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Thunder notebook: Tickets, the alley-oop and celebs

BY JOHN ROHDE, Staff Writer, jrohde@opubco.com | Published: May 15, 2011 Comment on this article

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Games 1 and 2 of the series will be played at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Tuesday and Thursday. Game 3 is Saturday in Oklahoma City Arena and Game 4 is Monday.

Every game in the entire series will tip off at 8 p.m. and be televised on ESPN.

BAN LIFTED

Two years ago, Thunder coach Scott Brooks was so disgusted with how his team executed the alley-oop play, he banned it from competition. "That's a true story," Brooks said.

This year's Thunder team frequently has turned the lob play into an art form. It transpired in Game 7 on Sunday afternoon with an alley-oop pass from Russell Westbrook to Kevin Durant with 6:39 left in the third quarter that sparked a 19-7 run for OKC in the next five minutes against Memphis and made an already raucous sellout crowd of 18,203 grow even louder inside Oklahoma City Arena.

CELEBRITY SIGHTINGS

In that crowd was NBA Commissioner David Stern, who also attended Game 6 in Memphis on Friday.

Others spotted included actor James Cromwell, Desmond Mason, Kevin Bookout and "NBA Superfan" Jimmy Goldstein, a Hollywood millionaire who typically attends more than 100 games each season and has yet to miss a Thunder playoff game the last two years.

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