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Thunder-Clippers Preview

Mar 4, 2010 - 7:37 PM By MATT BEARDMORE STATS Writer

Oklahoma City (36-24) at Los Angeles (25-36), 10:30 p.m. EDT

Coming off their worst loss of the season, the Oklahoma City Thunder are looking to get back on track. A matchup with the Los Angeles Clippers could help.

The Thunder try to avoid their third straight road loss Friday when they face a Clippers team that's dropped three of four.

With 12 wins in 15 games, Oklahoma City (36-24) has moved into sixth place in the Western Conference. The franchise hasn't reached the postseason since the Seattle SuperSonics won the Pacific Division in 2004-05.

The Thunder, though, are looking to bounce back from a 119-90 loss at Denver on Wednesday. Oklahoma City shot a season-low 32.5 percent and committed 23 turnovers in its most lopsided defeat since falling 113-83 at Portland on April 13.

"This is a wake-up game," Kevin Durant said after scoring 19 points to snap his streak of 33 straight games with at least 20. "You are going to have games like this. You have to think about what we did, move on and make the adjustments we need to make for our next game."

Durant, the league's second-leading scorer at 29.7 points per game, is averaging 35.0 with 9.0 rebounds as Oklahoma City and Los Angeles (25-36) have split two meetings this season - each winning on the road.

After scoring 30 in an 83-79 victory Nov. 11, Durant had 40 but the Thunder shot 38.8 percent in a 101-93 defeat four days later.

All-Star center Chris Kaman, who scored 25 with seven rebounds for Los Angeles in that matchup, had 24 and nine Wednesday as the Clippers had their four-game home winning streak snapped with a 127-101 loss to Phoenix.

Los Angeles was outscored by 21 in the third quarter and lost for the eighth time by 20 or more points.

"It was a good first half and we remained close," Kaman said. "After halftime, it all went downhill."

Center Nenad Krstic will likely get the start Friday for Oklahoma City, but rookie Serge Ibaka could play a major part in trying to stop Kaman.

Ibaka scored a career-high 15 points with 13 rebounds Wednesday for his second double-double in three games.

Eric Gordon will face the Thunder for the first time this season after missing the two previous matchups with a sore left groin. The second-year guard is averaging 19.4 points and shooting 48.2 percent from 3-point range in the last nine games.

Baron Davis has not been as effective with his shot recently - hitting 32.2 percent in his last eight games - and the Clippers point guard will face a Thunder defense that is among the best in the NBA, holding teams to 44.0 percent shooting.

Matched up against another former UCLA standout in Russell Westbrook, Davis had 24 points, six assists and five rebounds Nov. 15. Westbrook had 17 points, seven assists and nine boards in that contest after missing 10 of 11 shots and scoring two points in the meeting at Staples Center.

The Oklahoma City franchise has not won the season series against the Clippers since the SuperSonics swept all four matchups in 2003-04.