

PLEISS SIGHTING

A Thunder That Never Was made an appearance at the Cox Convention Center on Tuesday night.



Longtime Thunder overseas prospect Tibor Pleiss made his debut in Oklahoma City … playing for the Idaho Stampede against the Blue. The 7-foot-3 Pleiss was assigned to the Stampede by the Utah Jazz on Monday. Pleiss has averaged 1.0 point in 3.3 minutes for the Jazz this season.



Pleiss never made an appearance for the Thunder before he was traded to the Jazz in February as part of the deal that landed the Thunder Enes Kanter.



In addition to Pleiss, who finished with 16 points and eight rebounds, Oklahoma City received a good look at Stampede guard E.J. Singler, the younger brother of Thunder forward Kyle Singler.



Thunder forward Josh Huestis added 15 points and five rebounds for the Blue (0-7).



DURANT OFF THE SCORING LIST … BRIEFLY



There will be a brief omission from the ranks of the top NBA scorers.



Thunder leading scorer Kevin Durant is noticeably missing from the league's points per game leaders. His scoring average of 28.4 ppg would have Durant third in the league behind Stephen Curry (31.6) and James Harden (29.8), but he's only played in 12 of the Thunder's 18 games.



In order to qualify as an NBA statistical leader, a player must have participated in 70 percent of his team's games. Durant is currently at 66.6 percent.



Don't look for Durant's name among the league leaders for the remainder of the week. Durant needs to reach 14 of 20 games played to hit the 70-percent mark, which he should achieve against the Sacramento Kings at home on Sunday.



REGGIE FINED $25K FOR SPAT IN OKC



Former Thunder guard Reggie Jackson was greeted with boos in his return to Oklahoma City last week with the Pistons. He was also greeted with some heckling from the crowd.



Jackson returned fire in the Pistons' loss, and the NBA made him pay on Tuesday. The league announced that Jackson was fined $25,000 for directing inappropriate language toward a fan during the Nov. 27 game. The incident in which Jackson walked to the sideline and talked to a fan behind the Pistons bench was recorded via a cell phone video and gained traction on YouTube since Nov. 28, with over 175,000 views as of Tuesday.



“Fans were heckling Reggie Jackson last night during the Thunder's win over the Pistons … his response was super classy,” the caption says underneath the YouTube video.



When asked about NBA fan behavior in general, Jackson didn't address the video directly, but said “it's crazy how we're treated” in regard to players' treatment by those in the crowd.



"The fans is reckless; the fans really think … half the time we feel like a caged animal and they can say whatever they want to you,” Jackson said Sunday, according to the Detroit Free Press. “That junk is reckless."



STAT OF THE DAY



6: By the numbers, the Thunder should have a favorable month of December.



Per NBA.com's John Schuhmann, the Thunder will face six opponents in their second game of a back-to-back, tied with Portland and Houston for the most among Western Conference teams this month. The Thunder also has the fewest back-to-backs (2) in the West this month.



BY ERIK HORNE

