The Thunder seemingly woke up from their Game 1 slumber and ended up putting a licking on the Grizz right off the bat in Game 2. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, both of which were given bad raps after an iffy first game of this series, came out with a lot more gusto in a game that looked a lot more like a traditional up and down OKC game with a lot less physicality. Durant score 26 points and had five boards, while Westbrook had 24 points and six assists. The real difference makers came off of the bench on this night though, as James Harden and Eric Maynor had 21 and 15 points respectively. Harden was a pillar at the line, going 11-of-11. Maybe was the three point assassin, coming up with three triples and a total of 6-of-7 shooting from the floor. Nick Collison also had seven points and seven rebounds. Serge Ibaka battled foul trouble the whole night and ended with eight points and six rebounds. Nazr Mohammad and Kendrick Perkins were both relatively unseen with a combined two points and eight rebounds.

The Grizzlies have to be concerned about the way that Game 2 panned out. OKC rumbled to 17 fast break points and had 38 points in the paint, numbers which could be very, very bad for their future in this series. The defense allowed the Thunder to shoot 52.8 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from downtown. On the other side of the court though, Memphis only shot 44.3 percent overall. If you take away the three long range shots that Mike Conley Jr. knocked down, the rest of the team only went 2-of-6 from beyond the arc. The good news is that Marc Gasol had another double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Conley looked great as well, going 10-of-15 from the field for 24 points and eight assists. The big man that was missing in action was Zach Randolph. Z-Bo went absolutely bananas in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semifinals, but for as great as he was in Game 1, he was that dreadful in Game 2. Randolph shot 2-of-13 from the field and had just 15 points and nine rebounds. OJ Mayo and Darrell Arthur came off of the bench to have respectable games, scoring 16 points and nine points respectively.

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On Friday, we saw the Chicago Bulls really assert themselves as the better team in their second round series against the Atlanta Hawks. We expect to see this play out the very same way for the Thunder against Memphis. Expect the new kids on the block to fold under the pressure of a very, very big Game 3, and Oklahoma City will end up prevailing by a relatively comfortable margin.

NBA Free Pick: Oklahoma City Thunder