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Looking forward to a big weekend in OKC
Published: 6/1/2012 8:05 PM
Last Modified: 6/1/2012 8:05 PM

For the first time this postseason, I get a chance to watch the Oklahoma City Thunder in person Saturday.

Game 4 figures to be pivotal, answering many of the questions we've been left with after the first three games of the series.

Can the Thunder keep up the intensity it played with in Game 3? Will it continue to work the basketball for better shot attempts? How will Scott Brooks answer the inevitable adjustments made by San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich? Can OKC raise its level when faced with what should be a more focused Spurs team?

As the saying goes (thanks TNT's Ernie Johnson for pointing it out on the broadcast last night), a series doesn't truly start until the home team loses or someone faces elimination.

With that in mind, OKC is still the team under the gun in Game 4. Lose and the series is basically over. Win and the pressure falls back on San Antonio in Game 5.

The Spurs still appear to be the slightly better team, but I never expected the Thunder to run San Antonio out of the building like it did in Game 3.

At the very least OKC has made it a series, allowing the city and the state to reap the good things that come with that -- like the Governor sitting on the TNT set chatting it up with Kenny Smith, Shaquille O'Neal and Charles Barkley or the OKC mayor cracking wise on the Oklahoma-bashing Barkley via video clip.

Of course, you can only be the little engine that could for so long. At some point, you have to break through. The Thunder is close, but I originally said Spurs in six and will stick with that.

While in OKC, I'm hoping to make a side trip to the Women's College World Series. Although the spring NCAA championships don't receive the same attention as football and basketball, they can be every bit as entertaining -- and are every bit as meaningful for the teams and fans involved.

I only wish I could have gotten there when the temperatures were still in the 70s.

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The Editor's Desk

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters has nearly 20 years of daily newspaper experience. A 1993 graduate of Texas A&M, he worked at papers in Bryan-College Station, Texas, Beaumont, Texas, and Galveston, Texas, before joining the Houston Chronicle as High School Sports Editor in 2008. While in Houston, he coordinated coverage of the 2008 Texas Class 5A state football championships and the 2011 NCAA Men's Final Four.

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