Thunder fall to Pacers

OKLAHOMA CITY — Danny Granger scored 24 points, Troy Murphy added 22 points and nine rebounds, and the Indiana Pacers kept their slim playoff hopes alive with a 117-99 win against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday night.


Indiana shot 50 percent or better for the fifth time in seven games and put the game away by outscoring Oklahoma City 33-19 in the third quarter.

Roy Hibbert added 17 points, Jarrett Jack scored 14 and Brandon Rush had 13 points for Indiana, which trails both Chicago and Detroit by four games with five to play.

Kevin Durant led Oklahoma City with 25 points and Nick Collison scored 15. Rookie D.J. White added 14 points in his NBA debut after missing the first five months of the season following jaw surgery.

After Oklahoma City pulled within seven, Murphy followed Granger's basket in the lane with a 3-poiner from the top of the key as the Pacers started creating some distance again. Hibbert added a three-point play and then finished the 12-2 run with a free throw to extend Indiana's edge to 71-54 with 7:13 left in the third quarter.

The Pacers had an eight-point burst to push their lead beyond 20 late in the period, and T.J. Ford converted a steal into a transition jumper to make it 100-73 with 8½ minutes left in the game.

Ford finished with 12 points as a reserve.

Jeff Green and Russell Westbrook each scored 11 points and Shaun Livingston had 10 points, seven rebounds and five assists in his second game with the Thunder. He had been out much of the last two years after a serious knee injury.

Oklahoma City followed a surprising win at San Antonio with lackluster performances at home, being held to a season scoring low in a 107-72 loss to Portland on Friday night. The Thunder have lost five of six, giving up 100 points or more in each loss.

The Pacers, meanwhile, are busting out on offense. They had averaged 109.3 points in their last six games entering Sunday night.

Indiana took the lead for good with an early 19-4 run that featured back-to-back three-point plays by Hibbert and Granger. Murphy's 3-pointer from the right wing gave the Pacers a 26-11 lead before Oklahoma City scored the next six points.

The Pacers never let Oklahoma City get closer than seven after that, leading 57-48 at halftime before Green opened the second half with a jumper for the Thunder.

Defense remains top priority

“That slipped and that area has slipped on our defensive end,” Brooks said Tuesday. “The last two games we did not do a good job of making our opponent feel us defensively. We definitely have to refocus and stay mentally sharp in that area.”

The Thunder surrendered 122 points in an overtime loss to Sacramento and 110 to Utah over the weekend, both well above either teams scoring average this season.

Brooks acknowledged that the Thunder seldom has been short in the scoring department this season. But he said there have been too many instances where OKC doesn’t bring it entirely on the defensive end. And it’s hard to find success with such imbalance.

Like this team in general, becoming a better defensive unit remains a work in progress.

The Thunder is just removed from its most successful month of the season, when it recorded seven wins in January.

But with those seven wins also came seven losses, not including two more last weekend.

And in all those losses, Brooks pointed to four games in which the Thunder played well offensively but lagged on the other end. Brooks cited games against Golden State, the Los Angeles Clippers, Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets.

The Thunder only won its matchup against Golden State. OKC let its opponent dictate the tempo in the other games.

Each of those three losses, Brooks said, were, “all last-second shots, or last-minute shots of the game. We have to have more of a mentality that we’re going to have stops and they have to be throughout the game.”

That starts Wednesday night against the Denver Nuggets at the Ford Center in a rematch of one of the more thrilling games played this season.

WEAVER STILL IN

Brooks said he will continue to start rookie Kyle Weaver for the immediate future, but that the team is “flexible” with that position.

CHRIS SILVA | THUNDER.NBA.COM | FEB. 5, 2009

Close Game at the end!

The Thunder played the Nuggets tonight at the Ford Center. The final...
113 to 114 Nuggets. After a 17 point lead is slowly lost, the Thunder do what they do best, play like amateurs under pressure. I know they have come out of their shell to give us some wins, but taking sloppy shots and turning over the ball will not maintain a lead. If we could get our team to shoot free-throws and actually make shots, we wouldn't lose a big lead down the stretch.

AP - Kevin Durant scored 35 points, Jeff Green added 23 on a career-high five 3-pointers and the Oklahoma City Thunder recovered after blowing a late 10-point deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 114-102 in overtime Wednesday night.
Rudy Gay capped Memphis' comeback when he put back Mike Conley's missed 3-pointer as time expired in regulation, but the Grizzlies didn't score again after his basket to open overtime.
Gay finished with 25 points to lead Memphis, which lost its 11th straight game and fell to 0-2 under new coach Lionel Hollins.

The Thunder Fan is born!!!

This is my first spot on my new blog. I spent a lot of time blogging on my first blog "The Cardinals Fan". I also have a new blog for my football team "The Packers Fan". To be true to myself and my location, I have created this blog for my only basketball team, The OKC Thunder.

Spots will be updated as time permits.