Thunder vs Mavericks: Pregame Primer

vs.

Mavericks (36-19, 19-10 road) vs. Thunder (28-25, 16-8 home)

TV: TNT
Stream:  Click here
Radio:  WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 1300 AM The Buzz Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 105.5 (15th), Mavericks  – 111.6 (3rd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.6 (10th), Mavericks – 105.0 (15th)

The Thunder starts in on the final 29 games of the season tonight against the Dallas Mavericks. The NBA’s Red-River Rivalry continues at the Peake tonight, but it will be without some key components as the Thunder pulled the trigger on a major trade sending Reggie Jackson to the Pistons for D.J. Augustine and Kyle Singler and Kendrick Perkins to the Jazz for Enes Kanter and Steve Novak. Grant Jerrett was also included in the three-team deal. Also, Ish Smith was sent to the Pelicans in a separate deal.

The next few days should be interesting as players are coming in and out, for now let’s take a page out of OKC’s book and just “take it one game at a time”.

3 Big Things

1. KD. Presti can pull all the strings he wants and improve the roster but none of it matters if Kevin Durant, and his lingering injuries, don’t hold up. Durant played just 10 minutes in Sunday’s All-Star Game and is said to be feeling much better after a few days off. Tonight will be a good gauge of where he’s at going up against a tough Mavericks team. He’ll likely play a lot of minutes at power forward with the lack of bigs on the roster tonight.

2. Rebounding. Tonight the Thunder will have McGary and Collison split minutes at center tonight. Not have Adams’ and Perkins’ rebounding ability down low could come into play with Tyson Chandler on the floor for Dallas. Westbrook and Durant will likely be more active on the glass tonight.

3. Energy. The Thunder was rolling before the break, winning 5 of its last 6 games. How will 8 days off treat this team? We’re about to find out. Many times too much rest can be a bad thing, sometimes extended rest is just what the doctor ordered.

The crowd should be live tonight with the news of the trade and general excitement around welcoming the team back for the home stretch. The starting unit will need to feed off that and take control of the game early with so few available players. Simply put, this needs to be the night Westbrook and Durant avalanche the Mavs and put this thing away.

(last) Wednesday’s COTN: “So we’ve beaten the two top teams in the West – not bad” – @ThunderWins

looking up.

Tip at 7:00 CT. Go Home Stretch.

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