I mean, the freaking wheels came off, or something. I don’t know what’s happened to the formerly-lowly Timberwolves, but McHale’s Navy came on like gangbusters tonight, opening up a 42-24 lead after the first quarter and then expanding on it in the following stanzas, thrashing the Thunder, 129-87. This is, I think, the first time I’ve ever seen garbage time starting in the third quarter.

And Minnesota could do no wrong: Randy Foye got 26 of his 32 points in the first half, five other Wolves scored in double figures, and twelve of 28 treys fell their way. They owned the boards (57 rebounds, including 18 off the offensive glass), and they capitalized on the usual 15 Oklahoma City turnovers.

It seems almost irrelevant to mention the two double-doubles in Thunderdom: Russell Westbrook (16 points, 12 assists) and Nick Collison (17 points, 10 rebounds). The Thunder shot 39.8 percent, and Kevin Durant would love to have been that effective: he was 3 for 13 with a mere 9 points. We did, however, see the debut of Nenad Krstić, who played 14 minutes, scoring 6 and rebounding 5.

Chucky Atkins must be wondering what the hell he’s getting into. In the meantime, there’s a long flight home, and the arrival of the Houston Rockets on Friday.

The Oklahoman’s Mike Baldwin floated this curious statistic:

Oklahoma City shot 52.7 percent from the field [against the Knicks]. Oddly, the Thunder is only 2-7 when shooting 50 percent or better.

Yeah, but they’re 3-23 when they miss more than they hit. Compared to that, “only 2-7″ sounds downright wonderful.

So the Knicks, fresh from beating the tar out of the Celtics, fall to the Thunder. What kind of world is this?

It’s not that the New Yorkers brought a knife to a gunfight, either: the Knickerbocker trey was deployed 34 times, with 11 successes, and Al Harrington, off the bench, contributed 21 points, mostly in the second half. But the Thunder had something going here, running to a 23-point lead in the third quarter, watching it shrink to a mere two, and then gutting it out the rest of the way to a 107-99 win.

New York shot a feeble 39.8 percent, but they put up so many shots that some of them had to fall, and indeed six Knicks landed in double figures. And OKC had the D: the Thunder blocked eight shots — Joe Smith got four of them before fouling out — and pulled off nine steals. Furthermore, the Thunder outrebounded the Knicks, 46-35, shot 52.7 percent, and apparently they’ve been working on moving the ball around: they recorded 23 assists, including nine from Russell Westbrook and six from Earl Watson.

Kevin Durant sat for a whole 2:21 tonight; he spent the rest of the time scoring 27 points and pulling down 12 boards. Jeff Green also banged down 27; Westbrook had 22. New guy Nenad “Krispy” Krstić, having just gotten his work visa, was on hand but did not play.

So two for four on the homestand. And I remember telling you this:

I suspect the Thunder will take out their frustrations on the Knicks.

Consider them taken. Now it’s off to Minnesota.

It was the biggest collection of points the Thunder had accumulated all season, and yet somehow it wasn’t enough: Carmelo Anthony sank a trey in the last fraction of a second to win it for the Nuggets, 122-120, in front of a stunned Ford Center crowd.

It should have been easier for Denver, the Northwest leader. They had all the pieces: a healthy Nene, who rang up 27 points while missing only one field goal all night; Chauncey Billups was seriously hot in the second half and finished with 24, including four treys; and ‘Melo, who had 31, never misses in the clutch.

But this one was in doubt right up until that last shot by Anthony. The Thunder generated tons of offense, with six players in double figures and Kevin Durant, who’d gotten a trey with 2.7 seconds left, had 33 points and nine rebounds. OKC shot an unheard-of (for OKC) 58.4 percent and sank 22 of 26 free throws. Robert Swift made it through 23 minutes: he scored only three, but he blocked three shots. And the Forgotten Men, Earl Watson and Damien Wilkins, combined for 31 points.

It would have been nice, but it wasn’t meant to be. I suspect the Thunder will take out their frustrations on the Knicks, who arrive Tuesday.

Fireworks in the Ford Center! The second visit from the Golden State Warriors started out much like the first, with a six-point lead after the first quarter and the fans wondering just where the heck the Thunder offense was. And just like last time, six Warriors finished in double figures: Kelenna Azubuike did the most damage, with 24 points, all in the second half. But the Thunder have been working on their damage control, and they held the high-flying Warriors to a mere 15 points in the third quarter, building up a lead and making it stand up in the fourth. It’s OKC’s fourth win, 107-100.

Not to say that Golden State was ever completely out of it until the end: they led through the first half, and center Andris Biedrins was fearsome, nabbing 13 boards, 6 off the offensive glass, and scoring 15 points. And the Warriors deployed the trey with frequency and occasional accuracy: they connected on 9 of 21 from beyond the arc. (Azubuike and C. J. Watson got four each from off the bench.)

But OKC ruled where they had to: points in the paint (60-36), rebounds (45 to 35), and forcing turnovers (they had 18, but the Warriors had 20). They even outshot Golden State, 48.2 percent to 46.1. The Kevin Durant Show was almost the whole game: more than 45 minutes, in which KD scored 25 and got 10 boards. Jeff Green hung around for almost 44 and contributed 26 points. But the secret weapon was Chris Wilcox, who swatted away three shots and hauled in nine boards while scoring 23. Robert Swift is gradually getting more minutes: he played 12 tonight, getting 5 points and 4 rebounds. Earl Watson, from whom we hadn’t heard much lately, put in 34 minutes and scored 11. And Russell Westbrook, getting a little bit of a rest, was on hand for 31 minutes; he got 11 points and five steals.

Okay, “back over .100″ isn’t worth a whole lot of bragging rights, but we’ll take it. And with Denver due in Friday night, we could use the boost. The last time these two teams met, the scoreboard went wild: 298 points scored. Then again, that was in Seattle.

I’m guessing it was the strain of scoring 87 points in three quarters that undid the Thunder tonight: it would be almost halfway through the fourth before they’d get any more, and this was despite the absence of Steve Nash, who exited early with back spasms, and the temporary absence of Shaquille O’Neal, who doesn’t do 40 minutes a game anymore but still makes for a fearsome presence. Six Suns wound up in double figures, and the final was Phoenix 110, Oklahoma City 102.

Shaq wasn’t seen at all last time the Suns were here; they generally don’t work him both days of a back-to-back. This time, though, he was ferocious, scoring 28, grabbing 11 boards, and blocking two shots. What’s more, he even made the majority of his free throws (8 of 12). With Nash sidelined, Leandro Barbosa and Matt Barnes filled in entirely too admirably.

The Thunder actually outshot Phoenix on a percentage basis, 52.8 to 50.0, but the Suns got twelve more attempts, reward for getting 14 offensive rebounds. (OKC managed only 7.) Kevin Durant was mostly bottled up tonight, shooting 5 for 17, though he still came up with 18 points. Russell Westbrook had a 15-point first quarter and finished with 31 despite turning the ball over six times. Jeff Green double-doubled again: 22 points, 11 rebounds. And Robert Swift got to hang around longer than five minutes this time: in 20 minutes he got six points and six boards. Chris Wilcox scored eight in relief; Nick Collison and Johan Petro were sighted briefly.

So the home stand starts badly. Golden State will be here to finish off 2008. You have to hope that 2009 will be better.

You’d think that the 4-23 Washington Wizards would have presented the Thunder with a reasonable shot at a win, especially with both Gilbert Arenas and Caron Butler out of the picture. Not tonight. The Team Formerly Known As The Bullets got off a hundred shots in 48 minutes, what with 21 offensive rebounds and what seemed to be an endless series of OKC turnovers, and if they only connected on 45 of those shots, well, that’s 90 points. (Actually, it’s 93 points; they got three treys.) Judging by the final score — Washington 104, Oklahoma City 95 — it was more than enough.

The Thunder started falling behind in the third quarter, made up most of the difference by the start of the fourth, and then collapsed. There was offense from the usual suspects: the Kevin Durant Show produced 25 points and 11 rebounds, and Jeff Green knocked down 23. At the other end of the spectrum, Robert Swift registered five trillion, and he was +3, which tells you more than you wanted to know.

Meanwhile, Andray Blatche was grabbing 15 boards and scoring 19 points, Antawn Jamison was leading all scorers with 29, and neither Butler nor Arenas was missed. (Juan Dixon, who scored 13 off the bench, did much of the damage in the final period.)

Before the game started, the Elias Sports Bureau, which exists largely to come up with stuff like this, noted that the teams’ combined records were 7-50, the worst ever in the NBA this late in the season. OKC still has a shot at surpassing the ‘72-’73 Sixers, who went 9-73, though Philadelphia actually recovered somewhat in the latter half of that annus horribilis: they won four of six during a stretch in February.

The Suns are in town Monday.

In the end, it was Allen Iverson who made the difference: a runner with a mere 0.3 seconds left to give the Pistons a 90-88 win over the surprisingly-pesky Thunder, who had stayed close through three quarters, then fallen behind by 14, and then somehow fought back to a tie in the final minute.

Nobody shot especially well tonight: Detroit was 45.3 percent from the floor, Oklahoma City 45.1, and treys were conspicuous by their comparative absence. The Thunder, though, managed to miss seven free throws out of a mere 19 tries.

Iverson paced the Pistons with 22 points, more than half of which came in the final frame; Tayshaun Prince had the night’s only double-double (16 points, 11 boards). The Detroit bench combined for a mere 20, half of which came from Antonio McDyess.

Then again, the Thunder bench combined for a mere 20, half of which came from Chris Wilcox, who spelled Joe Smith in the middle while Nick Collison is out. (Smith just missed the d/d: 9 points, 10 rebounds.) Kevin Durant did his usual fourth-quarter burst and finished with 26; Desmond Mason, who hadn’t been an offensive power lately, came up with 8.

In the end, though, the biggest attraction of this game might have been waiting for Rasheed Wallace to draw a technical, which would have been his twelfth of the season. (After 15, every other T gets a one-game suspension.) Sheed was a bit mouthy — when isn’t he? — but apparently it wasn’t enough to annoy the officials.

The road trip concludes tomorrow in Washington, where the only really good news is that the Arenas-less Wizards are nearly as woeful as the Thunder.

Addendum: The wire services are all reporting that The Answer’s last bucket came with 0.2 seconds left. What they aren’t reporting is that the clock was backed up to 0.3 before the next possession.

The Hawks don’t lose many games at home, and they didn’t lose this one: Oklahoma City was down only one after three quarters, but after that they forgot where the basket was or something, and meanwhile Joe Johnson was putting together a triple-double: 20 points, 11 boards, 11 assists. Final: Atlanta 99, Oklahoma City 88. And Joe Smith was responsible for five points in the last minute: a trey for the Thunder and a two-pointer for Atlanta via goaltending, which somehow seems to sum up the game.

With Nick Collison grounded, Smith started in the middle, and Robert Swift showed up for a five-minute outing, but the biggest of the bigs tonight was Chris Wilcox, who reeled in 12 rebounds and scored 19 points from off the bench. OKC was all over the boards, in fact, outrebounding the Hawks 52-40; but baskets that could maybe have been bought weren’t, especially in the final quarter. The Kevin Durant Show was good for 28, and Jeff Green ventured into Double-Double Land (18 points, 14 boards), but that was pretty much the extent of the OKC offense: Desmond Mason missed all eight of his shots from the floor, Earl Watson was 1-of-8, and Russell Westbrook went 5-for-14. Call it 37.4 percent, or just call it forlorn.

In the meantime, four Hawks were sporting double figures: Marvin Williams had 21, Josh Smith 19 and Mike Bibby 14, to go with Johnson’s trifecta. The Atlanta bench didn’t do much until garbage time, but then they didn’t have to.

Next outing is Friday in Detroit. It’s gonna be a long week, if it isn’t already.

TrueHoop’s Henry Abbott gets the scoop on the Nenad Krstić story, from the agency that represents the former New Jersey center:

Krstić was very happy at Triumph Moscow, and was paid in full. This isn’t, she says, about fleeing a bad situation. He was in Moscow because he had a frustrating year recovering from injury with the Nets, and had been looking to re-establish himself as a player. But his long-term dream was always to play in the NBA, and when that opportunity arose mid-season, he jumped on it.

The Nets have until the 30th to match the offer sheet. NetsDaily suggests that New Jersey has more options than just thumbs up or thumbs down:

The simplest thing would be for the Nets to dump someone on the roster and match the offer. The Nets could make a trade this week — a 2-for-1 or a 3-for-2. That way, they could drop below 15 roster spots and maybe even reduce their payroll. Even if they don’t, the Nets, unlike a lot of teams, don’t have to worry about the luxury tax. They’re $9 million under the tax threshold.

And it’s conceivable that the offer sheet could be rescinded in favor of a three-way deal yet to be hammered out:

For example, one sign-and-trade could involve OKC’s second round pick. An OKC second round pick will be the 31st pick and with only a minimal amounts of smarts could be a better than a late first round pick, since teams don’t have to … commit to a two-year contract.

They could also ask for DeVon Hardin’s draft rights.

Hardin, drafted #50 by the Thunder while they were still the Sonics, has been playing in Europe; he’s worked out with the Nets before.

Or it could go this way:

[T]here are players on the Thunder roster the Nets could be interested in: Chris Wilcox, who they have long coveted; Joe Smith, a solid veteran presence; Earl Watson, a potential third point guard/swing man.

Either Wilcox or Smith makes more sense than Watson here, as the departure of The Earl would leave Russell Westbrook without a backup, or with Kyle Weaver, which is much the same thing.

And inasmuch as the Thunder have 15 bodies on the roster, one will have to go to make room for Krstić anyway. They could, I suppose, waive Steven Hill, but he just got here.

The last time we went through this, the Cavaliers opened up a 13-0 lead to start things off and King James only had to put in seventeen minutes.

LeBron had to work a bit harder in Oklahoma City, but the Cavs’ defense was as good as ever, and toward the end of the third quarter they started shutting down what had been fairly-efficient production from the Thunder, who had stayed close, even grabbed brief leads, up to that point. The final was 102-91.

Speaking of LeBron, he played almost 43 minutes. He scored 31, and lest you think he’s some sort of ball hog, he served up seven assists, a third of the Cavs’ total. Mo Williams contributed 20 to the cause, with 18 from deadeye Delonte West. The Cavs shot 55.3 percent and made nine of 17 from beyond the arc, but were outrebounded, 41-32, one reason Oklahoma City managed to hang on for so long.

The Thunder bench didn’t put in a whole lot of time, what with the starters constantly busy. OKC shot 44.3 percent and made seven of 15 treys. The Kevin Durant Show, stretched to 43 minutes, produced 26 points; double-doubles for Russell Westbrook (24 points, 11 assists) and Jeff Green (16 points, 10 rebounds). Once again, turnovers were troublesome: sixteen of them, including eleven steals by Cleveland. Foul shooting, at 14 of 19, was improved but still not great.

Still, the sellout crowd got to enjoy the first half, apart from a couple of calls that drew boos for the officials, and after all, how often do we get to see LeBron?

Now to hit the road. The Hawks will be waiting on Tuesday.

When the Thunder ran up a thirteen-point lead in the second quarter, I was just about to wonder how they’d blow it this time, and sure enough, with four minutes left, it was tied at 76. But this one would not get away: OKC wangled a trey, buckets were swapped, the Thunder led by three, Chris Bosh missed a free throw, and the Raptors wouldn’t get another good look until the last few seconds. Meanwhile, the OKC Wunderkinder doled out a fair portion of smack, and the Thunder got their third win, 91-83.

What’s odd here is that Chris Bosh never misses a free throw. But he bricked four of them tonight, including two in a row. Still, he pocketed a double-double, 22 points and 16 rebounds. Toronto did not shoot well: 36.4 percent, and only two of 17 from beyond the arc. And it didn’t help them that Jermaine O’Neal retreated to the locker room late in the second quarter with a sore shoulder. Andrea Bargnani performed solidly from off the bench, though, with 16 points.

Tonight, though, belonged to the home team. Scott Brooks came up with another starting lineup, this time with Desmond Mason at shooting guard and Nick Collison in the middle. They couldn’t hit from the stripe, missing 11 of 27 — Chris Wilcox missed four of them in rapid succession — and there were an appalling 18 turnovers. But there was offense: the Kevin Durant Show was good for 26 points; Russell Westbrook, mojo regained, had 19; Collison just missed a double-double with 10 points and 9 boards. (OKC ruled the boards, 54-48; Mason had ten of them.) Shooting was fairly mediocre, at 44.4 percent, but it was sufficient unto the night.

So the Thunder have finally beaten a team from the East. And they’ve got to play more of them: the Cavs are here Sunday, and then it’s off to Atlanta, Detroit and Washington before coming back home and facing the Suns.

The Oklahoman’s Mike Baldwin drops this bombshell:

It’s doubtful the Thunder can sign [Chris] Bosh, [LeBron] James, Dwyane Wade or Amare Stoudemire. But you never know. [GM Sam] Presti is clearing about $40 million of cap space for the 2010-11 season.

I suspect, though, that these guys are thinking more “Where can I go to get a shot at a championship ring?” than “Where can I go to watch a rebuilding year firsthand?”

And this doesn’t take into account reports that OKC has made an offer to former Nets center Nenad Krstić to the tune of $15.6 million over three years, assuming Krstić can be retrieved from deepest Russia. That’s got to eat some cap space.

The Clippers may actually have gotten to the point where they’re not awful: they’d won two straight, and in their previous win (over the Rockets) all five of the starters had scored in double figures. They did it again tonight. You might think that this doesn’t leave a lot for the bench, and it didn’t — the Clips’ reserves contributed a mere ten points — but what counted in this game was defense, and three quarters out of four the Clippers did a bang-up job of keeping the Thunder from scoring. Final: Los Angeles 98, Oklahoma City 88.

It should be noted that the Thunder did a pretty efficient job of keeping themselves from scoring: they gave up twenty turnovers and missed 10 of 24 free throws. And while the OKC bench did yeoman work, scoring 38, sometimes I wondered what the deal was with the starters. The Kevin Durant Show was good for the usual 25, and Chris Wilcox, who was supposed to be out for another couple of games, had a semi-hot hand, scoring 13. Earl Watson remains the Dime King, serving up 12 assists. Neither Jeff Green nor Russell Westbrook worked miracles, though both scored in double figures.

The Clips’ Eric Gordon had an unusually-hot night, with 22 points; Zach Randolph had a typically-hot night, with 22 points. Baron Davis stole the ball five times and pulled off some seemingly-impossible shots on the way to a 19-point game.

Two more games at home before hitting the road again: the on-again-off-again Raptors, and the apparently-always-on Cavs.

And second prize is two nights in Texas.

The Spurs fired off trey after trey in the first quarter and took a 20-point lead after the first quarter, extending it to 26 points in the second. The Thunder refused to lie down and die, and gradually whittled away at that lead, getting it down to two with 29 seconds left. But Manu Ginobili put it away with a three-point play, and the Spurs won it, 109-104.

Still, I suppose if you’re going to have a bad quarter, the one to have is the first: at least you have a chance to recover. And in the subsequent three, Oklahoma City outscored San Antonio, 85 to 70.

The Thunder shot a respectable 52.4 percent, slightly better than the Spurs. Big differences: fouls (OKC 22, SA 13) and assists (OKC 19, SA 28). Tony Parker had seven consecutive points in the fourth quarter and 22 total, leading San Antonio; Tim Duncan had a double-double (20 points, 11 rebounds).

Speaking of double-doubles, Kevin Durant had one of those: 28 points, 13 rebounds. And Jeff Green keeps increasing his season high, which is now 33. Russell Westbrook got into foul trouble early and played only 19 minutes, during which time he scored 2; Earl Watson ran the point most of the night and collected 9. Kyle Weaver played an entire quarter, for what it’s worth.

I have a feeling that whatever frustration has been building up is going to be taken out on the somewhat-less-hapless Los Angeles Clippers Tuesday night at the Ford. Difficulty: the Clips have actually won two straight.

The Mavericks are apparently two-trick ponies, but oh, those tricks: Dirk Nowitzki dropped in 46 points, and Jason Terry added 28 more. Despite that, the Thunder played them close most of the night, and even led for much of the way, but five turnovers in the fourth quarter gave the game away. Final: Dallas 103, Oklahoma City 99.

In fact, the OKC numbers were superior to the Mavs’ in several areas: rebounds (48 to 38), steals (8 to 4), and free throws (16/17 to 14/20). Jeff Green matched his season high with 25 points, Kevin Durant had 22, and Russell Westbrook had 19. Radio guy Matt Pinto insists that the Mavs got the benefit of some dubious calls in the fourth quarter, which might even be true, but which doesn’t much matter.

Ex-Hornet Brandon Bass has flourished in Dallas; he snagged more rebounds (nine) than anybody. And the aforementioned Mr Kidd, the Mavs’ sixth man, outscored the entire OKC bench by three.

And yes, it’s another L, but it wasn’t as ignominious as some we’ve seen this year: the Thunder were in it for at least 45 minutes this time.

Tomorrow in San Antonio, and then back home. The Clippers are due in Tuesday. Let’s hope they haven’t improved any.

Another reason to be worried: I’m starting to sound like Basketbawful, or they, like me.

From my writeup of the Golden State fiasco a few days back:

By the time they got to Oklahoma City, [Stephen] Jackson was day-to-day with a wrist issue, and [Corey] Maggette was still resting. Didn’t make any difference: of the eight players Nellie sent to the Ford Center floor, seven scored in double figures (and Ronny Turiaf had nine), and the young guys dispatched the just-as-young Thunder, 112-102.

Worst of the Night: December 8, 2008 on Basketbawful:

The Golden State Warriors, losers of nine straight games, stumbled into the Thunder’s home arena without their two leading scorers — Stephen Jackson (20.1 PPG) and Corey Maggette (19.1) both sat out with injuries — and it didn’t matter. They won anyway. The Thunder are just that bad. The Warriors played eight guys, seven of which scored in double figures … and the eighth guy, Ronny Turiaf, finished with 9.

Since there’s no reason for me to think that they’re reading my stuff, I conclude that there are objective parameters of suck, and in our disparate ways we seem to be homing in on the same wavelength.

Sir Charles Barkley, on the floundering Oklahoma City Thunder:

They need more good players, but they should be doing better than they are right now. The NBA has a bunch of bad teams. They should be doing better than 2-21. I don’t care if Stevie Wonder is your coach, they should be doing better than 2-21.

Maybe Stevie Wonder could coach, although I’ve suspected for years that he was moonlighting as a game official.

Oklahoma City has won only twice this season, once against Memphis at the FedEx Forum; the Grizzlies got their payback at the Ford Center tonight, coming back from a 21-point deficit in the second quarter to thump the Thunder, 108-102.

And the Grizzlies pulled this off without the Glimmer Twins: Rudy Gay and O. J. Mayo, while they combined for 40 points, sat through most of the fourth quarter while Memphis bottled up the OKC offense. The reserves, led by Mike Conley and Quinton Ross, contributed 47 points to the cause. And Memphis got nine steals, four by Gay, while committing only eight turnovers. (The Thunder gave up 17 turnovers and wangled only four steals.)

We lost Chris Wilcox early: messed up a finger. Joe Smith and Nick Collison filled in well enough, but both of them wound up in foul trouble, as did Jeff Green. The Kevin Durant Show was good for 28 points, but KD turned the ball over six times. The Thunder did manage to shoot, though: 51.4 percent, a couple ticks better than the Griz, and four out of seven treys.

The most telling thing about this game is this: Memphis has learned how to finish the job. The Thunder are still working on that little matter. And since they got outscored 32-19 in the final frame, there’s rather a lot of work to be done.

A couple of wound-licking days, then off to Dallas and San Antonio this weekend.

Don Nelson is shrewd. “We used this game as a chance to play some of the young guys and to let some of the others, like [Stephen Jackson] and [Corey Maggette], rest. Now we move on.” That game was Saturday at San Antonio, where the Warriors lost by thirty-five. By the time they got to Oklahoma City, Jackson was day-to-day with a wrist issue, and Maggette was still resting. Didn’t make any difference: of the eight players Nellie sent to the Ford Center floor, seven scored in double figures (and Ronny Turiaf had nine), and the young guys dispatched the just-as-young Thunder, 112-102.

Golden State, you have to figure, was hungry, having lost nine in a row. And they did it in classic Warriors fashion: they ran up the score as quickly as possible and dared the Thunder to catch up. They shot better than 70 percent in the first quarter, and finished at 50.6. At the half, it was 61-40 Golden State; Oklahoma City cut the lead to single digits, but never got close to erasing it, despite a bravura performance by Kevin Durant, who knocked down 41 points and hauled in 10 rebounds. Nor was this the only Thunder double-double: Nick Collison got 10 boards of his own and 15 points. But that was about it for the OKC offense, Jeff Green being held to nine and Russell Westbrook to eight.

Meanwhile, the Warriors pulled off 13 steals and avoided fouling: the Thunder attempted only twenty foul shots, and hit just twelve. (Golden State was 26 of 33 from the line.) And Andris Biedrins was fierce in the middle, grabbing 21 rebounds to go with his 17 points.

There’s a fearful symmetry here: the Thunder are 1-10 at home and 1-10 on the road. The Grizzlies will be in town Wednesday, after which it’s off to Texas.

So we have Thunder and Heat, an odd combination for December from the meteorological standpoint, and something of a mismatch basketballwise, Miami having regained much of its mojo with Dwyane Wade back up to speed, and Oklahoma City still trying to put it all together. It was still pretty close, with the Heat leading by 15 after three quarters, the Thunder making up the difference in six or seven minutes, and Miami eventually prevailing, 105-99.

Besides, how do you defend against Wade? “Seal him in the locker room” seems to be the only thing that might actually work. We’re talking 38 points, and it’s only that few because he unaccountably managed to miss five free throws. Add to that double-doubles on both sides of the frontcourt — both Shawn Marion and Udonis Haslem had 15 points each and 26 rebounds between them — and you wonder why the windblown Thunder bothered to show up.

The answer, of course, is that they’re not quite ready to roll over and die. Russell Westbrook had never had a 20-point game in the pros, and he still hasn’t; but tonight he had a 30-point game, plus two steals and three assists and seven boards. (Once again, Earl Watson did the assist part of the point-guard game, serving up 12 dimes while scoring three points.) The Kevin Durant Show started out slow but peaked in the fourth quarter, right where you’d want it to: he finished with 18 points. Jeff Green pulled down nine boards and scored 21. And the question of who’s in the middle still hasn’t been resolved: Chris Wilcox started, but Nick Collison did most of the dirty work, putting in 27 minutes and scoring 14. Johan Petro was seen, albeit briefly.

Still, a 1-3 road trip is probably better than this club had any right to expect, and while “Tastes great / Sucks less” isn’t much of a cry for a rally, it’s a start.

Apparently nothing short of earth-moving equipment can stop Dwight Howard. I mean, the man had a double-double in twelve minutes. For the full 39 minutes he played, he had 21 points and 23 rebounds, and blocked six shots. And he didn’t even have a single trey. If he had, it would have been worse for Oklahoma City: the rest of the Magic hit 10 of 16 from beyond the arc in the second half and shot down the Thunder, 98-89.

The big news in Orlando, though, was the return of Jameer Nelson, who played 28 minutes and knocked down 15 points, including three treys. I’d say he’s healthy.

This wasn’t quite as bad as the shellacking the Thunder got earlier this season from the Magic — they stayed within striking distance most of the game, and actually led by two a couple of times — but it was the long ball that killed them: OKC got only three 3-pointers out of 9 attempts, versus 13 of 27 for Orlando. Russell Westbrook had an exceptional night, with 19 points and 9 rebounds; Kevin Durant got the double-double with 16/10. And Johan Petro, unglued from the bench, scored 15 in a mere 19 minutes. The Thunder didn’t do that much wrong tonight; they just didn’t do enough right.

More Florida to come: tomorrow at Miami. Then it’s back home to await the arrival of the Warriors on Monday.

Forbes reports that the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise is worth $300 million, 24th in the NBA, up 12 percent from last year.

It’s obviously too early to tell whether generally higher attendance here in the Big Breezy will be enough to offset the $9.4 million the team lost last season in Seattle; revenues last year were $82 million, lowest in the league. (Still, the decidedly-wealthier teams in Dallas and Denver lost more, due largely to higher payroll costs: both the Mavs and the Nuggets got hit with the luxury tax two years running.)

And the $300-million valuation remains short of what Clay Bennett and friends paid for the franchise, not including various payments to escape the Pacific Northwest. A money machine this isn’t — yet.

The one night that the Thunder manage to summon some serious offense, they fall down on ballhandling: OKC shot 54.5 percent, 63.6 from downtown, but gave up twenty points on turnovers. Add to this double-doubles by Emeka Okafor and Sean May, and it’s probably a good thing Charlotte only won by six, 103-97.

Going smaller has gotten Oklahoma City a few more points in the paint, but rebounding is off as a result: the Bobcats pulled down 35 boards, 11 on offense, versus 28 and 5. (Okafor, all by himself, had more offensive rebounds than the Thunder, not to mention outscoring everyone with 25.) At that level, it didn’t matter that the ‘Cats shot only 47.4 percent.

The Kevin Durant Show was acceptably sparkly: 24 points with three treys. Jeff Green added 18 with two treys of his own. The threes were falling so well, in fact, that Desmond Mason, who hadn’t even tried one in a couple of years, sent one up. (And missed.) We’re seeing the same point-guard pattern as before: Russell Westbrook gets the points (ten), Earl Watson serves up the dimes (11). And Chris Wilcox was a powerhouse again, with 12 points, five boards — and, once more, six fouls.

Certainly no one on this team believes that malarkey about the Eastern Conference being the weak sister of the league: the Thunder haven’t beaten anyone in the East yet. And with Orlando and Miami coming up on this road trip, they probably won’t for a while.

So we win two games in November, after all. After falling behind by double figures early on — it was 54-43 at the half — the Thunder put some actual hurt on the Grizzlies: they caught up halfway through the fourth, and just kept on going. Final: Oklahoma City 111, Memphis 103.

Which is not to say that the Griz weren’t playing their hearts out. Rookie of the Year contender O. J. Mayo knocked down 30 points, nine of them on treys, and picked up seven rebounds. The other youngsters starting, Rudy Gay and Marc Gasol, got 16 points each. What’s more, Memphis outrebounded Oklahoma City, 36-30, and the Griz shot a stirring 57.7 percent.

But the Thunder didn’t bring flatware to this gunfight. Scott Brooks’ eight-man rotation has become a nine-man rotation to accommodate Desmond Mason, and D-Mase was a defensive powerhouse in the second half while Kevin Durant and Jeff Green raced to the basket — or, towards the end, to the foul line. The Thunder hit 32 of 38 from the stripe, Durant getting almost half of them (14/16) by himself on the way to a 30-point game. Jeff Green came up with 22 again, including 8 of 8 free throws. The experimentation continues: Russell Westbrook started at the point but occasionally moved to the two to make room for Earl Watson, and Chris Wilcox started at center but got into foul trouble early, with Joe Smith and Jeff Green (!) swinging in and out of the middle as needed. After shooting very poorly early on, the Thunder figured out the location of the FedEx cylinders, and finished with a respectable 52.1 percentage.

A few things went wrong, but hell, it’s a win. We aren’t going to get lots of them this year, so we may as well enjoy them, especially with a three-game road trip coming up. (They’ll come home first and rest a bit before heading off for Charlotte.)

“There are some athletes who need New York,” says Arash Markazi. “They need to be in a big city and play in a big market to validate their legacy and marketability.” LeBron James is not one of them:

If James were shopping for a penthouse or looking to start a magazine, this move would be a slam dunk, but he’s trying to win basketball games.

The Knicks haven’t had a winning record since the 2000-01 season, finishing with fewer than 40 wins for seven straight seasons, a streak that will likely stretch to nine when James becomes a free agent in 2010. They’ve only won two championships in their history, with the last one coming in 1973. Their last trip to the Finals came a decade ago. This isn’t the Yankees or the Lakers, two storied franchises in big cities littered with championships. If the Knicks didn’t play in New York, they’d be the East Coast version of the Sonics (except for the whole relocation thing), a decent team that had some success in the ’70s and ’90s but fell on some hard times.

Would James sign with the Sonics, er the Thunder, if they cleared cap room for him? No, and he should take the same stance with the Knicks.

Up to this point, James has been giving mixed signals regarding his plans after his current contract expires. But I figure that Markazi is calling it right: if what LeBron wants most is a championship ring, he stands the best chance of getting one by standing pat.

And one other thing: does anybody really, truly, want to deal with the Knicks’ James Dolan on a regular basis?

Well, it was a close one, anyway: Kevin Durant dunked with 3.3 seconds left to tie it, but Mike Miller — the “archnemesis,” said radio guy Matt Pinto — sank a jumper at the 0.1-second mark to give the Timberwolves the win by two, 105 to 103.

Yes, there was rather a lot of scoring. A lot of long-distance scoring, in fact: Minnesota drained eight treys in fourteen attempts, while Oklahoma City hit seven of sixteen. The Thunder even shot 50 percent from the floor. What wasn’t happening for the Thunder was rebounding: the T-Wolves got 43 boards, 13 offensive, versus 33 and 7.

And for all his archnemesisness, Miller was only the fourth-leading scorer for the Wolves, with 16; sixth man Craig Smith plunked down 23 and hauled in eight boards, and Al Jefferson was good for 19 and nine.

Of the guys in white, Durant and Jeff Green had 22 apiece, and Chris Wilcox, who fouled out in the last minute of the game, had 21 more. And count 15 for Russell Westbrook, who ran the offense most of the night. The Thunder picked off six steals and were robbed themselves only once, which had to make Scott Brooks at least slightly happy.

More to the point, they were never out of this one: at no point did either team have more than a ten-point lead. In the standings, though, it counts the same as a blowout.

Off to Memphis tomorrow, where the Griz are in something of a slump. A road victory would be very sweet right about now, especially since the Thunder won’t be back at the Ford until the 8th of December, and in the interim they must face the Bobcats, the Magic and the Heat.

And in the end, LeBron could have phoned it in. He didn’t, of course — he did start the first and third quarters, though he logged only seventeen minutes — but if you subtract his 14 points, the Cavaliers still would have won by twenty-one. It was that bad.

How bad, you ask? Cleveland started the game with a 13-0 run, and were up 33-14 after the first quarter. It was 66-32 at the half. The Cavs’ bench did most of the heavy lifting, scoring 68 of Cleveland’s 117 points. The Thunder managed to finish with 82 somehow. And while OKC turned the ball over only ten times, they didn’t have that many opportunities to lose the ball: the Cavs won the battle of the boards, 46-28. Perhaps the one statistic that sums it up: Johan Petro played the last 12 minutes and scored seven points — and committed five fouls. (And Petro was +5, better than anyone else on the OKC roster tonight.)

No individual player melted down the scoreboard tonight: the closest was Cleveland center Zydrunas Ilgauskas, who got 17 points and seven rebounds in thirteen minutes and change. The Kevin Durant Show was confined to 13; Russell Westbrook also had thirteen, but pulled off five steals, which didn’t hurt. And Chris Wilcox turned in another night with double figures, contributing 14 points and five boards.

The Cavs are now 12-3 and haven’t lost yet at Quicken Loans Arena. The Thunder’s quest for a road win — hell, any kind of win — continues.

The opportunity presented itself: Phoenix had a back-to-back, and they decided to save Shaquille O’Neal for Minnesota, presumably a more-difficult opponent. But the Shaqless Suns had more trouble than they expected with the Oklahoma City Thunder, falling behind 31-26 early in the second quarter and still behind late in the fourth, at which point God Steve Nash took matters into his own hands, rattling off bucket after bucket, finally dishing to Matt Barnes to put the Suns up 99-98, and that’s how it ended.

Nash, stopping off at the Ford on his way to the Hall of Fame, had 20 points, 15 assists, and 8 rebounds; the reliable Amare Stoudemire tossed in 22 points of his own, and the Suns shot a respectable 53.9 percent from the floor.

You could argue that Nash played 42½ minutes to pile up all those stats, and he did; but the Kevin Durant Show ran over 44 minutes, in which KD knocked down 29 points. The Thunder won several of the stat categories: rebounds, 40-34; points in the paint, 44-36; steals, 13-6.

Scott Brooks seems to be experimenting with twin point guards. Tonight, Russell Westbrook got the points (15, versus five assists) and Earl Watson got the dimes (13, against two points). With Nick Collison in foul trouble early, Chris Wilcox stepped up for 18 points and six boards. The crowd, back to sellout level, did what it could. Ultimately, though, Steve Nash owned this game. And if the Thunder lost by one, well, you have to wonder if maybe they wouldn’t have lost by thirty-one under the previous regime.

And now, it’s off to Cleveland, where King James will wreak havoc.

I figure interim coach Scott Brooks gave the following instructions to the Thunder today:

• Don’t take so many shots if you’re not going to make them;
• We’re not going to throw bodies onto the roster just to see if someone can play this game.

And while the Hornets won this one at home, 109-97, the Thunder didn’t embarrass themselves the way they’ve done too many times this season; it’s just that New Orleans was clicking on all cylinders tonight.

I mean, really. Chris Paul got a triple-double: 29 points, 10 rebounds, 16 assists. Sharpshooter David West scored 33. The Bees won the battle of the boards, 35-29, and they only missed one foul shot all night.

But Oklahoma City, despite a second-quarter dry spell, did several things right. Brooks shook up the starting lineup: Nick Collison was shifted to center, Jeff Green to power forward, Kevin Durant to small forward (where he belongs, if you ask me), and Damien Wilkins got the start at shooting guard. Wilkins responded with 11 points; Chris Wilcox, spelling Collison, got a double-double (14 points, 10 boards); Durant, under less pressure to hit the jump shots, dropped in 30 points. And Jeff Green was decently effective at the four, turning in 17 points and five rebounds. A lot of DNP-CDs tonight: Brooks played only eight men. (New Orleans coach Byron Scott played nine, though Devin Brown was injured early and did not return.)

And that bit about taking fewer and better shots — well, if Brooks didn’t say it, the team still did it. The Thunder hit 38 of 72 for 52.8 percent; the only problem was, the Hornets were even better than that, knocking down 54.1.

If there’s one thing you hate about this game, it’s a back-to-back with a plane trip in between, and there are two such coming up. The Phoenix Suns will be at the Ford Tuesday, and then it’s off to Cleveland to play the Cavs on Wednesday; the Minnesota Timberwolves, the one team the Thunder has actually beaten, will arrive Friday, followed by a trip to Memphis on Saturday.