Thunder's nightmare foe has gotten scarier

“They're good,” Collison said. “I think they're tough on a lot of teams. Chris Paul's obviously very good in pick-and-rolls and he draws a lot of attention. But they've got other talented players around him so they're a tough team to beat.”

In Blake Griffin, who played at OCS and OU, and DeAndre Jordan, the Clippers have two athletic big men who complement Paul perfectly as options in the pick-and-roll game. With both Griffin and Jordan, the Clippers force the Thunder to be locked in at all times defensively or risk giving up momentum-swinging alley-oop dunks. And with Crawford, Barnes, Caron Butler and Willie Green, the Clippers have shooters who can make the Thunder's defense pay if too much emphasis is placed on keeping Paul, Griffin and Jordan out of the paint.

Beyond that, the Clippers' bench has been fabulous, leading all teams with 42.2 points per game — exactly 11 more a night than the Thunder's reserves contribute. Powered by their bench backcourt of Crawford, the team's leading scorer and the front-runner for Sixth Man of the Year, and Bledsoe, the ultra-athletic point guard, the Clippers are outscoring opposing benches by 18.1 points per game, good for second in the league behind Milwaukee.

“Their bench is much better than a year ago, and Bledsoe off the bench is a force,” Brooks said. “He has tenacity, he has toughness (and) he seems to always make the right plays, hustle plays.

“They had a good team last year, but obviously I think they're much better this year.”