Sunday, December 21, 2008

Welcome King James!

The King, no not Elvis Pressley, makes his one and only appearance in Oklahoma City tonight as the Cavaliers take on the Thunder. This will be the final meeting between the two this season as the Thunder traveled to Cleveland late last month and got man-handled 117-82.

Nothing happened in that last game that could be considered a positive for OKC. LeBron played a mere 17 minutes and probably didn't even need to play that much. The entire Cavalier team played, and all but one played over a quarter's worth of minutes. Six players broke into double digits for the Cavs, and only one of the starters played for more than half the game. Cleveland shot an impressive 60.8% while the Thunder stunk it up at 35.4%.

Tonight's game has to be a different story. The Thunder are coming off of their third win of the season, and a strong performance against the Cavaliers should keep that momentum going. That will be quite important as our next three games will be on the road against the Hawks, the Pistons, and the Wizards. If we have any shred of positive momentum by the end of the week, we ought to roll the Wizards. But first we have to make a strong showing tonight.

Tonight's goal for the Thunder should be simple: Make LeBron play the whole game. Sure, there's a good chance he's going to light it up for 40+ points if he does, but make him score those points and not relax on the bench. And who knows, maybe after rocking OKC less than a month ago, they'll take us too lightly, and the Thunder will have the opportunity to steal a win from one of the best teams this year.

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