Friday, December 5, 2008

Avoiding the Triple Double

The last time the Thunder matched up against the Magic, Dwight Howard blocked 10 shots, grabbed 19 rebounds, and scored 30 points as the Magic burned the Thunder 109-92. The Thunder play the Magic for the second, and final, time this season; but this time the game's in Orlando.

Howard destroyed the Thunder in front of the OKC crowd. Just imagine what he would have done if the game was in Orlando. The obvious key for the Thunder to stay anywhere close to the Magic in this game is containing Howard. Unfortunately, the Thunder don't have a "true" center that would match up well against Howard. Johan Petro has proven he cannot do it. Nick Collison hasn't played well at center. Chris Wilcox is the current starting "center", but he's undersized for the position. Robert Swift is the right size but has been recovering from injuries. If he's available, it's unlikely we'll be able to use him for the minutes we need.

Otherwise, the Thunder need to continue to shoot well (50+%) like they did against Charlotte, Memphis, and Minnesota. They need to turn around the turnover situation from Wednesday though. Due to turnovers and getting out-rebounded, the Thunder had 10 less shots than the Bobcats. Hard to win games that way.

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