Ball Don’t Lie Behind the Box Score: “First, the “112.” Because the Thunder just continue to grow, game in and game out. Kevin Durant’s shot wasn’t falling, in relative terms (9-20, 2-6 from behind the arc), so he took it to the line 12 times and finished with 31 points. Russell Westbrook was using his dribble to set up his … shot? 14 and 11 assists for this firebrand, who did turn it over five times. Jeff Green (24 points) is savvy beyond his years. And I’m not saying that, as many do, because he’s slow. He’s slow and savvy and young and awesome. Shaun Livingston had six points, two rebounds, three assists, a turnover and two steals off the bench in 17 minutes, and though he had no chance trying to guard Chauncey Billups, considering how he’s spent his last two April 8ths, I’d say this was a step forward. And the Thunder lost. Because they’re young, and the Nuggets are not.”
David Aldridge has 10 things that would help the NBA: “It would be good for the league if Blake Griffin goes to Oklahoma City. Obviously, having Griffin — can I say his name now? — play professionally 40 minutes from where he starred in college would be huge for the Thunder’s bottom line. Oklahoma City’s management team has astutely built a promising nucleus, and needs a space-eater inside. But Griffin to OKC would also benefit the league by assuring that Kevin Durant, a superstar in waiting, gets the kind of exposure he deserves as he enters the meat of his career. Durant’s game is hellacious, but if the Thunder keep losing 50 games a year, nobody’s going to notice.”
ESPN has this “clip reel” thing that’s got a bunch of Thunder links and videos and such. Very neato: “In our new issue, we have a feature on the Oklahoma City Thunder—potentially the Western Conference’s new “it” team a few years down the road—which you can read by clicking here. Ric Bucher’s words are epic, to be sure, but sometimes when reading a story about something that hasn’t quite happened yet, you want a few more resources on the squad, both print and video, right? That’s where this comes in.”
The best Kevin Durant clips on the web (according to some guy): “The GM of the Thunder, Mr. Sam Presti, is a Spurs guy (RC Buford, the leader of the Spurs, might be the most underrated exec in all of sports) and he’s building a pretty good team in OK City. The number one dude is Kevin Durant, a ridiculous offensive talent who could be a consensus bar debate answer to “ten best players in the Association” in three or four years. This Thursday, we’re dropping a feature about the Thunder’s future (can you imagine if they nab OK boy Blake Griffin?) which you should read. In the meantime, it’s time to evaluate the best KD clips on the world wide web.” Read more…
Considering what Oklahoma City was going up against tonight, a 10-point loss really ain’t all that bad. Coming in Denver had won seven straight, was 31-8 at home and was sitting squarely as the second seed in the West.
And of course this was the Thunder’s fourth consecutive loss and the seventh in eight games, but this one was close throughout. Which is better than not being close at all. Denver didn’t take its largest lead of four until late in the third quarter. The Nuggets stretched it to 10 early in the fourth and never let it get closer than five. But the fact that the Thunder played extremely hard and competed well for 48 minutes, especially after playing last night, was nice to see. Nobody really expected victory coming in, but a blowout loss wouldn’t have been a surprise. But they hung tough and gave themselves a chance.
Something I really watched for was how Kevin Durant responded when he came back in during crunch time in the fourth. He took a seat with 10 minutes left in the fourth with OKC trailing by two. He re-entered with 7:30 left with the Thunder down eight. The next three minutes Durant didn’t take a shot and the Nuggets pushed the lead to 12. He then really started trying to take over and got to the line six times and ended up scoring eight points, but he still only took four shots and made one (which was a flipping sweet facial on Chris Andersen) and the Thunder never got closer than seven. I honestly couldn’t really see much KD could have done differently because he tried to do his work, but he just didn’t get much help. Jeff Green scored just four in the fourth after having 20 in the first three. He only took three shots and that’s the thing – he seemed a bit passive. Read more…
Another stop in the Thunder’s crawl to the finish line.
The effort was absolutely better against the Spurs, but as I pointed out in the Bolts today, Kevin Durant has got to assert himself sometimes. He took only two shots in the fourth quarter and one was a forced three-pointer with 50 seconds left. Jeff Green didn’t score in the fourth. Those are the two main parts of your offense and you get two points in the most important minutes. That’s a bit disturbing.
KD has to want to be The Man. He has every tool to do it. It’s just whether or not he wants to stand there and wait for his number to get called, or if he wants to take the freaking thing over. Like I said, you think Kobe is standing there running motion offense and waiting for Derek Fisher to set him up? You think LeBron is just going to wait his turn? Some of the blame falls on Russell Westbrook and the other guys running point for not making it a point to give KD the ball. But in crunch time, you’ve got to rely on your big guns. Those being primarily KD and Uncle Jeff. The Thunder plays best as a full unit, but when something ain’t working and the game’s slipping away, go with the guy who is the best at basketball. Read more…
Well would you look at that – the Thunder’s started a “campaign” for Russell Westbrook. And by campaign I mean some hastily thrown together photoshop with some stats. Well consider me convinced. I did think this stat is pretty darn impressive though: Westbrook has dished out 10 or more assists on seven occasions, most of all rookies and he leads all rookie guards in double-doubles. Take THAT Rose Colored Glasses!
The SI roundtable takes a look back at Oden and Durant: “I’m still in the too-soon-to-tell camp on this one. You won’t find too many people who don’t think Durant is destined to be an MVP candidate in the next few years. He’s a polished and dynamic offensive player and, if you believe Thunder coach Scot Brooks, his defense is starting to come along. In Oden’s case, we still don’t know if he is going to be a part-time player for the rest of his career. Even if he isn’t, what I’ve seen of Oden’s offensive game makes me wonder if he will ever develop into anything more than Dikembe Mutombo. Now, I know 30 teams in the league that would take a young Dikembe Mutombo on their roster. But that’s not the question, is it?”
Ricky Rubio declares for the draft… again: “Ricky Rubio is back on our 2009 mock draft, after a four month stint where he was projected for 2010. Sources close to the situation indicate that Rubio’s family is now in favor of him entering this year, and that will almost certainly be on the early-entry list when it’s released on April 27th. His buyout still needs to be negotiated, which is easier said than done, but a final decision on whether to stay in likely won’t come until very close to the pull-out deadline, on June 19th. Unlike college players who are bound by the more restrictive NCAA rules, International players can enter the draft up to three times, which gives him plenty of wiggle room.” Read more…
Now that’s more like it. I mean, that’s more like what we’ve gotten used to this season.
A game that was very competitive for four quarters with some leads here and there but eventually winding up as a loss. And after the last two, I’ll take it. Especially against a team the caliber of the Spurs.
This was the type of game that was tight throughout, but a poor fourth quarter stretch did Oklahoma City in. And I hate to second guess, but the damage was done with the odd lineup of Kyle Weaver, Shaun Livingston, Jeff Green, D.J. White and Nick Collison. In other words, no offense. The Thunder scored two points over that three minute stretch while San Antonio scored 10. Kind of sort of the difference in the game right there. It’s really no biggie because more than anything you’re trying different combinations and different lineups to see what works and what doesn’t.
You look at the box score and it’s actually kind of difficult to figure out what went wrong. The Spurs shot 47 percent and OKC 45. Both teams made 15 free throws. Both teams made six threes. The Spurs outrebounded OKC by one and only had two more offensive rebounds. The turnover margin was only two in the Spurs favor as the Thunder only turned it 11 times but yet it was a 10 point loss. While they seem small, all those little things added up to seven more Spur shot attempts which gave them five more made baskets. So let’s see, 10 points, two points a basket… five more baskets… two times five equals… 10. There it is. It’s amazing how those tiny things add up to the difference in a game. It really shows how small the margin is between winning and losing at this level. Read more…
Timothy Varner from the super-duper fantastic Spurs blog 48 Minutes of Hell was kind enough to answer a few questions about the relationship Oklahoma City and San Antonio share.
DT: Oklahoma City has been said to be mimicking the Spurs model. I take that as get three cornerstone players, make sure you keep them and build from there. Looking at OKC from an outside perspective, do you think they’ve got three comparable cornerstones to Duncan, Parker and Ginobili?
TV: That’s a good question. Right now, the answer is obviously no. But projecting forward, the Thunder absolutely have the makings of the a future Big 3. Here’s what scares me: Sam Presti is not done. Durant is just scratching the surface of awesome he will be become. The better he becomes, the greater success his surrounding cast will enjoy. But honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if the third member of your Big 3 is yet to arrive. What if someone like Jeff Green becomes a 4th star, rather than the 3rd? Going forward, I actually like the Thunder’s chances of becoming a dynasty more than Portland’s.
DT: What do you see as the reason the Spurs have lost to the Thunder the last two? Lack of focus? Poor coaching decisions? What is it? Read more…
San Antonio Spurs (49-27, 23-15 road) vs. Thunder (21-55, 14-25 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722) Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM) Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 102.8 (29th), San Antonio: 108.4 (13th) Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.5 (20th), San Antonio: 104.5 (5th) Pace: Thunder: 93.5 (8th), San Antonio: 88.5 (26th)
Boy, thank goodness we get to play the Spurs again. I was getting tired of all this losing crap.
Those last two games were rough. For a minute there I thought it was November again. It doesn’t help that one of the best teams in the league comes in after just suffering one of their biggest losses of the season in Cleveland and oh yeah, OKC’s beaten them the last two and kind of sort of embarrassed them so I think they’ll be playing with a little added vengeance. So that’s not good.
But with this Thunder team you can never tell. A game that seems like a gimme they lose by 15. A game that looks like they’ll have no shot, they win. So tonight? All bets are off. Read more…
Blake Griffin will hold a press conference today at 2:30 to announce his intentions to either go pro or come back for his junior season. Last year, he held a press conference as well and announced he was coming back. Don’t expect that this year.
Kevin Durant is most like Chris Mullin? Here’s to KD growing a sweet flattop: “Five boards, two steals, an efficient 22 points without a ton of 3s from a swing man … that’s what Chris Mullin did in the 1991-92 season. And that’s a lot like Kevin Durant, which is why the highest score in this whole similarity exercise comes from the Thunder’s Kevin Durant. The next time someone tells Durant he plays like Chris Mullin will certainly be the first, won’t it? That’s why I love these comparisons.” Also, you’ll see also KD is similar to Bernard King which is a guy he’s been compared to a lot.
Kevin Durant featured in new “G” commercial: You want to be a sports marketer? Old school clips combined with a gravelly voiceover and a light piano tune capped with three powerful words and you’ve got me sold. I fall for those every time.
FreeDarko on Russell Westbrook with some very cool graphs included: “That is, until about a week ago. That’s when the Thunder signed Shaun Livingston, I remembered they had Thabo, and I started to wonder, what becometh of Russell Westbrook? You want to talk about Rondo as a PG lacking in jump shot? Westbrook is the point equivalent of a dirty bomb. He’s so unpredictable, and riotously imperfect, that you really have to wonder how teams scouting him managed to keep any stable future hologram in front of them while taking their notes. It’s not just that he lacks position, but that he undermines, even threatens, the stability of those around him.” Read more…
Know this: Kevin Pelton is much, much smarter than me. He has an awesome eye for the game and dissects it with a surgeon’s touch. I know that he knows more than me, no doubt. But he recently wrote a piece critiquing Blake Griffin following the Elite Eight game against North Carolina and highlighted some of what he considered major faults. As someone that’s watched Blake play every game in his two-year college career and actually multiple games in high school, I feel like I should maybe comment a bit on Pelton’s criticisms of Blake.
Pelton’s major critiques come on the defensive end but he also talks about Griffin’s screen setting.
The disappointing aspect of Griffin’s offensive game was his screen-setting. I tracked him participating in five high pick-and-rolls and nine side pick-and-rolls, but I’m not certain he made contact on his screens on any of them. In fairness to Griffin, part of this may be the Sooners’ desire to keep their meal ticket away from foul trouble given the inconsistent way screens are officiated. Still, these plays were relatively ineffective, rarely freeing the guard while only occasionally giving Griffin good position on his roll to the basket.
Pelton acknowledges the foul trouble issue with an “in fairness” line. And that’s it. That’s precisely why Blake doesn’t try and set bone-crushing screens every possession. He’s trying to avoid tick-tack fouls. I mean, you understand that’s the reason why with an “in fairness” but then you go ahead and make the point anyway? That’s the reason for it, plain and simple. Also, I realize when a guy is going to be the clear-cut No. 1 pick, people are going to look for things he doesn’t do well, because well, that’s what people do, but screen setting? Knocking on a guy because he didn’t set textbook screens? If that’s one of the major criticisms of Blake Griffin’s game, then I’d say he has a pretty complete game already. Read more…
SLAM has five reasons Scott Brooks deserves an extension: “Either way, even when the Thunder were playing like your grandpa’s ’73 Sixers, Brooks was still encouraging, still clapping, still refusing to collect moral victories like he used to collect his team’s laundry when he was a coach in the ABA. Even the locker room, when things weren’t exactly humming, didn’t permeate a team dancing with futility. The players seem to genuinely like Brooks — some even call him “Scotty” — and when you like someone, you tend to play hard for them. Brooks perhaps draws strength from his own playing career. He was a short, white, undrafted and undersized guard, a CBA refugee who ended up sticking around for ten years and winning a title (with the ’94 Rockets). It’s entirely possible Brooks sees this Thunder team going through the same modus operandi as his own life in professional basketball: Success will eventually be born out of hardship, acquired through scrap and fight, where results and respect will be concurrently earned. Bottom line: He’s an upbeat guy, and his team is eating it up – 18-24 since their 3-29 start, with wins over San Antonio (twice), Utah, Dallas and Detroit since the second week of January.”
David Friedman of Pro Basketball News says give the RoY to Derrick Rose: “The Oklahoma City Thunder’s Russell Westbrook is averaging 17.3 ppg since the All-Star break but he is only shooting .395 from the field during that time. For the season, he is averaging 15.7 ppg (tied with Gordon for third among rookies) and 5.1 apg (second among rookies) for a team that started slowly but now has a marginally better winning percentage than last year.” That’s it. That’s all the mention Russell got in Friedman’s Rookie of the Year thing.
Brook Lopez was asked about Rookie of the Year: “Probably Derrick,” Lopez said. Give a different one. “I’d say Russell (Westbrook).” Keep going. What about Lopez? So he named Robin. ”Derrick’s changed his team so much. They’re definitely (in it) for the playoffs. Between (Kevin) Durant and Russ, Oklahoma City has obviously improved over the course of the season. He did too,” said Lopez, averaging 12.9 points, 7.9 rebounds and 1.79 blocks, who gave his All-Rookie team as Rose, Westbrook, O.J. Mayo, Eric Gordon and Marc Gasol.”
NBA Outsider has a prediction: “Let me make it clear that I am NOT saying the Oklahoma City Thunder will be title contenders, but instead that they will be threatening to make it into the playoffs in three years. I try to be bold, not borderline brain damaged.” Oh my. How bold. Will be threatening to make the playoffs in three years? Really going out there on a limb with that one. Three years is a long time. That means you’re saying they stink in 2009-10. They’re bad in 2010-2011. But in 2011-12, look out! They might make the playoffs that year. NBA teams are the easiest to turn around. If OKC’s doesn’t contend for the playoffs until 2011-12, then something is seriously wrong. Read more…
It’s tough to win in the NBA when you can’t shoot and you can’t defend. The Thunder found it out…again tonight against the Pacers in a second straight trip to the woodshed.
There really isn’t much to say about this game that isn’t just summed up by that first paragraph; we just didn’t score enough points or in any way efficiently, meanwhile the Pacers ripped us a new one. We allowed the Pacers, who shoot 49.7% eFG on the season to bomb away at 54.5% tonight. Our guys in blue, who are already fairly dreadful shooting on the season at a dead last in the NBA 47% eFG shot 44.5%. Add to that, we got into a running game with the third fastest team in the NBA and if you’ve been watching this season, you can imagine how well that has worked for us this season. Tonight each team used 104 possessions, one of the fastest games of the season for us, and were never really in the contest. We are 0-9 in games with a pace over 100, and have only won one game all season with a pace in the high 90′s, and that was a one point win against the lowly Kings. Read more…
Can I just take a moment to say, what the crap weather? Snow last weekend, then sunny with highs of 75 through the week and now back to low 40s and 200 mile per hour wind. Oh yeah, I live in Oklahoma. Nevermind.
For tonight’s game against Indiana, I’m really expecting a solid effort. After Friday, ahem, “poor” performance against Portland, I think this team comes out with a lot of fire tonight. They may only have 21 wins, but they have an awful lot of pride. In fact, in games OKC lost by 20 more (under Scott Brooks) the Thunder’s 0-4 in the following game with a pair of two point losses and overtime loss. So while that’s not exactly an encouraging bit of information, it does say that the team doesn’t really sulk and get their rears handed to them on consecutive nights.
Brooks hinted that D.J. White may see action for the first time tonight. I’m really anxious to see what he adds. I don’t expect big minutes or big production, but I’m looking forward to at least getting a look at him. At Indiana he was a terrific low post scorer and physical rebounder – something OKC really needs. (Kind of ironic he makes his debut in the NBA against Indiana, huh?) Read more…
Reader Kev was at the 66ers game last night and had some great comments about D.J. White and Kyle Weaver’s performances. I thought it needed to be bumped up to maybe catch some more eyeballs.
Actually, White was not that good on the boards – he had seven boards – four were offensive and three of those were attempted tip ins – come on, if you’re 6-9 you should be able to get more than 3 defensive rebounds in 36 minutes of action. I didn’t see the aggressiveness from White that you need at THAT level to warrant time in the NBA. He was very good at jump shots, as he put in at least four of those from 15 to 19 feet. Sadly, he did very little post up work. In fact, he got the ball in the post TWICE all game. The first time he turned and faced immediately after catching it (he hit a jumper from about 12). The last time he fumbled the ball after starting to dribble, and almost turned it over in the process. He offered little defensive resistance inside all night, so (based off of one game I know) it doesn’t look promising.
Weaver looked okay at the point. He registered 11 assists, but when you play in a game in which transition and rotating defense is almost non existent, you can rack up the assists if you are a willing passer (which he is). He did okay at ball handling, even though he had two bad passes out of traps. With Livingston on hand, I don’t think he will be seeing the point with the Thunder anytime soon. Still, it was fun to see him take his “demotion” in stride – he was in a good mood the whole game, and even gave a fist pound to all the statisticans before gametime.
Great stuff. I’m a little disappointed about White’s post game. At Indiana he was lethal in the post. I hope he’s not trying to be a jump shooting big man. Been there, done that (Johan Petro). Also, you can check out last night’s 66ers box score here. Weaver played all 48 minutes and had 24 points (11-17 shooting), 11 assists and seven rebounds. White had 28 points and seven rebounds in 37 minutes of run.
Both players have been recalled and that’s the last time White is going down for the season. Under league rules, a player can only make three trips down and up between D-League and NBA. Hopefully White can get a little burn in these next seven games.
“He’s going to be able to play there two games and only miss one game here,” said Brooks, indicating Weaver is likely to be recalled prior to Sunday’s game against Indiana. ”I like what he has done for us, and he will continue to improve because he is a great worker. But he’s getting minutes down there and it helps when you get minutes. I know he was getting 16, 17 minutes up here, but he’s getting 40 minutes down there. I thought he did a good job. He was filling up the stat sheet. They didn’t win the game, but I thought his numbers and his play was pretty good. So he’s just getting an opportunity to play extra minutes.”
Box score (take a good look at it – it’s a good one)
You know what kind of quotes you see after a game like that?
“We just didn’t have any intensity tonight. We have to come out with better energy than that.”
“Shots just weren’t falling. Some nights that happens.”
“This one is on us – we just didn’t play with any fire tonight.”
“We got out-hustled. No excuses. That was just terrible effort on our part.”
“Give credit to the Blazers. They weren’t giving us any easy looks.”
Blah, blah, blah. I mean, what else are you supposed to say? “You know, other than the getting beat by 37 and shooting 36 percent, I thought things went pretty well.”
But let me tell you, that was a poor effort. They stunk. Big time. Sure, it was an “off night” if you want to call it that. I think a better description would be “so far off that I actually wonder if someone would hit the shot clock with a jumper night.” Oklahoma City shot just 36 percent for the game and it took a lot to get there after the Thunder shot just 23 percent in the first half. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-three percent. Eleven made field goals. Pathetic.
Here’s some numbers from the first half: Kevin Durant 2-9, eight points. Russell Westbrook 1-8, seven points. Jeff Green 3-7, nine points. Nenad Krstic 1-7, two points. And it’s not like it really picked up in the second half. after 35 first half points, OKC put up 37 in the second for a whopping 72 points. Too bad Portland had 107. You know how many points the leading man for OKC had? Thirteen. Thirteen points. The Thunder had three guys in double figures. As a result of all that *stellar shooting, Brian Davis probably said some variation of his little “lid on the basket” cliche 2,000 times. It got pretty old pretty fast. Read more…
Last time the Thunder beat the Spurs, they responded with a flat, uninspired performance against the Bulls. Do that again, and we may be taking a trip down P.J. Carlesimo lane with a home blowout loss. Hopefully, the team carries the momentum of beating one of the premier teams in the league at their place with them. One would assume OKC’s confidence would be sky high and they’d feel great going into this game. But I don’t think the Thunder plays that well when they think they’re “good.” They can’t take possessions for granted. They can’t just wait to turn it on like the Lakers or Celtics do. It’s got to be a full 48 minute grind.
I actually remember thinking during that Bulls game at some point in the first half (a half where OKC led the entire way), “Man, this team is playing with a little swagger. They look confident.” And of course the Bulls outscored OKC 51-40 in the second half, winning 103-96. Confidence is one of the most important things in sports. When you’re confident, you feel good about yourself and you play better. I firmly believe that. But when you’re not all that great and you’re a bit over-confident to the point where you think you can take possessions off or not work as hard on the glass, you’re going to get beat. So tonight, after an extremely impressive win over the Spurs, let’s hope nothing is taken for granted. Read more…
out. Kevin Durant’s shot wasn’t falling, in relative terms (9-20, 2-6 from behind the arc), so he took it to the line 12 times and finished with 31 points. Russell Westbrook was using his dribble to set up his … shot? 14 and 11 assists for this firebrand, who did turn it over five times. Jeff Green (24 points) is savvy beyond his years. And I’m not saying that, as many do, because he’s slow. He’s slow and savvy and young and awesome. Shaun Livingston had six points, two rebounds, three assists, a turnover and two steals off the bench in 17 minutes, and though he had no chance trying to guard Chauncey Billups, considering how he’s spent his last two April 8ths, I’d say this was a step forward. And the Thunder lost. Because they’re young, and the Nuggets are not.”
vs. 
some hastily thrown together photoshop with some stats. Well consider me convinced. I did think this stat is pretty darn impressive though: Westbrook has dished out 10 or more assists on seven occasions, most of all rookies and he leads all rookie guards in double-doubles. Take THAT Rose Colored Glasses!
vs. 
his junior season. Last year, he held a press conference as well and announced he was coming back. Don’t expect that this year.
grandpa’s ’73 Sixers, Brooks was still encouraging, still clapping, still refusing to collect moral victories like he used to collect his team’s laundry when he was a coach in the ABA. Even the locker room, when things weren’t exactly humming, didn’t permeate a team dancing with futility. The players seem to genuinely like Brooks — some even call him “Scotty” — and when you like someone, you tend to play hard for them. Brooks perhaps draws strength from his own playing career. He was a short, white, undrafted and undersized guard, a CBA refugee who ended up sticking around for ten years and winning a title (with the ’94 Rockets). It’s entirely possible Brooks sees this Thunder team going through the same modus operandi as his own life in professional basketball: Success will eventually be born out of hardship, acquired through scrap and fight, where results and respect will be concurrently earned. Bottom line: He’s an upbeat guy, and his team is eating it up – 18-24 since their 3-29 start, with wins over San Antonio (twice), Utah, Dallas and Detroit since the second week of January.”
vs. 
vs. 
