The Oklahoma City Thunder are going for a 1-1 series tie with the LA Clippers as Game 2 hits the NBA schedule on Wednesday and the team is coming into things down one game in the standings and Kevin Durant has the chance to show off his MVP hardware, as the game will be on at 9:30 pm ET on TNT and comes after the Washington Wizards and Indiana Pacers play their second matchup.
The Thunder lost only seven games at home last season and now they have already dropped one to the Clippers and that came after a fantastic game from point guard Chris Paul. Durant will be honored before the game for winning the MVP award and that means he will be even more in focus than usual as the Thunder try to tie up the series. Durant is averaging nearly 30 points per game in the playoffs and he will need to be at his best for OKC to tie things up with the Clips.
LA has been playing with a ton of adversity with the whole Donald Sterling situation and they have started off hot and they will try and get a 2-0 lead heading into Game 3, which will be at the Staples Center. Paul had 32 points in the game on Monday night along with 10 assists and he had eight three-pointers in the game as well and showed everyone that he can be a scorer as well as a playmaker.
Paul is the key cog for the Clippers and he has played well alongside DeAndre Jordan and Blake Griffin, who have given the Clips a legit chance at making it to the finals. Jordan has really come on since late in the Warriors series, while players like JJ Redick and Danny Granger have also been very solid contributors. Russell Westbrook led the Thunder in scoring in the last game with 29 points and for the Thunder to win on Wednesday, it will have to be Durant leading the way. Durant just won his MVP award and now if he doesn't win a title, the talk will go towards what it did with LeBron until he does.
The NBA has gotten the matchups it wants in every series this year and they would love nothing more than Durant to face off against LeBron James in the finals.
LeBron James and the Miami Heat took care of business on Tuesday for a 1-0 series lead over the Nets, while the San Antonio Spurs did the same with the Portland Trail Blazers and neither of those games was close. LeBron James scored 22 points and he bested the 17 from Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, while Tony Parker continued his hot play for the Spurs while adding 33 points and LaMarcus Aldridge had 32 points for the Blazers and now he has averaged 30 points thus far in the postseason after putting up back to back 40 point games in the first round.
