Thunder notebook: Denver is done; on to Dallas

As Griffin's point total quickly rose, the boos also became groans. Griffin finished with 35 points and 11 rebounds.

New OU basketball coach Lon Kruger was in attendance and visited briefly with Griffin about an hour before tipoff. Griffin previously spoke of his disappointment at the firing of Jeff Capel.

“I wish him the best,” Griffin said of Capel. “Obviously, I think highly of him, and he'll be fine. On the other hand, everything that was said, for me, it wasn't a shot at the university. It was (support) for Coach Capel. I have a lot of loyalty to him. I talked with Coach Kruger several times. He's going to be great for Oklahoma. I'm excited to have a guy that's had that much success and that much experience in his career.”

Kruger first spoke with Griffin on Tuesday. “It makes me feel great that he reached out,” Griffin said. “I'm behind him 100 percent. I don't have any bad feelings or anything like that toward him.”

The Clippers went 2-2 against the Thunder this season. Asked why his team fared so well, Griffin said; “You look across the board for them, they like to get out and run (and) we like to get out and run. They're pretty athletic, and I think we're pretty athletic as well. I think we just kind of match up together well. I think everybody steps up and accepts the challenge to guard guys like Kevin Durant (who had 29 points Wednesday). You're not going to stop him, but you try to slow him down.”