Pregame 30: Sunny, With A Chance of Thunder

VS.

Where: Oklahoma City, Oklahoma - Chesapeake Arena

When: Monday, December 31 @ 7 PM CST

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

Tonight, the Oklahoma City face the Phoenix Suns for the first time this season. 

The Phoenix Suns do not have much interest as of late after the loss of their future HOFers, Steve Nash and Grant Hil. Before the loss of arguably the most important player for the Suns since Shaq, Steve Nash, Phoenix was at least a playoff contenders even if they were usually a 7th or 8th seed. However, if the season were to end today, Phoenix 

would be at the bottom of the Pacific Division and second-to-last in the Western Conference. 

The Suns are one of the more plain teams in the NBA, with no potential All-Stars, no future HOFers, and no big, standout players on the roster. If anything, Phoenix has become a hodgepodge group of players that other NBA teams traded for draft picks or players that were simply let into free agency by their teams. Channing Frye, Shannon Brown, Luis Scola and Jermaine O'Neal did not start their career with the Suns. None of the players on the team are very flashy, with most if not all the players having average to below average stats. Look for Goran Dragic and Marcin Gortat to be the most important players for the Suns and the players leading in points and rebounds, respectively.

Oklahoma City comes into the game playing some inspired ball, with some of the spunk from their 12 game winning streak flowing through their veins. OKC is only on a 2 game winning streak, but a couple games is all it takes to start another long streak of wins. An overtime win against Dallas and a 30-point win vs. Houston has put some pep in the step of the boys and the confidence of a big win against a struggling Suns team will only help the Thunder. Russell seems to have wrestled himself out of a recent shooting slump and the team is getting back some of their pre-christmas rhythm. All this leads to even more confidence and good things to come for Oklahoma City. 

Prediction: 109-82 Thunder 

Thunder Up!