Portland. Ahh, the peaks and valleys of being a fan of a young team. Hopefully they provide another peak tomorrow night.

[MJL1]

I'm so sick of having big leads and totally blowing it. And they aren't learning from it. We keep getting told it's a learning experience, but they keep blowing it

I agree. They blow alot of games that they shouldn't, no matter who the opponent is. Usually, it's against a good team, but when we're up by 10+ points, there's no reason to ever break down at HOME no matter who we're playing, but we did it quite a few times in some very important games. We almost did the other night against Phoenix again, we barely escaped that one. But we've also thrown in some really poor performances on the road. Killing Charlotte for a quarter 1/2 only to completely lose momentum by halftime and lose the game wasn't a good thing. Then we were completely flat against Indiana. And then tonight we jump all over this scrub team only to melt down once again and lose a VERY important game to a team we should clearly beat.

But what about those early season wins against solid teams? What about that nice little win streak we put together? What about that really good 2 months of ball? What about those recent big wins against LA, @Boston, and @Dallas? We've won alot of games, and now we've become a tough road team too, which is hard to do. This team can really play some ball, we've gotten a pretty good glimpse of that. But why are we still so hot and cold? Why are we so absolutely amazing one night and then so horribly bad the next? There's gotta be a reason why, and it has to be about more than just simple youth.

[KDisNotNice]

Oh well, in the last 20 days, the Lakers have lost to the Hornets, the Mavs lost to the Hornets, the Nuggets lost to the Knicks, the Jazz lost to the Pacers, and the Spurs have lost to the Nets. What do those 5 teams and the Thunder have in common? They are all going to the Western conference playoffs this weekend!

[MJL1]

Yeah, but we blew a golden opportunity tonight. All we had to do was beat those scrubs and then go 1-1 in our final two games to pretty much be guaranteed no worse than 7th, but we choked. It was never about fearing the Lakers. It was about getting to have the satisfaction of pointing down at Portland or San Antonio and saying "haha, you finished 8th"......See, for most of those other teams, they don't care what their seeding is, as long as they don't have to play the defending champs, they don't want any part of LA. With us it's different. We don't fear the Lakers and more than we fear any other team, becuz nobody scares us anymore. We know we're just a young team on the rise, but we're young, we're fast, and we're dangerous. Honestly, our chances are every bit as good against the Lakers as they would be against Denver or Dallas. And right now, Dallas is playing better ball than those other two anyway. I didn't wanna be the team to get stuck in the 8th spot, but after our classic meltdown tonight, that's exactly where we're gonna be.

The joke's on us now. Portland and San Antonio are laughing at us, and that really sucks, not becuz those aren't good teams, but becuz it was in our grasp and we lost it. We controlled our own destiny, but we didn't have the guts to go handle our business. That's why it's so disappointing. It's gonna come down to the very last game of the season to get to 50 wins. I hope we're ready, becuz Memphis will be.

[Plainsman]

Early in the season, Coach Brooks stressed not making the spectacular play, just make the play.

They seem to have gotten away from that. I especially saw that in the second qtr last night after they had built the big lead in the first qtr. They just try to get too fancy rather than make the sure play.

But really, how many three's in a row did the Warriors hit in the third qtr ? Did it end up at six or seven ? That's what got them back in the game.

[KDisNotNice]

Ouch, I hope Jeff is o.k. for the next game. :)


OAKLAND, CA - APRIL 11: Jeff Green #22 of the Oklahoma City Thunder charges into Reggie Williams #55 of the Golden State Warriors on April 11, 2010 at Oracle Arena in Oakland, California. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2010 NBAE (Photo by Rocky Widner/NBAE via Getty Images)
http://d.yimg.com/a/p/sp/getty/7d/fullj.bb01e4dd9dcf9d194fc57e9870249ad7/bb01e4dd9dcf9d194fc57e9870249ad7-getty-90044453rw015_warriors_thunder.jpg

[KDisNotNice]

Yeah, the Warriors were 12 for 21 in 3's on Sunday night. That's what won them the game.

We need to do a better job of contesting those. Also, work on the simple inbounds play when we are throwing it in on our offensive side of the court.