Possibility of Oklahoma City Thunder clinching sets city ablaze - SportingNews.com

OKLAHOMA CITYâ€"The taxi driver’s name is Haji. He’s bald and burly, profane and hilarious, and he loves the Thunder as only a man who arrived in this cityâ€"in this countryâ€"the same year the basketball team did could.

“The Thunder are … ,” began Haji en route to Chesapeake Energy Arena, and then he paused for at least 10 fascinating seconds.

The Oklahoma City Thunder's prospects of winning the Western Conference finals in Game 6 Wednesday have set the city ablaze. (AP Photo)

Left hand on the wheel, right hand in the air for emphasis, the middle-aged man from Iran found the right word at last: “America.”

The Thunder are America? We’re not quite sure what that’s supposed to mean, but it sure sounds great.

Downtown OKC is indeed the land of opportunity tonight. We spoke with two men who claimed they’d just sold a pair of $81 tickets for over $500 apiece. And with anotherâ€"a season-ticket holder in the big-money seatsâ€"who said he has sold his $400 ticket each game of the playoffs, for an average of over $2,000. Going further, he claimed to already have covered the cost of next season’s tickets with the profits.

For tonight’s Game 6â€"the Thunder’s first-ever opportunity to clinch a berth in the NBA Finals? “I could’ve gotten three grand,” he said.

But he didn’t even try. He couldn’t stay away from this one.

Oh, it’s a biggie all right.

It could be the start of something huge for Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and the rest of the young, exciting, extraordinarily impressive Thunder. It could be the end of an era for Tim Duncan, Gregg Popovich and the old, struggling, staggering-toward-the-finish-line Spurs.

Or maybe we’re in for a huge surprise tonight.

This town, meanwhile, is on fire, even if the Thunder are not.

“I don’t see any more excitement than they had at the start of the playoffs,” OKC coach Scott Brooks said of his players on Wednesday, 90 minutes before tip-off. “We have a focused group. … We have work ahead of us.”

The work in this series isn’t over for anyone.

“We have to play hard to beat them,” Brooks said. “And they have to play hard to beat us.”