Pregame 25: Thunder Vs. Hawks

                         vs.

When: Wednesday, December 19 @ 6:30 PM CT

Where: Oklahoma City- Chesapeake Arena

Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)

TV: Fox Sports Southwest (Cox 37, HD 722; Tulsa Cox 27; DirectTV 679; UVerse 754)

Stream: Click Here

OKC heads out to Atlanta tonight to face the Hawks for the second time this season. Last meeting between these two teams ended up in a 104-95 loss for the Thunder. 

Atlanta has played fairly well in the wake of losing one of the best players last year to trade, Joe Johnson. Johnson, having been traded to the Nets, had been an integral part of the offense for the Hawks but had become too much of a financial burden with his high priced contract. Atlanta traded Johnson for Jordan Farmar, several non-essential role players, and a first-round protected pick in 2013. Atlanta has gone on to put up a 15-7 record, mostly against lower-tier Eastern Conference teams, with one marque against the Memphis Grizzlies, 93-83. Players such as Josh Smith, Al Horford, and Jeff Teague bear the scoring weight for the team, with several quality bench players like Zaza Pachulia and especially Louis Williams, the primary sixth man for the Hawks. 

Oklahoma City comes into Atlanta riding a league-best 11 wins in a row, mostly at home, including a 14-point win in a rematch of the Western Conference Finals from a season ago against the Spurs. The Thunder have been playing at a feverish pace as of late, beating many of the teams during the streak by double-digits and destroying Charlotte by a franchise-best 45 points. Kevin Durant and Co. have done quite the job lately passing the ball around with Russell Westbrook leading the charge, assisting and leading the Thunder with 8+ assists a game. 

In the last match-up between these two teams, two factors were key, Turnovers and Play in the 4th quarter. OKC turned the ball over 21 times which resulted in 31 points for Atlanta. Surging in the 4th quarter, compounded with non-existent defense from the Thunder, Atlanta closed the game out and registered the W in the Chesapeake Arena. However, after only 20 games,  Oklahoma City is worlds apart from the team they were at the beginning of the season. 3 games into the season, OKC had traded the reigning sixth man of the year 3 days before the first game. Kevin Martin was just integrating himself into the offense and the team was just learning to deal the lost of such an important player in their lineup. Now 24 games into the season, Martin has integrated himself into the offense fairly well, and the Thunder has found a rhythm on both sides of the ball. It will be extremely interesting to see how the Thunder fair in the second instance of the match-up. 

Points of Interest 

• Martin: Martin had his coming out game early in the season, scoring 28 points against the Hawks in the first match-up. It will be interesting to see how he plays against Atlanta tonight and whether or not he can repeat his performance. 
• Assists: The Thunder assisted very well in the first game, registering 27 assists despite the loss. With the rhythm and increased play from the team, assisting as such should result in another win for the Thunder. 
• Russell: Westbrook shot 5-18 in the last match-up against the Hawks, so increased offensive output from Russell should surely change the result the second time around. 

Go Thunder!