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The Oklahoma City Thunders two worst losses this season -- a 26-point loss to the Golden State Warriors in Kevin Durants first game against his former team last month and a 19-point loss to the Portland Trail Blazers Tuesday night -- share something in common, and its not just that I happened to attend both of them.Those performances were also Oklahoma Citys two worst games of the season in terms of finishing around the basket. That fact has important implications for how teams defend the Thunder and MVP candidate Russell Westbrook -- who had two of his three worst games of the season by game score at Golden State and Portland -- going forward.Oklahoma City lives in the painted areaIn a league obsessed with the 3-pointer, the Thunder have never been that team, and this season -- without Durant -- they are especially anemic from outside. While Oklahoma City ranks in the middle of the pack in attempting 3s, the teams 32.8 percent accuracy ranks 26th in the league.Instead, the Thunders offense relies on beating a path to the rim. Oklahoma City takes a league-high 38.3 percent of its shots in the restricted area, per NBA.com/Stats.Naturally, Westbrook leads the charge. Only DeMarcus Cousins, at 8.9 per game, has averaged more attempts in the restricted area than Westbrook (8.8).While Westbrook is something of a volume finisher -- his 57.3 percent shooting on those attempts is worse than league average (60.2 percent) -- theyre such good shots that merely attempting them has been a good thing for the Thunder, except against the Warriors and Blazers.Packing the paint against Oklahoma CityThe combination of the Thunders non-shooting and effectiveness getting to the basket leads to an inevitable conclusion: The best way to stop Oklahoma City is to pack the paint defensively, sagging off shooters and creating extra resistance around the rim.Nobody has achieved that better than Portland did Tuesday. After the game, Blazers coach Terry Stotts highlighted his teams presence in the paint -- not just the guy guarding [Westbrook] or the screener, but everybody. I thought that was effective for us.What did that look like?In the play above, Westbrook has drawn a favorable switch, getting matched up against Portland center Mason Plumlee. But the slower Plumlee has reinforcements. All four other Blazers have at least one foot in the paint, including Allen Crabbe playing far off his assignment (Andre Roberson, a 30.4 percent 3-point shooter).With so much help behind him, Plumlee could comfortably play up on Westbrook and force him to shoot a contested jumper that the Thunder guard missed.When Westbrook did get into the paint, he found a big man in his path with enough help to recover and defend after a Westbrook pass. In this case, Enes Kanter missed a contested attempt over Meyers Leonard.Despite lacking a strong shot blocker, Portland actually has surrendered the leagues second-lowest shooting percentage in the restricted area at 55.8 percent this season. (The Utah Jazz, who host the Thunder tonight, are at 54.9 percent behind the more traditional rim protection of Rudy Gobert.)Against Oklahoma City, the Blazers were able to improve on that strong mark. The Thunder shot 43.2 percent, their season-worst mark, in the restricted area.Portland took advantage of the absence of Oklahoma City shooting guard Victor Oladipo, who leads the team with 51 3-pointers, to pack the paint more than normal. But the Warriors showed earlier this season the ability to generate similar results against a full-strength Thunder roster. Golden State did it by aggressively playing off Roberson and also conceding open 3s to rookie Domantas Sabonis, whos shot 42.4 percent from beyond the arc this season but averaged just one make per game.On the above play, for example, Draymond Green sits between Westbrook and the paint, paying little attention to his man (Sabonis) as Durant defends two Oklahoma City players while still getting in position to help.Can the Thunder beat a packed paint?Oklahoma City can mitigate the effect of aggressive paint-packing with good player movement off the ball, which makes it more difficult for one defender to handle two players.Overall, the Thunder have been reasonably effective offensively with Westbrook on the court, posting a 105.6 offensive rating, which would be good for 11th in the NBA this season. With Westbrook on the bench their offense collapses, averaging just 93.5 points per 100 possessions.Still, as the season goes on Oklahoma City can expect to see more teams following the lead of the Blazers and Warriors. Expect teams to be particularly aggressive packing the paint come the playoffs, when theyll have more time to game-plan for Oklahoma City. Already, NBA.coms John Schuhmann notes that the Thunder have the worst record of any current Western Conference playoff team against the rest of the conferences top eight, in large part because of their poor offense -- with games against Golden State and Portland factoring heavily into that.If Oklahoma City is to have success in the postseason, the team will have to find out a way to pull opponents away from the basket by making enough 3s to make them think twice about packing the paint. Cheap KD Shoes Free Shipping . Neymar curled home a free kick from just outside the area to put the 2014 World Cup host ahead in the 44th minute. Three minutes after the break, a simple through pass from Paulinho freed Oscar and the Chelsea star rounded goalkeeper Jung Sung-ryong to extend Brazils lead. Wholesalle KD Shoes China . First off, the fans ripped the Cubbies introduction of a fuzzy new kid-friendly mascot named "Clark". http://www.wholesalekdshoes.com/ . 8 Iowa State on Saturday, sending the Cyclones to their third consecutive loss. The Longhorns (14-4, 3-2) got their biggest win of the season with their third in the row in the Big 12. Discount KD Shoes .com) - Christian Ponder will get another chance to prove himself for the Minnesota Vikings, with head coach Leslie Frazier announcing Wednesday that the struggling quarterback will start this weekends game against the Green Bay Packers. Clearance KD Shoes . Houston won 3-0 to advance to face New York in the Eastern Conference semifinals. Last in the game, Di Vaio and Romero got into a shoving match with several Houston players. Romero appeared to elbow and kick Houston defender Kofi Sarkodie. A fight for charity is still a great fight to watch. Two of the top female Counter-Strike teams in the world, Team Secret and Counter Logic Gaming Red, duked it out on Saturday at the Intel Extreme Masters tournament in Oakland, California for the chance to win $10,000 for one of three selected gaming-related charities. The match was hosted by AnyKey, an advocacy organization dedicated to supporting diversity in esports, and the charities involved were AbleGamers, Extra Life, and Online SOS.The event was billed as a lighthearted intermission at IEM Oakland, and both teams were friendly before and after the match, but these two teams have a history with each other. Not long ago, CLG Red seemed unbreakable before Team Secret exploded onto the scene at the Esports World Convention and IEM Katowice this past year, beating CLG with ease in both tournaments. Sure this was an exhibition, but none of these women came to lose.Before the opening knife round, Secrets Julia juliano Kiran and CLGs Stephanie missharvey Harvey met at center-stage for a quick word with the stage host. Despite his best attempts to conjure up animosity, juliano and missharvey pulled each other in for a hug instead of shooting each other intimidating glares. That was as amicable as things would get until the end of the best-of-one match.The map, played on a newly updated Inferno, began in CLGs favor. Secrets Zainab zAAz Turkie and Michaela mimi Lintrup hit a pair of opening kills, but CLGs newest member Klaudia klaudia Beczkiewicz traaded kills onto zAAz shortly after, and managed to win the round with a textbook one-tap headshot later on towards the A bombsite.ddddddddddddThanks to some brilliant teamwork, CLG Red opened up a big lead in the first half. CLGs Christine potter Chi led the way through the first four rounds with nine kills and zero deaths. Secret swung the tide in Round 7, when the team stacked three players on top of each other to boost Anna Ant1ka Ananikova over the B bombsite, where she hit a stunning shot with the AWP onto potter. However, CLG recovered immediately and ran away with the match after a second half pistol-round win and a clean shutout in Round 17. CLG Red emerged from the battle victorious, winning the exhibition match 16-6, and defended its prowess as the most accomplished womens CS:GO team in the world.Although the teams brought out the competitive fire in each other, the broadcast brought the focus back to an issue larger than esports. The host presented missharvey with the prize check at center-stage for CLG Reds charity of choice. Weve chosen Online SOS, missharvey told the audience. [Theyre] against cyber bullying, and we think its important [to support this cause] because we are women online, which can be difficult. Fans might cheer for one team over the other in-game, but the potential effects in the real world are something everyone in esports can appreciate. ' ' '