No Rest For Thunder Tonight

By Randy Renner, Senior Writer

Despite Clippers’ coach Doc Rivers raising the white flag by sitting three star players the Thunder will be at full strength tonight with everyone available to play.

“Everybody’s playing tonight,” head coach Billy Donovan told reporters about two hours before tipoff.

Donovan rested Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka Tuesday night at Detroit and Rivers is resting Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and J.J. Redick tonight. Paul Pierce is out with an injury and former OU star Blake Griffin is serving a suspension.

Earlier today at shootaround Durant said it’s not easy playing a high profiule team like the Clippers when they decide to sit their high profile stars.

“These games are hard when you’re not playing their best players thinking mentally you can come out and relax.”

And that was probably exactly what happened last Saturday when the Spurs rested all their stars but still led by nine points almost halfway through the second quarter.

“We figured it out after a while,” Durant said, “and got it goin and we gotta have that same mindset tonight.”

Tipoff is set for 8:40 and you can see the game on TNT. We’ll have full coverage on our Twitter feed page with live tweets during the game and we’ll have blogs and a postgame video from the lockerroom after the game.