2012 NBA Western Conference Semifinals - Thunder vs. Lakers / Nuggets

[MDot]

Where is the optimism here? Thunder will be fully prepared mentally to play the Spurs by the time this Laker series is over. Thunder is too hungry to get intimidated by San Antonio, they never panic. You really think they are going to lose again in the WCF? We are in a great position right now.

There's optimism, just not the way you want to see it. The Thunder aren't entitled to winning the WCF just because they lost it last year. The Phoenix Suns lost in the WCF two years in a row, in 2005 to the San Antonio Spurs and in 2006 to the Dallas Mavericks.

We are in a great position as long as we don't let San Antonio get/stay hot from the 3-point line because that's how they beat us everytime, that and if we get hot and stay hot like we did in Game 1 vs L.A. with minimum TO's. After Game 1 and Game 2 it will be easier to tell if how the Thunder v. Spurs series will go, granted we get past the Lakers which I highly doubt we won't.

As long as we don't self-destruct and play smart we SHOULD be fine.

[OKCisOK4me]

Yeah, if Matt Bonner lights it up from downtown then we're gonna have hard games against SA. Let's get past the Lakers first. We are not going to win every game against them and especially not by 29 points.

Mdot, you don't think we will beat LA in this series?

[Snowman]

Crowd outside game 2 for party. Note this is mid game, they are watching on the big screen outside the arena.

[MDot]

Mdot, you don't think we will beat LA in this series?

I said I doubt they won't get past the Lakers meaning I think the Thunder win this series.

[ljbab728]

Can anyone say Metta World Nailbiter? Quite a difference from the first game but the result is the same. It doesn't matter if it's by 29 points or by 1 point.

[Dustin]

[dcsooner]

Yeah, if Matt Bonner lights it up from downtown then we're gonna have hard games against SA. Let's get past the Lakers first. We are not going to win every game against them and especially not by 29 points.

Mdot, you don't think we will beat LA in this series?

Fully agree with this position. It would be a huge mistake to take any games for granted, the west this year is very strong. One game at a time, arrogance will get us beat.

[dcsooner]

Crowd outside game 2 for party. Note this is mid game, they are watching on the big screen outside the arena.

This is truly an awesome sight. Can't even imagine a finals series crowd. But first things first.

[Roadhawg]

Crowd outside game 2 for party. Note this is mid game, they are watching on the big screen outside the arena.

Who said OKC isn't a pro sports town.....

[kevinpate]

Heard one of the announcers mention roughly 5-6 thou for folk outside watching on the big screen. Judging from this shot and the blimp shot they used, I don't doubt it at all. Watched most of it on tape delay. nice that they came back the way they did.

Did not understand several calls, but that's probably just the bball nubie coming out in me.

[BrettM2]

Did not understand several calls, but that's probably just the bball nubie coming out in me.

It was pretty brutal from an officiating standpoint. Extremely inconsistent in how they were calling things.

[Bullbear]

I have been to several games but this week was the first time to go to thunder Alley to watch the games. I have to say the energy is amazing and is a great time. last night was SUPER crowded and we got there at 645.. Great time!.. would love to see some arieal photos from later in the night if anyone has any screen catpures. I saw a few that were broadcast while we were watching the game. Will definately do that again if we don't have tickets.

[blangtang]

I was watching the TNT post-game and they showed a couple clips from this video...After the clip, Charles Barkley said something like "THIS CONFIRMED ONE THING TO ME, THERE'S NO BLACK PEOPLE IN OKC"

[Easy180]

Great to see the Thunder find a way to win with stinkers from KD and Harden

And Perk let's stick to defense and extremely close range shots...Few jump shots you had nearly knocked down the backboard

[ljbab728]

It's difficult to think anyone would take a basketball game this seriously but there are a lot of weird people out there especially in LA LA land.

http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/nba/s...hreats-twitter

"I hope your family gets murdered," read one tweet that Kristen Blake re-tweeted along with a single comment: "Wow."

[kevinpate]

I was watching the TNT post-game and they showed a couple clips from this video...After the clip, Charles Barkley said something like "THIS CONFIRMED ONE THING TO ME, THERE'S NO BLACK PEOPLE IN OKC"

Maybe a more likely scenario is most black people, like most other intelligent lifeforms, don't like Maroon 5 enough to bother with a parody of their music?

[ljbab728]

Well, we're going to get a least one more home game in this series. The local fans would love to finish off LA here.

[SoonerBoy18]

WORST OFFICIATED GAME EVER! Now the Laker fans acting like they never seen their team beat OKC before. Ridiculous!

[OSUMom]

I did see a few things call wise go our way, but I got to agree overall. Even the announcers kept going back and looking at stuff. "Nope, not a foul." I mean Harden isn't supposed to block a shot by Kobe? its not allowed?

[Soonerman]

Joey Crawford has to be the worst NBA official.

[ljbab728]

There were bad calls but I don't get too caught up in that. It usually averages out over a playoff series. Remember Dallas fuming about the calls that went against them. The Thunder just need to put themselves in a situation where a few bad calls won't decide the game.

[bluedogok]

The officials called it like a regular season game, 52 fouls (Thunder-30/Lakers-22) and 70 free throws (Lakers-42/Thunder28) with only three misses? Not sure that I can remember seeing so many touch fouls called in a playoff game, both teams made an incredible percentage at the line (Lakers-41/42, Thunder-26/28) and those 67 points were a huge factor in the game. The officials (maybe the league) dictated the tempo of this game, not the players.

[OSUMom]

I guess the two fouls on Harden for daring to block Kobe's shots were wiped out with the missed backcourt violation. Even though nothing came of that possission. It always makes me nervous when they hangout too close to that line.

[OKCisOK4me]

Yeah, KD got away with a backcourt violation as well.

[OSUMom]

KD's is the one I was talking about. Did someone else get away with one?