Thursday Bolts – Undefeated Edition
As someone pointed out, the Thunder’s on pace for 82-0. Just sayin’. 
Kevin Durant has launched an official site. Check it out – it’s got KD sightings, KD1 sightings and other stuff.
A must read: John Hollinger makes sense of the Thabo signing: ”The Thunder extended Thabo Sefolosha for four years today, and I know what you’re thinking: Why now? Who was coming after this guy with big free agent bucks? Here’s the answer, and it has to do with cap management. Let’s start with the basics: The Thunder are set to have a trove of cap space next summer, around $15 million depending on the cap holds for their two first-round draft picks and where the final cap number comes in.”
A firm called Sysomos did an interesting Twitter research study, looking at the habits of NBA players. Kevin Durant is followed by the fourth most fellow NBA players and the Thunder’s the fifth most active team on Twitter. Kind of interesting.
Kevin Durant: Good win for us tonight @russwest44 was bummmmmpppppiiin 14, 13 dimes n 7 rebounds
Earl Watson had 20 points last night for the Pacers on 7-8 shooting. And Damien Wilkins had 12 points and 10 boards for Minny and also hit a game-winner for the Wolves.. What the eff you guys?
The AP recap of last night’s game.
Darnell Mayberry answered questions for The Oregonian previewing the season: “The biggest weakness again is the lack of a post presence. The Thunder could have a hard time defending the paint and scoring easy baskets in halfcourt sets. They’ve implemented a shell defense that is designed to protect the paint through helping and rotating. But so far opposing teams have exposed it with their perimeter shooting. The biggest strength has to be the players’ versatility. Westbrook, Harden, Durant, Green and Sefolosha are all capable of playing multiple positions and creating matchup problems with their physical gifts.”
Six former 66ers made NBA rosters this year: ”The Tulsa 66ers announced today that six former 66ers players have made 2009-10 NBA season opening rosters. Three players on tonight’s opening night roster for the Oklahoma City Thunder roster saw playing time with the 66ers last season, as Kyle Weaver … D.J. White … and Shaun Livingston. In addition, Ramon Sessions of the Minnesota Timberwolves played on assignment during the 2007-08 season, while Milwaukee Bucks forward Ersan Ilyasova and Orlando Magic forward Brandon Bass each played on assignment during the 2005-06 season.”
Kelly Dwyer behind the box score: “The Thunder were hot from the outset, Jeff Green (24 points on 13 shots, eight boards, three blocks) ran circles around whoever Sacramento had out there, Kevin Durant had 25 points and 11 rebounds (!), and Nenad Krstic looks stronger with every passing day. 20 points and seven boards. Great to see.”
Thabo’s agent, Guy Zucker, on the deal: “Clay Bennett (the Thunder owner) and Sam Presti (general manager) did an amazing job,” Zucker said. “It never was an issue of whether (Sefolosha) wanted to stay there. We couldn’t agree to terms. But they came up with an improved offer. They really stepped up.”
Highlights from last night’s game.
Where was Livingston last night? Is he still ailing or was it a coaches decision to sit him. Ollie didn’t do anything to hurt the team badly but while everyone else seemed to be hitting on all cylinders he would sputter. Collison looked rusty as well.
Since I missed preseason I still haven’t got to see the man myth legend that is Serge Ibaka.
The recap at Cowbell Kingdom is interesting: http://www.cowbellkingdom.com/?gcid=C12289x022>kw=Sacramento:+Cowbell%20Kingdom
When was the last time someone described our front court as dominating?
The scary thing about last night’s game was that we could have played better. Durant never got his shot going and we had a few moments in the paint where we passed it to the big surrounded by three players. Sometimes we drew the foul, others we lost the ball. I didn’t think Thabo played his normal lockdown defense, but that may have just been dismay about how Martin had his way in the first half (thankfully the only Kings player to have any way in the game). If Green, RW, and Krstic continue like this, though, we’re in for a good season and fun basketball.
I feel sorry for the writer over there. He has good write-ups but noone comments.
For those of us who went to the game, wasn’t the halftime violin players tha shiznit??!!
I noticed that too. Very sad when none of the fans are reading about their own teams blog. Maybe they don’t know about it?
I don’t expect that good of a game every night, but if that was a sign of things to come, then we might just have ourselves a pretty darn good basketball team in OKC.
But, while the Thunder’s core is showing improvement, it would appear that they still need some help from the bench. Apparently a backup point gaurd is still missing from the equation, and Harden still has a bit of developing to do (confident that it will happen).
And, while Green and Kirstic played very well last night, a truly dominant post player would really make this team a force. If Kirstic had been able to finish a little better down low, the numbers for that tandem would have been reduckulous!!
Readers are coming for Zach. He’s a really good writer and he’s just establishing that place. When I started out, I got like a hundreds hits a day and maybe a comment or two (that weren’t hateful). I remember one time getting 600 hits on a day and being really fired up about it. Kind of funny to think about now.
He’s got it tougher because Sactown Royalty is really established and people don’t always want to leave their commenting comfort.
@GAP
Was pretty cool… one of my neighboring fans told me that they were on “America’s Got Talent.”
But the best part of being there is that you catch unexpected things, like when the short black ref was unable to figure out how knocked the ball out of bounds on a scrum under the visiting basket…. so he looks at the other ref and the two players, gives a shoulder shrug and gives the jump ball sign… had my whole section laughing and heckling.
DELIGHTED to hear that we re-signed Thabo, and to a very reasonable price. My only concerns from last night were Ollie playing instead of Livingston, and Thomas’ lackluster performance. Ollie didn’t do too bad, but I really thought Livingston had cemented his place in the line-up. I’m hoping he just tweaked his ankle pre-game, but I guess we will find out before too long. As for Thomas, Royce and some other posters thought he played solid defense in spite of his numbers, but I honestly didn’t see him do much of anything for us. I hope you guys have better eyes for that sort of thing- I was looking forward to him adding some toughness inside, but towards the end of last night I was actively hoping they wouldn’t pass him the ball down low. Another night or two of 2 points/1 rebound and I’d like to see Brooks give his minutes to Ibaka.
@Steve H
It’s not like he was fantastic, but he did nice work. But then again, he was going against Sean May and Spencer Hawes, not exactly two titans of the paint.
@Steve H @Royce
One word: Iblaka
Glue Etan to the bench and give his minutes to Ibaka/White.
Ahhh… those early days
@AD
Yep you and Steve H get the awesome people award – you’ve both been reading and commenting almost since the very beginning.
Ahhh… the early days when Royce and I put a counter at the bottom of the page to see if we were the only ones clicking on the Thunderworld…
I guess i’m just chopped liver jus jk
@Royce
I am switching to AT&T U-Verse on friday and I still don’t know for sure if I’m gonna get all of the Thunder games in HD from KSBI and FSOK. Does anyone have U-Verse that can ease my concerns?
@Concerned Fan
I don’t know. I have this press release saying what every game is on and such… let me try and find it.
@Concerned Fan
I have U-Verse and I know that last nights game was in HD on KSBI.
I’m still having a hard time believing we’ve played a real actual game of NBA basketball this season.
And that we won it.
I wasn’t concerned by Ibaka’s absence. But ollie’s tremendous playingtime while Livingston and weaver saw no time has me worried. It seems to me that the praise we hear of Ollie is word for word what was said of Chucky Atkins
I have to imagine last night was more about getting our starters to gel than anything else. Did KD need to play 42 minutes, especially when his shot wasn’t on? No, we could have won just as easily if he played 30. I imagine the playing time will be a lot more even as the season goes on. And as for Ollie and Etan getting all those minutes over Livingston and White/Ibaka, you could argue that after the first quarter Brooks realized this game was in the bag. Getting more playing time out of the new faces forces them to learn the games of their teammates quicker. Hopefully the minute spread was more about getting those guys ready for the rest of the season than a belief they are the best options.
@Concerned Fan
You will have all of them on Uverse in HD.
KSBI is 1052 on Uverse HD, and you can see Fox Sports Oklahoma in HD for the Thunder games on a number of channels, 1753, 1754, 1755.
Enjoy.
Thank you all that responded to my earlier question about U-Verse. I couldn’t get anyone from AT&T to give me a definite answer.
I’ve gotta disagree with about all of that (except KD playing 42 minutes, I don’t want to see that all year either). First off, there’s no way that Brooks altered his planned substitutions because of a 15-point first quarter lead. 15-point leads come and go in the NBA all the time. Unless there was an undisclosed injury, the reason that Ollie and Thomas played is that they’re in the rotation and Livingston, White, and Ibaka are out.
Good teams stick with a rotation, usually 8- or 9-deep, and Brooks is not going to play subpar guys, particularly early in the year, to get their feet wet or to take a look at them. He’s going to play the 9-man rotation he chose through camp, so I would think that Ollie and Thomas are in our top 9. That may change due to injury or performance, but I think the 9 guys who played last night are going to be the top 9 for the next couple of weeks.
@Vince
It could be that Brooks plans to experiment with the second unit for awhile until he finds what works best. God knows Coach Scott has done a lot of that since I started following the Hornets. Sounds weird, but I really do hope Livingston’s benching is minor injury related. He obviously has the best pedigree for the back up job, and is supposed to be mostly healed from getting “Theisemaned”. The alternative explaination that I really don’t like is that the benching was somehow attitude/behavior related.
Re: Thabo’s extension:
If you’re a GM, it has to be a bittersweet feeling to have a player’s agent congratulate you on a deal.
@Steve H
You may be right — I think my comment was a little too firm. It’s very possible that on Friday we’ll see Livingston and White instead of Ollie and Thomas. And maybe early in the season that will be the pattern. OTOH, Brooks has had six months now to look at Livingston and White, and I think the fact that they got no run on Opening Night does mean something for the rest of the season.