Game 48 Recap: Oklahoma City 103, New Orleans 99

Yahoo! Sports Box Score:

In lieu of the typical Box Score, tonight I will be introducing the very first....Welcome to Loud City Video Recap!

It's quality is similar to any rookie's performance. There's flashes of brilliance, but in general, it's pretty bad. I had a lot of technical issues to get ironed out, and my commentary....well, it could use some work. If I were to compare my stats to a rookie's I'd probably have 5 Points, 2-10 Shooting, 1-2 Free throw shooting, 3 Rebounds, 1 Assist, and 3 Turnovers. It's definitely a project big that needs to be worked on. That being said, if you have any advice at all to give that is constructive....that is to say, not just, "This Recap Sucks, Give it up"; then please, leave a comment. It's much appreciated. The end goal is to make this much more entertaining than my usual wall of text explaining what happened, quarter by quarter.

So, without further ado, click here to see the VIDEO RECAP. I've already made the next video, so I can assure you that the audio and video quality are much better next time around. Consider this a pilot.

In any case, this was a tightly contested game all the way through. The Thunder always were threatening to pull away, but just when it looked as if the Hornets were about to start really fall behind, they pulled up their britches and weathered the storm. It culminated when they took the lead late in the fourth with the Collison three, but it was all for naught, as the Thunder played great defense and scored when they needed to, putting the game well in hand.

Below: Analysis, Awards

The biggest story of the night has to be the performance of Nenad Krstic. He kept the Thunder going offensively in the third, and he shot extremely well. Emeka Okafor is pretty immobile, so he couldn't get out to Nenad Krstic when Krstic was mid-range. And, when Krstic drove down to the lane and hit the hook shot, well, that was just pure skill. I'm sure everybody would like to see more of this type of Nenad Krstic, and I'm sure we will. It just comes down to knocking down those mid-range jumpers, and doing not too terrible of a job on defense. Okafor had a solid game with 14 Points and 12 Rebounds, but he didn't totally dominate, and some of his points weren't Krstic's fault.

The second biggest story had to be the deadly combo of Marcus Thornton and Darren Collison. Collison was dishing out the assists and making some clutch baskets, while Marcus Thornton was just plain scoring. They both did a serviceable job of combining to make up for Chris Paul's passing and scoring, but in the end, Darren Collison had 5 Turnovers, and Marcus Thornton shot 8 of 18. It was okay, but not enough to be able to beat a higher class team like the Thunder.

Russell Westbrook worked as the Thunder's very own Chris Paul, in his own way. He had 26 Points, 10 Assists, and 8 Rebounds, while only turning the ball over two times. He's tonight's far and away Thunder Wonder, especially with his clutch shot towards the end. And, obviously, Kevin Durant is the Thunder Down Under tonight, with 30 Points.....and not much else. He had 8 Turnovers, but I'm willing to forgive that when he scores as much as he does. Not to be ignored are Nenad Krstic with 14 Points and 6 Rebounds, Jeff Green with 14 Points, Nick Collison with 6 Points, 10 Rebounds, and 2 Steals, and Serge Ibaka with 6 Points, 8 Rebounds, and 2 Blocks.

With all of those good performances, someone has to have had a bad performance, right? Well, Eric Maynor had 1 Assist and 3 Turnovers, so he's an easy pick for the Thunder Blunder award. The Hornets all had pretty similar statistics, so it's hard to isolate a Thunder Plunderer, but I'll give it to Emeka Okafor. I know I said Nenad Krstic did a decent job of defending against him, and he did, but I'm giving it to Okafor because he was the most productive out of any of the Hornet players, and he grabbed a lot of rebounds.

Next Game: At the Warriors, Saturday, February 6th, 9:30 PM Central Standard Time