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Patterson's path to 3-point specialist began in Houston

The Rockets put Patrick Patterson on the perimeter, and he was wide-open-minded.

The Oklahoma City forward, who started his career in Houston and will play there Saturday for the first time as a Thunder, didn't hesitate when Kevin McHale, his coach with the Rockets, told him to focus on 3-point shooting.

It went a lot better than the first time somebody tried to make a perimeter player out of Patterson.

That was John Calipari, hired at Kentucky before Patterson's junior year there. Calipari arrived with a top-ranked recruiting class and a notion that Patterson would be best suited facing the basket.