Thunder notebook: Zach Randolph give his side of the Kendrick Perkins incident

New Thunder sideline reporter Lesley McCaslin also attended UT. “It's OK. I'm good,” she said softly.

DEFENDING CRAWFORD

The Clippers signed free-agent guard Jamal Crawford to a relatively modest four-year, $21.35-million deal last offseason.

Crawford quickly has made himself the frontrunner for Sixth Man of the Year by leading the Clippers in scoring (19.4 ppg) despite coming off the bench and shooting 43.4 percent from 3-point range.

“He's as hard to guard as anybody in this league,” Brooks said of Crawford, who is in his 13th season. “He's crafty up top. He can get to where he wants to go with his dribble. He has a great crossover and he has 3-point range, deep range. You don't think that he's shooting it, but he shoots it 5-6 feet behind the 3(-point arc). We have to extend multiple defenders at him. We have to not give him anything easy and make him earn every shot.

“I think that's the best thing you can do … and you hope that he misses.”

TIP-INS

Wednesday's game between the Thunder and Clippers starts at 6:30 p.m. rather than at 7 and is the only league game on ESPN, which normally carries an NBA doubleheader. Fox Sports Oklahoma also will televise the game. … Clippers starting forward Caron Butler (right shoulder strain) is questionable and will be a game-time decision. … Through the first two games this season, OKC forward Serge Ibaka shot 5 for 18 (.278) from the field and 1 for 2 (.500) from the free-throw line. Since then, he has gone 61 for 99 (.617) from the field and 27 for 29 (.931) from the line.

QUOTABLE

Collison on how the Thunder will try to defend the Clippers' “Lob City” attack: “We'll try to make them score over us as much as possible. The spin lobs, the tricks, there's stuff you want to take out, but also the turnovers, the live ball turnovers when they're running in transition. It's hard to stop any team, but especially them with their athletes. Taking away the easy ones will be a big part of it.”