I highly recommend you follow Sekou and Lang’s work. Two longtime basketball scribes and great guys who do a great job. They’re both on Twitter so give them a follow @SekouSmithNBA and @langwhitaker. You also can follow the Hang Time Podcast @HangTimePodcast.

The Thunder talk begins about 10 minutes in. Enjoy. Hang Time Podcast

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In the final minute and a half of the interview, I called Kevin Durant the X-factor today. My reasoning: his history of struggles inside the Staples Center. The Lakers are one of just three teams Durant has yet to defeat in their building in his four NBA seasons. Orlando and Milwaukee are the other two.

Inside the Staples Center, though, something about Durant’s scoring prowess changes. It might be Lakers forward Ron Artest. It might be the bright lights. It might be he can’t stop thinking about Jack Nicholson in The Departed. Either way, if Durant makes shots, the Thunder has a good chance of winning today.

Entering tonight’s game, Durant has averaged 24.8 points in six career games against the Lakers at Staples Center. He’s shot 45.8 percent from the field in those contests and 33.3 percent (6 of 18) from 3-point range. In fairness, Durant’s career averages are 25.9 points on 46.1 percent shooting from the field and 35 percent shooting from 3. Not far off his averages in L.A. Add to that, Durant went 1-for-8 from downtown in his last trip to L.A. to face the Lakers, so his 3-ball numbers at L.A. might be a little skewed because of one game.

Still, if you throw in Durant’s three playoffs games inside Staples Center, his averages dip to 24.6 points on 43 percent shooting from the field and 31.5 percent from beyond the arc.

If KD can render Ron Artest useless tonight and put together a big performance, the Thunder can come out of L.A. with its first win against the Lakers.

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In this installment, Jason Kersey and I look back on the Thunder’s draft and look ahead to what the team might do in free agency. We also throw out our predictions on where LeBron will land. Enjoy.

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I originally picked the Lakers to win in seven, but after Game 1 had reservations about that pick and suddenly saw L.A. closing it out in six. We’ll see with Game 5 set for Sunday in Boston. In the meantime, here’s some good old fashion feuding about where we think this series stands and why Andrew Bynum is the only topic we agree on in this segment. Enjoy.

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In this installment, we discuss ESPN.com’s John Hollinger’s playoff odds and whether his 48-win projection for the Thunder is an indicator of future performance or a simple case of fuzzy math.

Join us.

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For those that don’t know, The Oklahoman’s Jenni Carlson wrote a column Monday about how Collison is using the social networking site Twitter to show his personality, which includes his fondness for the city of Seattle.

Traber took exception to Collison’s tweets and his alleged shots at Oklahoma City and has declared war on the Thunder’s power forward ever since. What transpired today turned into truly unbelievable radio, combining comedy, shock value and downright good entertainment. What makes it so interesting is that neither Traber nor Collison is joking. It would be one thing if this were staged, a big act to drive ratings. But these two are genuinely going at it, airing out their differences for thousands to hear.

The first 15 seconds alone had me in stitches.

Traber: “Craig, we have a guest on the line. You know who it is?”

Craig Humphries: “I was told during the break that Nick Collison might be calling in.”

Traber: “That’s exactly right. Live from I’m sure up in Seattle right now it’s Nick Collison. Nick, I’m Jim Traber (with) Craig Humphries. What are you doing?”

Collison: “Hey Jim, what’s up? I heard you’re trying to run me out of town. What’s the deal?”

Other highlights include:

• Collison’s admitting his hatred for the word, “Tweet.”

• Collison claiming he’s “the sweatiest dude in the league,” which has actually been confirmed by at least one opposing player.

• Traber getting personal by calling out Collison for how much he makes every two weeks.

• Collison calling this ownership group and management the most dedicated to winning of any he’s every played for. (He points out he’s played for five head coaches, two GMs and two ownership groups, all with Seattle/Oklahoma City since he joined the league in 2003.)

• Collison asking Traber if he can stay at his place when he returns for the season since his lease is up.

Listen to the rest yourself by clicking on the link above.

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In today’s  installment, we discuss whether James Harden is fat, if B.J. Mullens is any good and why GM Sam Presti passed on Ricky Rubio.

Join us.

(Oops. Technical difficulties on the first try for anyone who clicked on it. That was an old podcast. Today’s is now posted.)

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