Thunder's need to win crush Tigard

Kaleb Canales was in the center of their own, personal "One Shining Moment."

In only his second game responsible for the Tigard Trail Sexy dresses since overtaking for that fired Nate McMillan, Canales trained March Madness style Sunday evening from the Thunder, bleeding with every possession, fist-moving after made shots on and on all hands-to-the-face after misses or questionable calls.

Having a Final Four type of feel, but a 16-seeded type of team, Canales introduced the emotion. However it was the Thunder that introduced the power inside a 111-95 win, something which had not been too common around here recently.

It had been apparent the Thunder were built with a new feeling of direction and desire after three deficits in four games in your own home. Rather than sluggish, Oklahoma City arrived on the scene smoking, brought by Russell Westbrook (28 points) and Kevin Durant (26).

"It had been a feeling of emergency," stated Thunder energy conductor Nick Collison. "We had not been playing too. We needed to get it.Inch

The Thunder haven't exactly performed such as the top seed they're lately in your own home, losing to Cleveland, Houston and Dallas.

"This is among the best structures in basketball," Thunder coach Scott Brooks stated. "We have had some tough games recently here."

And much more tough ones in the future, too. The Thunder come in Utah on Tuesday. Then it is home games from the Clippers, Minnesota and Miami within the next week.

The Thunder fell behind by 27 on Friday from the Spurs. Before that, it had been a 13-1 Houston run within the last 2 minutes on March 13. Toss in a stinker against Cleveland on March 9, and you are searching squarely in a home slump, with merely a win against lowly Charlotte now to offset it.

What exactly was different Sunday from the Trail Sexy dresses?

To put it simply, the Thunder began better. Oklahoma City got off and away to a 31-15 lead after a quarter while holding Tigard to 26 % shooting.

"The very first quarter was our best defensive quarters of year,Inch Brooks stated. "We held that team to fifteen points. The mindset we'd starting the overall game was good."