Back At It After All-Star Break

The Thunder took the practice court tonight for about 1 1/2 hours, trying to regain its rhythm after four days off for All-Star break.

Joe Smith and Robert Swift did not make it back in time for the session. Thunder coach Scott Brooks said they missed their flights and there will be “consequences” for that. Desmond Mason was the only other player not at practice but the injured forward was excused.

It was interesting to see Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant trying to complete the dunk Rudy Fernandez and Pau Gasol teamed up for during the dunk contest. It’s the one at the 15 second mark of this video, when Gasol throws it off the back of the backboard and Fernandez comes from out of bounds an dunks before taking off from behind the glass. I never saw Westbrook throw it down.

Durant and Jeff Green, though, both said they enjoyed their time in Phoenix. Green said he particularly enjoyed seeing Shaquille O’Neal steal the show during Sunday’s All-Star game.

“Shaq was a character,” Green said. ”The way he came out was pretty cool. I was kind of imitating him at home.  But then the way he played in the All-Star game was pretty cool, the between the legs pass, the full court no-look pass, it was fun to watch.”

Durant said he will keep the paper and plastic trophy of a horse that he was given for winning the weekend’s H-O-R-S-E competition.

“I thought I was going to get a better trophy than that,” Durant said. ”But I was just happy that I represented Oklahoma City and (didn’t) lose by that much and coming back and hitting some shots and won it. It was cool. It was kind of unique.