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Thunder is in good shape... for now
Published: 5/17/2012 6:18 PM
Last Modified: 5/17/2012 6:21 PM

Another late night, another miraculous comeback by the Oklahoma City Thunder.

In Round 1, Kevin Durant delivered a dagger that eventually sunk the defending NBA champion Dallas Mavericks.

Fast forward to Wednesday night, and OKC scored the last nine points to erase a seven-point LA Lakers lead in the game's final two minutes.

Oklahoma City is riding high and not even the long trip to Los Angeles should change that.

Rather than another example of the Thunder's coming of age, ESPN is billing Wednesday night as a "Lakers Meltdown."

But that's not really a terrible thing for OKC. At this point, there's nothing wrong with staying under the radar.

That, however, will all change in the likely event OKC advances to its second straight Western Conference final (my guess is in five games, but you remember how my last Thunder series guess turned out).

San Antonio, which will likely win the other Western Conference semifinal, plays the game at an entirely different level than Dallas and the Lakers.

That means OKC will have to end the type of play that has made those mad dashes in the fourth quarter necessary.

On the TNT post-game show, Charles Barkley (who was a great interview as a player by the way) called the Thunder half-court offense "atrocious."

He's not wrong. OKC's habit of shooting long, contested jump shots (a problem that aided an 0-for-7 start from the field in the third quarter and a 3-for-12 start in the fourth Wednesday) must end against a team like the Spurs who know how to hold a lead.

The Thunder are so much better creating offense by driving to the basket or scoring on the fast break. Case in point:
* The Thunder have a 31-5 advantage in fast break points through the first two games against LA.
* OKC scored eight of its last nine points Wednesday inside seven feet of the basket.

The Thunder's youth should be enough to derail LA, especially with Games 3 and 4 being played back-to-back.

But it will take more than young legs if OKC has championship aspirations.

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pgtulsa (9 months ago)

I would look at south beach if you want to discuss a meltdown. I thnk the Thunder are more well equipped to handle the Spurs than the Jazz or Clippers. Well see how it plays out but I like our chances.

Tulsa World Sports Editor Michael Peters (9 months ago)

No kidding. I'm not a LeBron hater, but those guys no showed yesterday. Pitiful. It's one thing to defer to teammates, but quite another to not even touch the ball in crunch time. That team is a mess right now.

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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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