Pregame 19: A Brooklyn Street Fight

Am I the only Thunder fan that wishes that Kris Humprhies would lay a hard foul on Perk? I am pretty sure we could apply Russel Westbrook to that situation and we would have about the same turnout as the Rondo confrontation. Anyways, back to the important stuff.

The Thunder play the Brooklyn Nets for the first time tonight, as the "Brooklyn" Nets did not exist until this year because of their move from New Jersey to Brooklyn. Surprisingly, The Nets come into tonight with an 11-5 record and 2 wins against Boston on top of a win against New York. They are getting increased input from their surprise leading scorer, center Brook Lopez, and input from assist specialist and Olympian Deron Williams along with rebound specialist Reggie Evans. It will be interesting to see how the Thunder handle the Nets and how well they do against this formidable team.

The Thunder come into tonight riding a 5 game win streak, even though it is against  teams such as Charlotte and New Orleans. They will get there first test tonight with a team that is put together and clicking, a team that has a chip on their shoulder and who is ready to show the NBA how legitimate of a team they really are.

Now onto the stats.

"So musical a discord. Such sweet thunder"~ William Shakespeare

Stat Leaders

Oklahoma City Thunder

Stat per game/leader/avg.stat

Points- Kevin Durant(26.2)
Rebounds- Kevin Durant(8.7)
Assists- Russell Westbrook(8.7)
Steals- Russell Westbrook(2.1)
Blocks- Serge Ibaka(3.3)

Brooklyn Nets

Points- Brook Lopez(18.5)
Rebounds- Reggie Evans(8.4)
Assists- Deron Williams(8.9)
Steals- Gerald Wallace(1.9)
Blocks- Brook Lopez(2.5)

Important Player of the Game

Thunder: Russel Westbrook. One of the best players on the Brooklyn Nets' team is Deron Williams. Russell will have to work all night and with full energy to lock in on D-Will. Look to see Russell have one of those nights where he is just making everything, proving he is the better of the two guards.

Nets: Andray Blatche and Kris Humphries. Brook Lopez, the Nets leading scorer and blocker, is out of this game tonight. Blatche will have to fill in for Humpries and Humpries will move down to center for most of the night. With Humphries being the more energetic and nimble of the too, Perkins will have use his fundamentals to ensure he doesn't get smoked tonight.

Three Keys to the Game

1. Russell vs. Deron. Russell will need to play will need to play with energy tonight but must ensure that he plays sound defense and doesn't get lazy with his shooting form and off-ball defense. 
2. Perkins. With Brook Lopez out, Kendrick will have to secure the paint and make sure to use fundamentals to counteract the athleticism of the power forward moved down to the center position.
3. Pressure. The Thunder are feeling good right now with their 5 game winning streak but are going to be effected by pressure in two ways. The Thunder need to keep the pedal to the metal and not hold back  against this team. The Thunder will also have to deal with the pressure of not allowing this team to get under their skin and lure them into laziness. 

Thunder play the Nets in Brooklyn @ 6:30PM CT. You can see the game at Fox Sports Oklahoma or listen to the game on WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)

(Credit: ESPN Stats and Information)