[quote="Flack"]So who are these Lightning guys? Maybe I'll start watching them. I actually have a Blackhawks shirt in my closet somewhere. Maybe we can get the Thunder to ... wait, do they let black people play hockey? I'm still green on the rules.[/quote]

Black people are allowed to play hockey, yes. For a while they either had to be goalies like Grant Fuhr, or goons like Donald Brasheer, but they opened things up a few years ago when they realized they had to, because it's fucking hockey.

Well, shit.

The only advice I can give you, Flack, is to embrace this loss. Let it hurt. Let the hate flow through you.

When my favorite team, the team that I love as much as you seem to love the Thunder, finally won something, believe me - it was all the sweeter because they not only got their fucking heads caved in for 30 years (which is analogous to the Thunder not existing for 30 years) but also because they lost in the NFC Championship game to the Bears a few years before.

ALL THE SWEETER.

Now let's nail our draft picks and reload for next year! I just read something that seemed to imply that Mike Brown is going to be the Lakers coach. That's the most preposterous , obviously-fake story I've seen about the NBA all season, but we can write off Los Angeles until he goes. This means the west is again wide open and .. and .. RELOAD!!!!

So who are these Lightning guys? Maybe I'll start watching them. I actually have a Blackhawks shirt in my closet somewhere. Maybe we can get the Thunder to ... wait, do they let black people play hockey? I'm still green on the rules.

lololololol

At least it wasn't boring!! :D XD XD :D X:DXX:DX:D:X:D:XD:

Yeah, I don't even know. Fuck basketball. I'mma start watching hockey tomorrow.

It really is like there are two completely different Thunder teams. There's the team that goes out there and dominates their opponents. We saw that team in game 2. And then there's the team that goes out and nothing goes right for them. That's the team we saw in game three.

What the Mavs showed in game three was that they don't need Dirk to score to win. Don't get me wrong; they need Dirk, but when he's having an off night, or when defenders double team him, there are always at least three or four shooters on the floor waiting to nail shots like machinery.

At one point the Thunder were down by 21 (or more) and were shooting 0-15 from downtown (I think the final was 1-17 of three pointers). The best free throw shooting team in the league missed free throw after free throw. Somehow they only lost by six. It felt like sixty.

Well, well, well.

In game 2, Dirk Nowitzki scored 29. That sounds like a lot, but in game 1, he scored 48. The Thunder definitely shifted their defense and fronted Dirk all night long. 29 points, we can deal with.

The Thunder was down by 11 and then Kevin Durant did this to 7' Haywood.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FviDoR3nsQ[/youtube]

Thunder went into the half up by two, pulled ahead in the third and stayed ahead in the fourth. The big story was the benching of Westbrook the entire fourth quarter, who bumbled a end-of-third quarter play and spent several minutes jawing at Thunder coach Scott Brooks. Business is business, and with bench players like Harden dropping 25 points, the 22-year-old Westbrook may have learned a lesson tonight.

Both series are now tied 1-1.

[quote="Flack"]The OKC move to the Western Conference Finals, where (let's be realistic here) the Mavericks will most likely roll over them. The Thunder are a fast team but the Mavs have the experience and the Dirk.[/quote]

As I suspected, the Mavericks made it loud and clear that the Thunder have no answer for Dirk Nowitzki. None. I think by the end of the first half, every defensive Thunder player was in foul trouble. Dirk, towering above the Thunder, walked out of the arena with a whopping 48 points, setting an NBA record for the most free throws in a row in a playoff game (24 of 24). Every time the Thunder double-teamed Dirk, he kicked it out to Kidd or Barea who both scored at will.

I am going to guess that the main reason I will go to Oklahoma will be for game expos and the arcade at your house, so my personal list of Oklahoma-related cliches will involve old computer hardware.

"The Thunder are more explosive than the 'Star Trek' vector game by Sega!"

(For non-Flack readers: The Star Trek vector arcade game by Sega catches on fire all the time.)

[url=http://www.usatoday.com/sports/columnist/lopresti/2011-05-16-oklahoma-city-thunder-nba-playoffs_N.htm]Seven reasons to watch Oklahoma City Thunder in NBA Playoffs[/url] (usatoday.com)

I hate how to rest of the country views Oklahoma. "This time, the road to the NBA Finals goes through an oil field on Route 66." Why couldn't they have mentioned one of our half-a-dozen Starbucks locations? Or the fact that we finally got a Jack-in-the-Box? Gosh, they forgot to mention our cowboy boots, spurs (wait, that's San Antonio), ten gallon hats and stockyards. Wait, no; they [i]did[/i] mention stockyards!

"Lately, the basketball has been even more impressive than the stockyards."

Sigh.

The world is there for the taking, Oklahoma City!!

If there was any doubt as to why the Oklahoma City Ford Center has been dubbed "Loud City," one only had to tune into Game 7 between the OKC Thunder and the Memphis Grizzlies to find out why. At times throughout the game, it was difficult to hear the announcers over the deafening chants of "O-K-C", "DE-FENSE", and in the closing minutes, "WE WANT DAL-LAS".

The Thunder are young and talented, which makes them at times inconsistent. Had the Thunder played as well during the entire series as they did in Game 7, they would have closed the series out in four.

As Westbrook and Durant continue to play minutes together, it's exciting to see their bond form. In a decisive play during a post-turnover fast break, Westbrook drove toward the hoop, dished the ball back out to Durant, and blocked as Durant dropped the 3. It was the play that not only summed up the game, but these two awesome players and their relationship.

To win the game, the Mavericks needed a stellar performance from Randolph and Gasol. Randolph ended the game with 17 points and Gasol with 12. More importantly, the two were limited to 6 and 2 (respectively) offensive rebounds.

The Thunder on the other hand, with the power of the crowd behind them, showed the country why they deserved to be in the Western Conference Finals. Westbrook earned his first triple-double of the playoffs, while Durant closed out the game with 39 points. Sixth-man Harden dropped back-to-back threes to increase the lead, and shot 4 of 8 from the three point line and contributed 17 points overall.

During the second half, the Grizzlies looked tired and beaten. Memphis shot 36% in the first half and 39% in the second. They were no match for the Thunder.

The OKC move to the Western Conference Finals, where (let's be realistic here) the Mavericks will most likely roll over them. The Thunder are a fast team but the Mavs have the experience and the Dirk.

I am retracting my earlier request for Pinback to stop posting.

Welp, I called that one. 5 T's in the first half showed that Memphis meant business. Thunder did their normal schtick by blowing a 10 point lead in the 3rd. The home team rallied and the Grizzlies won by 12. Game 7 (first game 7 of the playoffs) will take place Sunday in OKC.

Hear that, Miami? It's the Bulls on parade, headed to the Eastern finals after sending the Hawks back to A-T-L with a 20 point victory and closing the series out in six. Looking forward to the impending Derrick Rose vs. LeBron James shootout.

Tonight, your (my) Oklahoma City Thunder head to Memphis in game six of the closest series I can remember in a while. Look for both Randolph and Perkins to start throwing elbows early. No doubt, the Grizzlies will not go down easily in their own cave.

So I went to NHL.com to try and find some exciting hockey video to try and contrast and compare between hockey videos and basketball. This is the top video on NHL.com right now. Seriously.

http://video.nhl.com/videocenter/console?hdpid=49&id=100982&navid=nhl-rr-topvids

Shut up, Pinback. This is much better basketball analysis than you'd get on ESPN.com, and Flack is posting it without disabling comments, like those pussies Bill Simmons and Gaines Adams.

BOOOOOORIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

No overtime tonight. Whether or not the Thunder are the better team is debatable. Tonight though, they were the obviously less tired team. The combination of a triple-overtime game followed by a day of travel must've wore the poor Memphis out, as the flat-footed Grizzlies missed layup after layup while the Thunder ran circles around them. Westbrook and Durant, OKC's two highest scorers, sat on the bench during the fourth as the Thunder's second string maintained a 20+ point lead (nearing 30 at times). With a decisive 99-72 win, the Thunder now lead the series for the first time (3-2) and will head back to Memphis for game six, where an embarrassed Memphis squad will most definitely come out swinging.

In other news, Shaq announced he most likely will not be playing in the finals at all due to injuries, and sports commentators are beginning to say what many of us have been suspecting all along: Shaq may not be returning to the court. Shaq definitely changed the way the game was played, that's for sure. But the fact that he can no long run or jump most likely means this is the end of an era. Buh bye, hack-a-Shaq.

Without a big man on defense (the Celtics sent Perkins to Oklahoma City ... and we thank them!), the Celtics were closed out today by the Miami Heat. The Bulls still lead the Hawks 3-2 with game six tonight. Winner of that series plays Miami for the Eastern title, while the winner of the Thunder/Memphis series will play a well-rested Dallas Mavericks team.

Review of the Heat/Celtics game: 88 all at the end of the fourth. Game went into OT and the Heat turned on the heat, winning 98-90 and taking the series to 3-1.

And now, the Thunder. The [i]God damn Thunder[/i].

The Thunder went in to Game 4 after suffering an embarrassing loss in Game 3 by blowing a 16 point lead in the 4th quarter. After blowing a 16-point lead in the fourth, you start wondering things like "Why are we in the playoffs?" and "Maybe basketball wasn't the sport for me ..." With the Thunder down 1-2 in the series, Barkley commented (and others echoed) "whoever wins game 4 will win the series."

And with that the Grizzlies attacked, taking a ten point lead within minutes and eventually an 18 point lead in the first half. The Thunder were over -- they were done, washed up, written off. BUT WAIT! You know what they say -- THUNDER NEVER FORGETS! Okay that doesn't even make sense, but neither does the Thunder comeback that we witnessed! Led by Russel "I don't pass to no one" Westbrook, the Thunder came alive, trailing by four at the end of the half.

The charge continued in the second half. Westbrook, for the most part, quit with the stupid 3-point attempts and instead began taking it to hoop JUST LIKE I YELLED FOR HIM TO DO and began drawing fouls. Durant did his part, nailing multiple clutch shots. The third and fourth quarter were neck and neck, with a dozen lead changes between the two teams.

With six minutes left the Thunder led by 10, but as all Thunder fans know, that's [i]puh-lenty[/i] of time for us to blow a lead, which of course we did. Memphis clutch Mike Conley hit a 3 with 4 seconds left; Westbrook countered with a stupid hail Mary that led us into the first overtime, 96 all.

When your team loses a 10 point lead, momentum is not in your favor. The Thunder pulled ahead and held a 3-point lead up until the very end of OT. Things looked good for the Thunder as Conley and Mayo (two of Memphis' 3-point shooters) fouled out ... until Greivis Vasquez, Kevin Durant's high school pal, nailed an unbelievable 3 (launching the ball from his shoulder!), tying the game at 109 at the end of OT #1.

At some point during all of this I lost consciousness and my wife had to revive me with the shock paddles, but we went back and forth some more and after Harden hit an amazing 3 (one of the few times Westbrook shared the ball) the game was tied up at 119-all and went into [b]triple overtime[/b].

This was the sixth NBA playoff game ever to go into triple over time.

Eventually, key players began fouling out (that happens when you get to 3OT) and players began running out of steam. The Thunder rallied at the end, pulling ahead for a final score of 133-123, making the series 2-all with game 5 in OKC Wednesday night.

I hope it ends early. My ticker can't take another game like that one.

Neither one of these teams are great at finishing games and I can only assume the Mavs will finish them off in a 4-0 or 4-1 run in the next round.