Many of our fans have been enjoying Thunder Alley throughout the Playoffs, but we know some of you might be headed down there for the first time tonight or Monday. So what does every Thunder fan need to know to get the most out of Thunder Alley?

1. Find something blue. Get your Thunder gear on before heading to Thunder Alley, and you’ll fit right in. Is your wardrobe a bit lacking? Head to the Thunder Shop in the arena before the game (they’ll shut the outside entrance around 6), or gather ’round the merchandise trailer to gear up. Word to the wise – if you’re meeting friends in Thunder Alley, don’t just tell them “I’ll be the one in the blue shirt.” You’ll want to get more specific.

2. Wash your face. Face painters and a caricature artist will be on hand, so make sure your cheeks are clean and ready for paint and pictures.

3. Have a camera handy. You never know what’s going to happen in Thunder Alley, so be ready to capture the memories. Whether it’s your child cruising down an inflatable slide, your friends dancing to the band’s music or your crazy aunt letting out a whoop and a holler after a big Thunder play flashes on the big screen, get it on camera. Make sure nobody else misses the moment by emailing pix to artwork@thunder-nba.com, vids to fanvideo@thunder-nba.com or by tagging us with an @-reply on Twitter.

4. Bring your appetite. We’ll have some food vendors on hand and $2 beers at the Budweiser Beer Garden, so you don’t have to fuel up before you head to the block party. You might find it easiest to stock up on cash in advance, though.

5. Lawn chair? Yes, please. Planning on watching outside on the big screen? Grab a lawn chair and get there early to set up a spot. Of course, if you’re just way too excited to sit during the game, there’s plenty of standing room to be had, too.

6. Wear your lucky whatever. If you’re looking to get last-minute tickets for the game, wear your lucky T-shirt, jeans, underwear or whatever and get in line for the Thunder Rewards Zone. Register by 6, then cross your fingers and toes as we announce who’s going to have a chance to win or buy tickets at 6:30.

7. Bring the THUNDER. It’s a nice day today, but it’s going to be Thunderous outside the arena. Bring the energy, bring the passion, bring the noise – in other words, bring the Thunder and cheer on your team!

- Karina Henderson

The puns about our team’s win last night and the thunderstorms that drenched and echoed across Oklahoma yesterday are ripe for the taking.

But among all the Thunder/thunder humor and hype I noticed online yesterday, there was one comment that stood out – it was from a fan who, noticing that yesterday was Thursday (named for Thor, mythological god of thunder), wondered what the Thunder’s record is on Thursdays.

Turns out, it’s pretty good.

Few NBA games are played on Thursdays; it’s usually a day off before a heavy weekend schedule for the league. However, of the six games the Thunder played on Thursday this season – including two preseason matchups, three regular-season games and last night’s playoff game – the Thunder is a perfect 6-0.

There you go, fans – a whole new set of puns to make. Fire away.

- Karina Henderson

If there’s anything truly unexpected about the Thunder’s postseason, it’s that Ellen DeGeneres has become part of the conversation about our team’s playoff efforts.

It started with a fan sending Ellen a Thunder blue foam finger in an effort to leverage the “luck” she claimed to bring to any team who sent her free gear. Then Kristen Chenoweth - a native Oklahoman, a Thunder fan and a friend of Ellen’s – got into the act, bringing the talk-show host even more goodies, including Rumble the Bison.

But our fans didn’t think it should stop there.

After Kristen Chenoweth made her appearance, fans of our team and of Ellen’s show started a grassroots movement to take things a step further. A Facebook page called “Let’s Make Ellen our #1 Thunder Girl” began to get Ellen to “Thunder up” even more. The page quickly caught on throughout OKC (and beyond), earning more than 22,000 page “likes” and cooking up a flash mob to make sure to get Ellen’s attention. Here are some photos from The Oklahoman of last night’s flash mob, and then there’s the video:

And catch Ellen’s attention they did. About an hour ago, the TV host put out the following via Twitter:

Sending all my love to Oklahoma. If I wasn’t already, I’m certainly a fan now. Go get it @OKCThunder! http://ellen.tv/jDsWAc

Who knows if this is the end of the story arc with Ellen. Something tells me if it’s up to our fans, there will be more coming.

- Karina Henderson

UPDATE 5/20: Ellen showed the flash mob on her show this morning – sounds as though she was pretty impressed…

Love may be the international language and mathematics may be the universal language, but more and more people around the world are fluent in Thunder.

It’s a popular time of year for vacations, and many Oklahomans recently packed their Thunder gear in their suitcases and took off for lands far away, making sure to post vacation pictures when they arrived.

John and Aimee tagged us on Twitter, from Washington D.C. and Disney World, respectively. John later remarked how many people in the nation’s capital are giving him “love” for his Thunder-wear.

Joy and Larry are two of our Season Ticket Members, currently keeping track of the Thunder from Athens. They’re not the only ones, though – they wrote to Jody in our premium services department, saying that when one Greek native saw them in their Thunder shirts he asked, “You know Kevin Durant?”

There may be a lot of different ways to say “thunder,” but no matter where you go, there’s only one Oklahoma City Thunder.

- Karina Henderson