Buzzer Beaten

The Oklahoma City Thunder went in to New Orleans to face the hottest team in the NBA. Following a late game thriller with the New York Knicks, the Thunder looked to ride that momentum into a strong road performance.

The Thunder jumped out to a quick lead dominating the 1st quarter and giving them a 14-point cushion. However, New Orleans kept things competetive by responding with an even more dominant 2nd quarter and went into the half on top at 50-45. OKC got 5 back on the Hornets to even things up at the end of 3.

As the 4th quarter played out, neither team was pulling away and a fantastic finish was unrolling right before my eyes. Sitting as close to the T.V. as my couch would let me, I was praying to the god's of basketball that Kevin Durant would bury another game-winner. With less than 10 seconds left and OKC with the ball and tie score, I thought my prayers were being answered.

Then, my emotions got to the top of the first hill of the roller coaster. It took what I interpreted as 14 seconds to inbound the ball to Nick Collison. At this point, I was already disappointed. Then Chris "I flop like I invented it" Paul interrupted the hand-off to Russell Westbrook and the ball squirted to the other end of the court. When I opened my eyes, New Orleans had a side out with around 6 seconds left and a tie ballgame.

When David West's fadeaway J dropped through, I only had one word. Figures. Don't get me wrong, I don't expect Kevin Durant to bury game-winners every night but everything was in place for him to at least get an attempt for his first make in the quarter. After seeing OKC's chance at winning the game play out, the only suitable ending was for it to be the complete opposite. In less than 20 seconds, I aged approximately 20 years.

Here is the box score courtesy of ESPN.

http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=310124003