Thunder Will Begin Playoffs Saturday Night

By Randy Renner

The Oklahoma City Thunder secured the #2 seed in the NBA's Western Conference Playoffs with that thrilling, come-from-behind 112-111 win last night over the Detroit Pistons.

The Thunder reward now will be another knock down, drag out, rough and tumble series against the Memphis Grizzlies.

Each team has broken the other's heart over the years. Last season Memphis eliminated the Thunder in the Conference semifinals.

This season's grudge match begins on Saturday night at 8:30 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. The game will be televised nationally by ESPN and regionally by Fox Sports Oklahoma. The FSO crew will do all of the first round games.

 A limited number of individual game tickets go on sale at 10 o'clock this morning on the Thunder's official team website (www.thunder-nba.com). Most of the playoff tickets have already been purchased by season ticket holders.

Game Two will be Monday night at 7 o'clock, TNT will have that national telecast.

The series then shifts to Memphis and the FedEx Forum for Games Three and Four on Thursday night at 7 o'clock on TNT and next Saturday night at 8:30 on ESPN.

If necessary Game Five will be back in OKC on Tuesday, April 29th, Game Six in Memphis on Thursday May 1st and Game Seven back at The Peake on Saturday May 3rd. Tip times and TV networks will be determined as the series progresses.

The Thunder will not practice today but will be back at work on Friday and we'll have complete coverage. Also we'll breakdown the series and make some predictions.