Thunder grind it out vs Memphis. Lead series 1-0

Alright OKC fans you can take a breather. The Thunder won a tough one in OKC Sunday afternoon as the 2nd round kicked off. The Thunder were coming off a great Game 6 win over the Rockets where they showed maturity and Derek Fisher really stole the show in the end. The Grizzlies and Thunder both started the game physical and tough and boy was it tough to watch them go to battle. It took a whole 2 and a half minutes in for the Thunder to score their first points. That really describes what this series is going to be like which is a long, hard, tough, Physical and Mentally challenging series. The key to the series is clearly Perkins and Ibaka vs Gasol and Randolph which started off defensively OK for Perk and Serge but offensively the two combined for a mere 7 points. At the end of the half the tired Thunder were leading by 1 after Pondexter nailed a half court shot to go into half. Coming out into the second half the Thunder started off slowly losing the lead and then trailing by 11 quickly. The Grizzlies have really grown from the 80 point wins with tough D to that real tough D but now are potentially scoring over 100 points a game but the Thunder matched the intensity in the final stretch which helped lead top a close win. OKC went on a quick run with 5 minutes to go to get back into the lead but Mike Conley got hot at the right time as the lead went back and forth which was a great time to watch (I'm sure you Thunder fans and Memphis fans were pulling your hair out). This is where you appreciate Kevin Durant's ability and his leadership to pull together and get the win. Well he went Captain Clutch today to get the win with 11.1 seconds left Durant pushing in the paint only to pull back over Tayshon Prince and drain the 2 pt jumper to take the lead by 1. So Cheasepeak arena is rocking, Twitter is blowing up and the Thunder get another great defensive stop when the Swede Thabo Sefelosha knocks the ball out of Conley's hands to go out of bounds but Conley touched it....Thunder ball! Sefelosha gets the ball to Reggie Jackson the young PG "Replacing" Westbrook and he is fouled. So this is the second time in the playoffs where Reggie has to take clutch free throws. He hits them both but then makes a costly mistake up 3....he fouls Quincy Pondexter behind the 3 pt line. Boy did the arena get quiet after that. Pondexter luckily only makes 2 of 3 and the game ends but it was no easy task for the Thunder in Game 1. This series is only going to get tougher and Durant needs help. A guy I have not talked about yet is Kevin Martin who was stellar with 25 points off the bench and really took advantage crashing to the paint. He will be crucial in this series if OKC gets the series win but again they need more points from Ibaka 5 will not do it. Perkins actually had a great game you can't expect him to score big time points but his attitude and tough defense rocked Gasol enough. Game 2 is Tuesday at 8:30 and will be another grind it out game.