• Nobody from the Thunder really wanted to acknowledge how big this week’s two victories against the Nuggets were. That’s too bad. Doesn’t matter, though. I think we all know they were huge. To get two convincing victories against the team you’re all but guaranteed to play in the first round should do wonders for this team’s confidence. Sure, the playoffs are different and the series goes back to zero-zero. But the Thunder has the all-so important mental advantage. That can’t be ignored.

• I’m wondering how much of a difference Arron Afflalo, Chris Andersen and Timofey Mozgov would make. Just something to consider. They certainly won’t hurt the Nuggets.

• I felt like I was watching Butler UConn all over again in the first quarter. Wait, the first 12 minutes of Butler-UConn might have been better than the opening period tonight.

• If this is the first-round series, good luck to the officiating crews that get assigned to this series. Kendrick Perkins and Nene are sure to have it out. I can’t wait to see it.

• Someone please correct me if I’m wrong. But we’ve never seen an on-court fight in Oklahoma City’s NBA history. I can’t remember the Hornets having one during their two years here. And the Thunder’s altercations have never amounted to more than jawing and a few shoves. Perk might be on pace to break the streak.

• How good was the bench tonight? Eric Maynor, James Harden, Nazr Mohammed, Daequan Cook and Nick Collison all played their roles to perfection. Harden was instant offense. Maynor made great decisions all night and helped build big leads. Cook sparked a second-quarter run. Collison was gritty inside and on the boards (career-high eight offensive rebounds). And Mohammed was just money offensively in the fourth quarter.

• Someone asked me on Twitter about the chances Mohammed returns. If I’m the Thunder I’m seriously looking into re-signing him. The guy has skills and is incredible useful and efficient. Even if Byron Mullens or Cole Aldrich develop enough to supplant him in the rotation, he’d be a pretty dang good third string center for emergence purposes.

• Russell Westbrook made an extremely smart decision in the first quarter to take over. It was the switch I’ve been referring to. He came out trying to be patient and get everyone else involved. And after the Thunder started 0-for-6 from the field and Russ saw it wasn’t working, Westbrook said enough of this. He promptly buried three straight jumpers to give the Thunder a lift.

• Not sure why Thabo Sefolosha and Serge Ibaka combined to get the first five shot attempts for the Thunder. Here’s a suggestion: you want to get on the board and get the fans off their feet, get the ball to Westbrook or Kevin Durant early.

• A 20-4 run by the Thunder turned a 19-17 deficit into a 37-23 advantage midway through the second quarter. The Nuggets clawed back to within six late in the period and three in the third. But then Durant got going, manufacturing points, and the Thunder went into the fourth up 11. A 10-3 run to start the final period put it out of reach.

• Was it me or did Nene look like he made it a point to attack Perk aggressively from the start tonight. He probably needed to after what Perk did to him last game.

• Serge Ibaka banged up his left hand somehow in the second quarter. I didn’t see how he did it but he clearly was in some pain. He played through it and was rather effective, though his 1-for-7 shooting night would suggest it.

• For the first time, we got a bit of a different look at just how much Westbrook means to this team. When he landed awkwardly following a runner in the lane with 6:59 left in the third quarter, a cloud of silence covered the arena. Suddenly, I felt like I could read everyone’s mind. There were a bunch of variations of, “Oh no! There goes our playoff run.” It was a strange sight seeing as how Westbrook has been the most durable Thunder player the last three seasons, having not missed a single game.

• Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Westbrook got back up and walked it off. And all was right when he darted in for a finger roll on the Thunder’s very next possession.

• It took almost three full seasons — or five if you count the Hornets’ days in town — but we finally had our first girl-on-girl action on the old Kiss Cam. It came during a second-quarter timeout and it was clearly a gaffe by the game-night crew. And of course I missed it! Makes me feel like five years of covering the league has been pretty pointless. It’ll probably take at least that long for it to happen again.

• Nate Robinson got some burn tonight…and checked into the game to a standing ovation!!! What’s up with that??? It definitely caught me by surprise. I’ve been the driver of the Nate Robinson bus, but I had no idea the Thunder faithful wanted to see him get minutes that bad. Nice gesture by the home fans, though.

• I asked Westbrook tonight if he wanted a cold one…I got nothing.

• Gotta say, the Thunder Girls halftime routine with the Rain Drops was pretty cool. Nice choreography and extremely well done. I know it must have taken two months to get that routine down.

• With Dallas winning tonight, the Thunder still is one game behind the Mavs for the third seed. Anything can happen, but I really think these two teams are going to match up in the first round.

• Up next is a two-game road trip against the Lakers and Kings. The season finale is then comes Wednesday against Milwaukee. I can’t believe we’re already putting a bow on this season.

• Lastly, if you’re in the Tulsa area, go support your 66ers. They swept Texas tonight to move on to the second round of the playoffs, where they’ll face the winner of the Iowa Energy-Utah Flash series. Aldrich had a monster performance in the close-out game, scoring 17 points with 18 rebounds and four blocked shots.

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The scrimmage will conclude at 6:45, just before kickoff of the Yukon-Norman North football game.

This will be the third straight year that the Thunder has held an open scrimmage. The Thunder Girls and Rumble the Bison will be on hand as well. Following the scrimmage, Thunder players will participate in the football game’s opening coin toss.

“The Blue/White scrimmage is a great opportunity for our team to get out in the community and see the fans that support us throughout the season,” said Thunder Coach Scott Brooks. “We are excited to go out to Yukon and support athletes from Yukon and Norman North. It should be a great night for everyone involved.”

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It was a media advisory sent out by the Thunder to announce auditions for the Thunder Drummers.

For those who don’t know who the Thunder Drummers are, they are a small band of guys who are camped out in the upper deck in one of the end zones and fill the Ford Center with more unnecessary noise. But the Thunder takes things a step further, allowing this group of young men to come on down on occasion and do their thing at center court. It probably ranks somewhere among the top five worst ideas in NBA history.

That’s not taking away anything from the drummers. They’re not the problem. They actually had moments of quality music last season. It’s the idea that’s rotten. It’s as if the man who came up with this idea had never seen an NBA game. The Thunder Drummers descend from the nosebleeds at the most inopportune times. And nothing, I mean nothing, sucked the energy out of the building like a timeout with these guys on the court. There were games in which the timing couldn’t have been worse. Thunder down one. 34.5 seconds left. OKC ball. Let’s send out the Thunder Drummers. That’ll get everyone pumped. No, it actually does the exact opposite. It leads to folks sitting on their hands, wondering what they just experienced. Check out how fired up this crowd grew, at Game 6 of the Lakers-Thunder playoff series for crying out loud. And trust us when we say this was one of the drum teams best performances.

So it looks like we’ll be subject to another 41 games of these guys. Let’s just hope that the game night operations staff fills fourth-quarter timeouts from here out with T-shirt tosses or two-steps by Thunder Girls, you know, something that actually gets the crowd animated and maintains interest. The Thunder Drummers do not.

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Here they are. The 20 women who will make up the 2010-11 team of Thunder Girls.

The official team Web site has all kinds of videos, picture galleries and other info on this year’s members, which features 13 veterans and seven newbies. Check them out. Decide which Thunder Girl you like best. Friend her on Facebook.

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Russell Westbrook taught himself to bowl last summer.

Less than a year later, the Oklahoma City Thunder’s starting point guard has put purpose behind his newest passion.

Westbrook recently held his first celebrity bowling tournament in Oklahoma City, with proceeds going to the Oklahoma City Urban Youth Scholarship Fund.

And while this event was for a good cause, Westbrook made sure to let everyone know how good he is. Even while kidding around, Westbrook recorded strikes, showing off a jaw-dropping hook that starts left, drifts right and finishes in the gut for consistent strikes.

“It’s what I do in my off time,” Westbrook said. “Especially in the summer.”

Westbrook said he learned by watching others and asking for tips to perfect his own pitch. His personal best is a 279.

“A lot of guys pick up golf and other things,” Westbrook said. “I like to bowl.

On a damp Saturday evening in late March, Westbrook and most of his Thunder teammates took over AMF Windsor Lanes Bowling Center and entertained a crowd of roughly 150. Players shook hands, posed for pictures, signed autographs and, of course, talked trash to each other.

“Russell got his own shoes, his own ball, his own carrying bag and he’s still not better than me,” said Thunder forward Kevin Durant, who joked about giving up the NBA for the PBA.

Don’t fret, Thunder fans. Durant talks a much better game than he bowls.

Westbrook scored a 190. Let’s just say Durant was about 100 pins shy of his teammate.

At least Nenad Krstic had an excuse for his sub-100 performance.

“This is only like my third time bowling, so I think I’m doing pretty good,” he said.

Despite some of Westbrook’s teammates low scores, the event was a huge success. In addition to nearly the entire Thunder roster coming out in support, Oklahoma City general manager Sam Presti was on hand, as well as assistant general manager Troy Weaver, a pair of Thunder Girls and, of course, Rumble the Bison.

Participating sponsors included Clear Channel, Brunswick, Norman Chrysler Jeep & Dodge, McDonald’s, Perry Broadcasting, the Skirvin Hilton an Mickey Mantle’s.

Westbrook expects the event to grow more and more each season.

“It’s the start of it, and it’s going to be something I continue to do,” Westbrook said. “It’s a great event. It’s a good thing to do every year.”

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But two days earlier a few of their colleagues, Jalen Rose and Jon Barry, also weighed in on OKC during a national teleconference. Here’s what they had to say.

JALEN ROSE
“I really like the young core group of this team. Kevin Durant is going to be one of the league leaders in scoring. I think he’s a tremendous talent. Russell Westbrook as a combination guard can break defenses down and get shots for himself as well as others. He’s going to continue to get better. The rookie Harden is a slasher. He’s going to be able to score and is real nifty and crafty. And Jeff Green, here’s a guy that can rebound, do the intangibles, get blocks, get steals, he’s real strong, he finishes around the basket. That group of young players continuing to grow together is really going to create a lot of excitement for their fans. Not yet a playoff caliber team, but definitely a team that will show promise and on a nightly basis will be the kind of the team that can put up big numbers and make a lot of contending teams look bad. ”

JON BARRY
“Another very young team. The average age is 25, or something like that. I like Harden the rookie. Another year at the point guard position for Westbrook will help. He still needs to learn the position. I think he’s still a bit out of control. Not used to the position. A terrific athlete. He’s going to be a terrific player. Durant is a stud, big-time all-star. I love Collison. He’s a dirty work guy. But they are a couple of years away. As long as they continue to grow, I love the young pieces. I don’t think there are a lot of moves that have to be made. If this team stays together, in a couple of years they are certainly a quality playoff team in the West.”

GET YOUR THUNDER GIRLS CALENDAR
The Thunder Girls are having a calendar release party tonight at 7 at Mickey Mantles in Bricktown. Thunder fans can get and advanced copy of the Thunder Girls calendar before they go on sale for the first time at Wednesday’s season opener. Calendars cost $15, and tonight will be the only time all the Thunder Girls will be in attendance to sign copies of the calendars.

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But you, yes you, can help decide which girl will become an actual Thunder Girl for the 2009-10 season. It’s sort of a dream come true. Only you’re using your Internet browser rather than your wandering set of eyes in real life. Come on, don’t act like it’s just me. These girls have some of the best, uh, dance moves around.

The Thunder has given fans the opportunity to vote on the 19th and final member of the dance squad by logging on to thunder.nba.com. The Thunder whittled down a list that began with more than 100 girls to 40 hopefuls and 18 on Tuesday night. Now you can vote on one of two candidates for the final spot. Voting begins Wednesday and is open through Noon on Monday and the results will be announced on the team’s Web site shortly after voting ends.

Use your voice people.

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