Comments on: Thunder plays OK, beats Orlando by 28 or something

By: dork

dork — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:48:03 +0000

@kev yea I would say russels good games are directly related to Krstic's jumpshot. When that starts falling we see Russ the PG. when its not falling we see Russ the SG that plays point.

By: girlballer

girlballer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:05:27 +0000

@Kev
I disagree. Krystic’s output is directly related to his “success” as a jump-shooter. He was 7-12 last night and 1-8 against Houston. Nuff said…

By: Mark

Mark — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:10:23 +0000

@Dan Good points on Krstic. With him getting hot early, it pulled Howard away from the basket quite often, allowing us to get easier D Rebounds. Jis post defense was solid enough. Gave Dwight a couple of bumps to slow him down until the offside help came.

By: kev

kev — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:01:09 +0000

Krstic’s offensive ouptut is directly related to Westbrook’s willingness to pass . . .

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:33:33 +0000

Going back to last year, Kristic averaged 2 more points a game in our wins, but more importantly, when he had 16 points or more, we won 5 of the 7 games.

By: Dan

Dan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:20:55 +0000

I just noticed an interesting trend. In games in which we win, Kristic is averaging 16 points, in games we have lost, he is averaging 3. Hmmmm, maybe the key isn’t that the Big 3 all have great games, but that we have scoring from down low. I think when Kristic is on, it opens up the whole offense, but when he isn’t, then the opposing D can key on the Big 3, and we aren’t nearly as efficient. I think this just goes to show that if we had a good big man scorer, and I don’t count Uncle Jeff, we could be an elite team.

By: kev

kev — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:16:02 +0000

Defensively, Russell was ordinary/mediocre – as usual . . .

By: Bryan

Bryan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:07:08 +0000

Did anyone think to watch how Russell played off the ball last night when he was getting minutes at the 2??? I noticed but I just forgot to focus on him to see how well he did.

The reason I ask is because, with the way Harden creates, it sure would be nice if he could share a little time initiating the offense just to change things up. I’m sure Russ can be just as valuable off the ball as he is with the ball.

And Thabo seems to be doing a bit better job distributing the ball. He might not be getting big assists, but he is really helping to just keep the ball moving…. and making his open shots WOW!

By: girlballer

girlballer — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:57:17 +0000

Still on a contact high from that game last night! I knew it was going to be a good one as soon as KD came to the scorers table to check in. He was smiling a laughing and even winked at Thunder Man (kid who sits on the front row behind the scorers table with a mask and cape on! EVERY GAME.)

Even though Thabo’s perfect 3 for 3 from 3 was the highlight of the game for me, I think Krystic made the difference for us. He managed the very difficult task of not backing down from Howard inside, and then was ON with his 18-footers! Which was a very good thing for him, because if he had had another crappy shooting night, I think he should have been in serious jeopardy of having his minutes/starting job snatched!

KD was ON FIRE with his defense! That steal that he took coast to coast was worth the price of admission all by itself. He had those long arms waving around the whole time, and I really can’t remember seeing him standing around on defense even one time, and usually it is very obvious. 32 minutes may be a sweet spot for him, and if our bench continues to produce (except for that CRAZY lineup of 4 guards plus Etan–WTF Brooksie?!?) he CAN only play 32-38 minutes a game.

Overall very, VERY enjoyable basketball people–THUNDER UP!!!

By: James

James — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:31:49 +0000

Any chance Harden’s future is as the backup PG on this team? That doesn’t sound real attractive for the #3 pick in the draft but he’s done so well creating shots for others and had such a hard time getting good shots for himself. Plus Brooks won’t even let him guard the athletic 2′s because he’s had a hard time with them. A couple of times in the Lakers game they had Westbrook guard Kobe and Harden guard Fisher. He’s going to be a backup one way or another anyways because Sef is playing so well.