Oklahoma City Thunder Vs. Atlanta Hawks: Breaking Down the Game

When OKC plays Atlanta it's always a hard game for me to watch. Not because either team plays badly, but because, before the Thunder came to Oklahoma, the Hawks were my favorite team. I'm always a little torn between the two and usually just want to see a hard fought game regardless of who comes out on top. I was in luck tonight as both teams gave it their all with key players sitting out.

I want to start by saying that I felt neither team had a player who had, what I would call, a bad night. I mean, sure Jason Collins went 0-2 from the floor, but he was able to add six boards and two assists. Really, the only guy that had even close to a bad night was Daequan Cook, going 0-3 from three-point land, but even he was able to contribute with a few rebounds. That means you're going to see a lot of praise for both teams in this article, so let's get to shelling it out.

The first guy that really caught my eye was Kirk Hinrich. By no means do I think he's an elite point guard, but, in the short time he's been with the team, he seems to be an upgrade from Mike Bibby. Hinrich is much more effective at running the offense and plays exceptional defense. He's not quite the shooter Bibby is, but that might be a good thing as he driving and ball movement free up Jamal Crawford on the wing.

However, tonight he was called upon to score and delivered with four huge three pointers in route to a 21 point performance. You would like to see your point guard do better than three assists and three turnovers, but sometimes when you're on, you're on and it's hard to give up the rock.

As I said earlier, Hinrich helps keep the team in it's offensive flow and moves the ball around the court. Tonight was no different as I witnessed some of the best ball movement I've seen from any team in recent weeks. I can't count the number of times great passes set up open jumpers. Now sometimes those jumpers didn't fall, but if a high school coach is looking for a way to show his kids how to move the ball, he should just put in this game tape.

On the Thunder side of the ball I was most impressed with James Harden. I'm not sure what's gotten into him lately, but he has been playing Thabo Sefolosha-like defense against the premier shooting guards the Thunder have faced.

Tonight the tandem of Harden and Sefolosha were able to hold Joe Johnson to only eight second half points. That kind of defense against the other teams best scorer is what's going to win the Thunder games against teams with more size. If they are able to defend the perimeter with intensity they displayed in the second half tonight it will make up for their lack of inside depth.

Speaking of inside depth, my man crush on Nick Collison continues.His production was obvious tonight with 10 points and five boards.

It's Cole Aldrich that caught my eye tonight. It's true that he only got two minutes of playing time tonight, but in those two minutes I saw enough to know I wanted to see more. He's never going to be a star player, but you can tell that he's been hanging out with Collison a lot recently.

If both of those guys can be great hustle players off the bench I like the Thunder's chances come play-off time.

Finally, I want to speak to the man of the night, Russell Westbrook. He had what could be his best game of the year with 28 points, 9 assists, 4 steals and only 3 turnovers. That kind of production is why some people are calling him the MVP of the Thunder. I won't go that far, but if he continues to play at this level it bodes well for the western conference play-offs where he'll face older, slower point guards like Derek Fisher and Jason Kidd.

All in all I thought this was a great game for a fan of basketball. Neither team played bad and we just got to see a good game from both teams. I would of been fine seeing either team win because they both put out enough effort to deserve the "W".

It's too bad they can't meet again when Kendrick Perkins and Josh Smith are both back from injury so we can see which team really is the best of the two.