Game Preview - Thunder vs Bobcats

The Oklahoma City Thunder (45-16) take on the Charlotte Bobcats (13-48) tonight at  The Time Warner Cable Arena. This is the final meeting of the two games this season between Thunder and Bobcats.

Photo by Elsa/Getty Images

Thunder's previous game: The Thunder are coming off a close game against the New York Knicks. The Thunder ended up winning the game (95)-(94) after the Knicks failed to make the shot at the buzzer.

Russel Westbrook started the game off amazing, scoring 15 points in just the 1st quarter out of the total 21 points he scored the entire game. He may have not of had an amazing game going 8-22 from the field vs the Knicks, but the 15 points he got in the 1st quarter I'm sure helped the Thunder out a lot. 

Kevin Durant had a pretty good game, scoring 34 points 8 rebounds and 6 assists. Kevin Durant may have only went 9-20 from the field just a bit under 50% shooting he went 14-15 from the free throw line. The only thing he should try to work on as much as possible before the playoffs is not getting angry and getting a technical foul and turning the ball over. Kevin Durant turned the ball over the most times vs the Knicks for a total of 7 turn overs. 

AP Photo/Frank Franklin II

The Thunder bench wasn't that active in this game. The only player on the bench that made much of a impact vs the Knicks was Kevin Martin. Kevin Martin had a pretty good game, scoring 16 points 4-6 from the field and 3-5 from deep. Which helped the Thunder seal the deal. The only other person on the Thunder bench 
that scored was Reggie Jackson, scoring 8 points. 

The Oklahoma City Thunder also broke a franchise record for only turning the ball over 2 times the entire game. The Thunder only turned the ball over once in each half which is insane. Mainly because the Thunder have been turning the ball over around 15+ times a game this whole season, so this looks like an improvement in the turnover situation.

Mark D. Smith-US PRESSWIRE

Last meeting with Bobcats: This is the second game vs the Bobcats this season and being the last. The Thunder last played against the Bobcats November 26th 2012. The game was a stomp for the most part, where the Thunder won the game (114)-(69).

Russel Westbrook had an alright game. Even though he only scored 12 points he had a total of 11 assists to get a double-double vs the bobcats. Westbrook shot 50% from the field and 0-2 from deep, but scoring 100% from the free throw line showing that the Thunder deserve to be the top free throw shooting team in the league.

Kevin Durant also had a pretty good game, scoring 18 points and shooting 6-8 from the field and also 100% from the free throw line. Kevin Durant also had 4 blocks which is really impressive and also 6 rebounds and 4 assists.

Thunder Essentials:

Don't lose to the Bobcats - Pretty self explanatory. Oklahoma City blew these cats out by sixty earlier in the season. This should be a free win, and it should help the Thunder get closer to that first seed.