Initially, I thought this game was a 4 out of 10 on the difficulty scale. The Timberwolves suck and everyone in the league knows it. The only thing worth watching in the Target Center are the opponent's best players and Kevin Love grabbing an absurd amount of rebounds. Last night, both counts held up in providing the half-full arena with some entertainment.
The game started off as the Michael Beasley show. With a mixture of jumpers, 3 point bombs, and driving to the hoop, Beasley couldn't be stopped. Turnovers made the game a lot more difficult for the Thunder in the early going. The person that really kept OKC in it wasn't either of the players that have emerged as the future for this young team. It was Jeff Green who put his work in early dominating with an array of low post moves. While I think Jeff has a knack for getting buckets down in the high percentage areas, I will save that talk for another day.
When the 2nd half began, I thought the Thunder would turn it on and pull away. More shotty defense made the turn around a lot slower than I expected it to happen. With every tick of the clock, my emotions were in an epic struggle. The poor defense got me hotter than the pan I burn my eggs in. But Kevin Durant started heating up at about the same rate.
Shot after shot fell through the hoop as Durant crept closer to his average. But when he didn't cool off several others, including myself, hoped we might see a record set that didn't include grabbing other players' misses. You remember that guy that carried us in the first half? Yeah, Jeff Green finally made an appearance by tying the game up at 110 by burying yet another post shot with just over 4 seconds left. The rest is history.
When all was said and done, Durant had the best game of his young career, and the Thunder barred the basement door just before leaving Minnesota.
http://espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=310126016
Next up: the Washington Wizards come to the Oklahoma City Arena on January 28th.
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