Monday Bolts – 4.5.10

John Rohde with a nice story on how awesome you fans are: “To celebrate the Thunder’s rise from the dead this season, roughly 100 people assembled early Easter Sunday outside a private hangar at Will Rogers World Airport. Fans lined a chain-link fence to greet the Thunder upon its return from a playoff-clinching victory Saturday night in Dallas. Roughly 18 hours later, a sellout crowd of 18,203 showed up at the Ford Center, and the rejoicing continued with the Thunder’s 116-108 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.”

ESPNLosAngeles’s Laker blog broke down the Lakers most favorable matchups: “I don’t know that OKCwill go far in the playoffs, because they are too young to be counted on, but I’d rather not see that type of youthful exuberance in the playoffs. A matchup with them is like Russian Roulette. They’ll probably kill themselves, but if not you might be dead.”

From Howlin’ T-Wolf: “But what probably makes [Durant] more enjoyable to watch besides his fluent style of play and game-changing abilities is the fact that Durant seems like just a good, genuine guy. He appears nice and is cool-headed on the court while keeping to himself as he does his thing. Watching Lebron jaw back-and-forth with Kevin Garnett earlier today in the Celtics-Cavaliers match-up made me feel dirty inside. It’s surprising how many cuss words you can read off a person’s lips while watching television. But see, Durant doesn’t do that. He is a stern guy who takes his job seriously but still knows the appropriate time to crack a smile and think, “Man, I’m having a good time.” And that is why I will be rooting for the Oklahoma City Thunder in this year’s NBA Playoffs. Also, I hope K.D. knows that if I were to have an MVP vote, it would be going straight to him.”

Did you know Oklahoma City is just 1.5 games out of second in the West. AND controls its own destiny to win the Northwest Division?

A good story from Darnell Mayberry on the turnaround for Eric Maynor: “Brooks’ breaking point came early in the second quarter. Maynor tossed up a running jumper with 10:34 to play in the first half and let a 3-pointer fly two possessions later. On the next dead-ball, starter Russell Westbrook made an unusually early return with just less than nine minutes remaining in the second quarter. The next time it was Westbrook’s turn for a breather, Kevin Ollieassumed the backup role with 1:31 left in the third period. Maynor never saw the court again. He played just six minutes that night. He went 0-for-3 from the field and 0-for-2 from 3-point range. Maynor had zero assists, zero rebounds and two fouls.”

Mayberry’s thoughts on the game: “Thunder coach Scott Brooks talked after the game about how the Thunder needs to get its defensive tenacity back. He acknowledged that having some versatility in their winning ways is beneficial. But he reiterated that the way this team is going to be successful will be from locking down defensively. Durant joked afterward that the team’s hallmark has reversed from the start of the season. At the beginning of the year, the offense was what needed help while the defense stood out.”

A great piece from News 9 on a kid getting an Easter wish.

PBT: “Thunder weren’t’ that good in this game. Kevin Durant was. Some nights, your star goes off and he gets the job done. That’s what happened.”

I hate to plead to the masses, but these are unique circumstances: Does anyone have an extra pair or know of an extra pair of tickets for Wednesday’s game against Denver ($10 tickets preferred… we’re poor)? It’s obviously sold out. One of Mrs. Daily Thunder’s good friends is singing the Star Spangled Banner that night and of course, she’d like to go in support.

The Lost Ogle was all over this little inaccuracy from last night’s broadcast.

Magic Number Watch: ZERO all around! You can OFFICIALLY buy you Why Not? shirt now and not worry about an awful jinx. So go get it.