Vegas Game 5 wrap: Mavericks 74, Thunder 54
July 18th, 2009
This post got messed up big time. It didn’t save right and when it got published and it cut off like all of it. I restored some of it, but not all. Too bad for you, because I had some really brilliant thoughts in there about a Summer League basketball game. Sorry about that.
A couple quick thoughts about today’s game against Dallas:
- The Mavs started out today on a 10-0 run, then took it to 16-2 hitting 4-4 from deep. Roddy Beaubois hit two DEEP threes and Shan Foster hit a pair as well. The Thunder kind of looked like they were ready to hit the casinos tonight and really didn’t appear all that excited to be playing their 10th game in 13 days.
- The Thunder scored just 54 points today and their quarter by quarter went 11, 20, 11, 12. Pretty awesome offense there.
- B.J. Mullens with another beautiful example of his lack of post game: With 5:03 left in the first quarter, James Harden dropped a pretty bounce pass to Mullens who was standing on the block. His defender had left him to go get Harden and the Maverick rotation was a little late. So Mullens was basically standing alone on the block momentarily. He caught the pass, faced up and immediately launched an eight-footer. Literally two dribbles and he’s dunking the ball. Loud sigh.
- Oh and just chew on Mullens’ line for a second: 10 minutes, two points, zero rebounds, zero assists, zero blocks and two turns. I think he’s ready for a break.
- For all the bad play OKC had today, Shaun Livingston looked really good (five points, four assists) in limted time. He hit a 3, made some brilliant passes and had his mid-range game going a little. He played a lot at small forward today while Harden ran the point. It’s been a few days since I’ve said it, so here we go again: I LOVE the versatility of this roster.
- Beaubois is pretty darn good. He had 23 on 9-12 shooting, hit four threes and had five assists.
- Moses Ehambe got in early today and did some positive things. He hit a 3 at the end of the 24 and made a beautiful full-court bounce pass to Harden for an and-1. His performance earned him a start in the second half, but things didn’t go as well. He finished with seven points on 3-7 shooting and missed his next four threes.
- And another poor shooting performance by Robert Vaden. He looked to be forcing things again today and didn’t take great shots. In his defense, he had two threes rattle in and out, but still 2-10 from the field ain’t that good. He did somehow block three shots though.
Here’s some Vegas stats:
I’ll have this in the bolts Monday so nobody misses it, but evidently Chris Paul is a big fat liar:
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/07/18/chris-paul-caught-lying-on-twitter/
That makes me a little sad inside.
For some reason it also closed comments on this thing. I have no idea what happened. Sorry everybody. I am punishing myself by forcing myself to watch 10 straight hours of missed Damien Wilkins jumpshots.
@Royce
DON’T DO IT! PEOPLE HERE STILL LOVE YOU!
lol
Summer league questions:
1. Did Westbrook show any greater inclination or ability to feed the post effectively?
2. Which does Russell accomplish first: A) Score 20 pts a game B) 8 assists C) lead PGs in rebounding D) all NBA defensive 3rd team E) Cut turnovers to under 3 per game F) Score at league average for TS% G) top 5 in steals? How many does he accomplish thru year 4? Which if any does he never accomplish? Which is most and least important?
3.How was the 1 on 1 and team defensive of Harden, White, Ibaka, Mullens and Hardin?
4. Did Ibaka offensive board and score often on the same play or mainly one or the other?
5. Harden’s weakness / area most needed to improve is…?
6. For Joe, Ibaka vs a young Shawn Kemp… reasonable comparison or not?
7. Hardin (the center) reminds me of or has the potential become…. who?
8. Ibaka was stamina or consistency issues, agree or disagree?
9. Mullens’ rebounding at 1 every 7.5 minutes is mostly about A) strength B) Quickness C) Effort D) Basketbal IQ E) Where is on the floor? F) What he thinks is important G What he was working on and not?
10. The player in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team is…?
@Crow
Nice questions, mate!
I was out of town with no laptop, so I missed the last two games.
(It didn’t look good from the box scores…)
btw…
I saw we finally got rid of Watson and Swift. Nice!! Does anyone know what our depth-chart is now? Is Shaun ready to backup RW? Who’s gonna be our leading rebounder/inside tough-guy this season? Are Vaden and Byron going to Tulsa for a bit?
also btw…
What’s up with the CP3 Trade rumors?
Who/what would we be willing to give up to get him? I say RW or Jeff and some furture picks would be fine with me. (that way The Hornets could dump some salary and we could be in the playoffs…soon!)
That would be a pretty darn good offensive scoring line with: 1) CP3, 2) Harden, 3)K-Smooth, 4)Unkie Jeff, & 5)Krysic. (I don’t know if we could stop anyone, though…)
Maybe a Defensive line of: 1)Weaver, 2)Thabo, 3) KD (we still need to score!), 4)Unkie Jeff, 5) Collison.
What say you, bros?
With the overall lack of focus and effort in Vegas do you think the Thunder are regretting attending both summer leagues?
Jodie Meeks!
Pooh Jeter – A spark off the bench for league min.
Pooh Jeter on draftexpress
http://www.draftexpress.com/blog/Pooh-Jeter/#Pooh-Jeter-I-Just-Want-to-Be-Successful-3291
I’d be curious what your answers are to your own questions Crow. I’d say:
1) No idea. We still don’t have a great post scorer, so I’m not sure it’s that big of a deal. It’s a skill he’ll need to develop over time though.
2) I would say C, D, and G are likely (in that order), hopefully he’ll get there this year. Averaging 20pts per game would not be a great sign, in my opinion, since we have more scoring options this year – I think averaging 8 assists and less than 3 turnovers are most important but I don’t know if he can do that this year.
3) The only comment I feel qualified to make is that Harden is a slightly better team defender than 1 on 1. He’s pretty good 1v1 but his defensive IQ is great and he plays the passing lanes well.
4) No idea.
5) He’s been flat-out awesome so far. I’d say that his biggest area to improve is his 3pt shooting. He also has the size to post up some smaller guards and I would love to see him really develop that aspect to his game.
9) Didn’t see a lot of Mullens play but I gather it’s a combination of quickness and IQ / Spacing knowledge. Also, our guards tend to crash the boards a lot (especially Westbrook and Harden) so they’re probably “stealing” a few rebounds from him as well.
1. I think so. He looked like he had a better idea of it and was more patient.
2. This is a great question. I think cutting turns down is the first priority and then racking up assists, then defensive team.
3. Mullens and Ibaka weren’t great, Harden was pretty good and White is ok.
4. He did a few times. He didn’t have a lot of putbacks, but he is pretty quick off his feet.
5. Actually, that’s tough to say. I think one thing is that he sometimes kind of fades out for a minute or two. But I really don’t have a major complaint.
7. DeVon Hardin looks to me like maybe a Udonis Haslem-ish player. Big, physical but needs to polish is game before he can really be anything.
8. I agree, I thought it was more both. He was consistently good in Orlando, but he was erratic in Vegas. I bet some of that was conditioning and some was just inconsistent play.
9. He’s just not where he’s supposed to be. I don’t think it’s effort because he was trying. But he just wasn’t where he needed to be to grab rebounds. He mis-timed his jumps, he was out of position or he didn’t look sure of himself.
10. I actually REALLY liked Shan Foster from the Mavs summer team.
Good questions Crow.
haha, the question and answer format is pretty fun. here’s mine:
1. tough to tell when we didn’t have anybody to feed in the post. i thought in general though he was a little more patient and less erratic, though not as improved as i would have liked
2. agree with royce, great question. i think he accomplishes c first, and i’m hoping for e. b, e, and f are far and away the most important in my opinion
3. mullens-terrible, ibaka- ok-ish?, white- decent, harden- decent (and very good off ball)
4. couldn’t really tell you, but i think he did once or twice. he definitely had a lot of o boards according to the box scores though
5. um, not sure, he looked really good to me. maybe develop more comfort going right
7. hardin’s a banger, maybe … kendrick perkins. shooting a bit high though, but in that mold
8. agree. definitely seemed to wear down with all the games.
9. hugely positioning (bj needs to watch kevin love, who rebounds like a beast with 1/2 of bj’s size/athleticism), some timing
10. killer shooter off the bench (since vaden doesn’t look like he’s got that). maybe kyle mcalarney from notre dame, he can really shoot
Thanks for the replies, including John starting it off.
I’ll answer a few of them. Mostly I wanted the opinion of those who saw more of the video feeds.
2.Russell has a good chance of doing all 7 by end of year 4. Least important is tough, but I might go F (surprisingly) or G.
7. Hardin (the center) reminds me of or has the potential become…. a poor man’s Varejao?
8. I’d guess Ibaka “has” stamina and consistency issues. A sports car. He’ll have to adjust to the NBA schedule, perhaps slowly but it was probably going to be slowly anyways.
9. Mullens’ rebounding is about everything. Now Swift went thru this too and picked that part up. Ultimately the make or break test will be defense.
10. Meeks is a scorer in the way Vaden is hoped for. Jeter will make Blazers or somebody’s roster. I like Dante Cunningham but nobody is getting him. Houston needs Dorsey. Lots of teams need a raging bull. The players in summer league I semi or completely realistically want Presti to try to pry away from another team are Calloway or Conroy or DeMarcus Nelson if he doesn’t stick in Chicago or maybe Coby Karl. They need a another PG. Maybe James Augustine or somebody that size and style.