Thunder at Grizzlies: Preseason pre-game primer (and chat)
vs. 
Oklahoma City Thunder at Memphis Grizzlies
TV: None : (
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 7:00 CST
View from the enemy: 3 Shades of Blue
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. /satisfiedsigh
We have basketball again. Granted, it is the preseason and it doesn’t really matter, but alas, it’s nice to at least have something. Knowing I have a box score to look at makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside. Shame we don’t get to watch, but we’ll make do.
No sense in deconstructing anything that has to do with anything about this game because 1) It doesn’t matter 2) We don’t really know anything about these two squads yet 3) We don’t know who will be seeing most the playing time and 4) It doesn’t matter.
Injury update: Thabo Sefolosha didn’t travel with the team as he’s sitting out tonight’s game with a mild concussion. Allen Iverson isn’t playing because of a hamstring injury. We probably won’t see any Nick Collison. But good news, James Harden is set to play.
What to watch listen for:
I’ve got my eye ear on the rookies. I’m really interested to see how Harden flows within the offense and also how Scott Brooks uses Byron Mullens and Serge Ibaka. I bet we see a lot of Harden, Mullens, Ibaka and White and not a ton of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. I actually think Russell Westbrook plays 30 minutes or so because the more time he gets at point, the better he gets. I definitely will have a keen ear turned to what Hasheem Thabeet does. Has any No. 2 overall pick been this looked over even before he played his first game?
So settle in and get ready to let the sweet sounds of Matt Pinto take you home. You know, when your dad was a kid, this was the only way they followed their teams. There was no TV…
Go basketball season.
Will Ibaka make the roster or is he Tulsa-bound?
@Scott H.
Hard to say. I think the preseason is big for him. I imagine he’ll see time between both, but I don’t know where he’ll begin the season.
Gotcha. That Conley-Westbrook matchup will be fun to see (if there’s a way to watch it AND if they play at the same time.)
I hope to see a lot of Ibaka this season, and I look forward to seeing how he handles someone like Randolph if they get to play each other. Also, I hope that Harden gets to play a little against OJ Mayo… should be a nice preview.
Of course, the Memphis blog didn’t know Thabo would be out, so swap Thabo for Harden there. Did Harden get to play against OJ in college? They were both in the Pac 10 at the same time as freshmen together, so it’s probable. I wonder how those games went?
Jax
yeah, let’s just hope they don’t keep Mayo on the sidelines… Can’t wait to “hear” how it all turns out. I’ll be curious to find out if Weaver has made any improvements… still kinda pulling for him (against all odds) to get some minutes.
I’m betting we see more KD and Uncle Jeff than you are predicting, a fair amount of Ibaka,DJ White, and Thomas, and very little Mullins. Having the new guys that are actually going to play this season get PT alongside the regulars in a game type situation should be valuable. No need to play Mullins- guy isn’t ready yet, so why take this opportunity away from the new bigs who ARE going to be on the roster?
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
here is a link to a blog right after the two played… pretty interesting
http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/PaolaBoivin/18390
http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Let-s-hope-Hasheem-Thabeet-doesn-t-play-video-ga?urn=nba,194576
some dap from BDL
Andrew,
Nice find on the azcentral blog… hopefully that will become a fun rivalry for years to come.
@Steve H
You may be absolutely right. I’m just going off of last year’s first preseason game where Green played just 23 and Durant 28. I bet they both see around 25 tonight.
@Andrew
Thanks man. That was a good read.
@Andrew
Awesome find… (although i’m sure you just googled ‘James Harden OJ Mayo’)
i bet the concussion is whatever was wrong with thabo in that picture a couple of weeks ago. at least, i hope. wait, no. he was just blazed.
@Andrew
Hey, cool, it’s kind of like I made yahoo.
stoned…. concussed… same thing….
For those outside the OKC area WWLS can be found among the stations that itunes streams by default.
…I want my Thunder TV!!!!
But WWLS will do for now…
We really need to move this to coveritlive.com. I hate having to refresh constantly. Oh gosh, the Thunder Up song is definitely going to get old fast.
I wish we could get a running box score…
I hate that they are forcing us listen to the radio.
Gosh, 3 fouls in the first few minutes by Harden!
At least KD & Harden is scoring.
Go to NBA.com for a live box score
I’m glad our Thunder are finally playing some defense, even though we’re fouling at an excessive rate.
Here comes BJ
God bless Matt Pinto, but he needs a color man. Badly.
I would but I think you’re limited with how many you can put up a week.
Oh, I’m just talking about for these preseason road games that aren’t on TV.
@MartzMimic
Oh well we can try and set one up for Saturday.
Green is getting eaten up by Randolph…
2/10 from 3 as a team…excellent…
the thunder are playing smart ball, 13/6 TO/A ratio, decent fg% and holding memphis down, they are just fouling out the wahzoo, otherwise this game wouldn’t be close. But Westbrook’s 7:2 A:TO looks great so far.
Lets stay positive. Westbrook has 7 assists in under 17 minutes.
Make that 8 assists.
perhaps 9?
Sounds like Russ is playing really well.
Durant’s D isn’t showing up yet.
About time Westbrook steals something.
At the half, Mayberry told me that sometimes Durant’s defense was OK, sometimes Rudy Gay was blowing by him, but Durant was always in his face.
Russel’s really getting his hands on some steals!
Good: Kirstic’s jumper, T/A ratio, Westbrook’s assists, Livingston, reasonable team defense, Westbrook’s continued aggressiveness in transition D
Bad: Durant’s D, team three point shooting, fouls, defensive glass, interior D (esp Green)
Ugly: The City of Memphis
Yeah, Green is really not looking too good playing D.
Or atleast it sounds that way.
Wish I could see it for myself… argh
Nice Livingston
Nice Thomas
Interesting that Livingston is putting in good minutes at SG….
5 fouls, come on these refs are calling everything on the Thunder!
On Weaver were the 5 fouls called.
There’s a conversation on the game here:
http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/conversation?gameId=291007029
Some of the Memphis fans are saying that we’re still terrible with the worst ownership and how we stole our team. Pretty funny…