Clippers vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer
vs. 
Los Angeles Clippers (3-7, 1-2 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (5-4, 2-2 home)
TV: NBA TV (Cox 256, HD 726) FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 6:00 CST
View from the enemy: ClipperBlog
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 101.6 (25th), Clippers – 102.0 (24th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 98.0 (3rd), Clippers – 106.6 (18th)
Pace: Thunder – 91.1 (24th), Clippers – 93.9 (13th)
Because it never, ever gets old. Fifth win last season: Jan. 6. Third road win: Jan 21. This season, Nov. 14 for both. That’d be two months ahead of schedule kids. That’s good.
But if this team wants to start taking steps toward .500 or even the playoffs, games like tonight have to be taken care. Have to. None of this, “Oh, came out flat and we’ll get ‘em next time” stuff. You’re playing a 3-7 team at home, without two of its best players. You should win. Simple.
I realize there are the excuses of tired legs from last night and coming down from a big win. You think the Lakers don’t have to battle that? Or the Blazers? Or the Suns? Those teams bring it every night, home or road. And when you’re at home and you’ve got momentum building, you need to take care of business. Especially with a tough two-week run ahead.
THE MATCHUPS
This is exactly the same matchup we saw under a week ago in Los Angeles. No Blake Griffin. No Eric Gordon. The Clips are going to rely on Chris Kaman to score inside and hope Rasual Butler and Baron Davis can give them something from outside. Nenad Krstic had some trouble in the first half against Kaman, but Serge Ibaka came in and gave great energy on The Caveman and even Krstic tightened up late in the game. This is where the game hinges: Keep Marcus Camby off the offensive glass (he didn’t have an offensive rebound in the first meeting) and limit Kaman’s low block touches. That’s a recipe for win.
You’ve got to love KD going against Al Thornton. Durant had 30 in L.A. in the first meeting and the Clips really had nobody to defend him. I’d suspect a potentially big night from Durant. James Harden was big off the bench last night in San Antonio and he’s going to be called upon again tonight I’m sure to add some supplementary scoring. Jeff Green may have some trouble getting lose tonight in the paint so he’s going to have to have his jumper going. And Krstic is going to have looks because the Clips bigs are paint dwellers and aren’t going to want to come out and defend the screen and roll.
Hopefully Russell Westbrook rides the wave tonight and has another solid game, making up for his stinker in L.A. a few days ago. Again, this is a game the Thunder should take care of. I’m having visions of 6-4 and it looks good. We all hoped to be 5-4 coming home after the short roadie, but I don’t think we had a victory in San Antonio in mind. So now the Thunder has an opportunity to get a win heading into a tough week.
And keep in mind, if you’re going, bring two cans of food and you get a voucher for a future game. Plus, it’s just a good thing to do.
Tip at 6:00 CST. Go TCB.
Fact was that the game was close at the end and RW basically did nothing right as the floor general that’s supposed to lead the team. He wasn’t helping the team at all when he’s supposed to be the guy. Almost any shot is better than a RW jumper, the guy shot under 40% last year. He was terrible to close the game.
there is an amazing amount of stupid posts being made considering a 35-win team just suffered a close loss at the ass-end of a back-to-back.
amen . . .
There are plenty of RW crybaby’s in here tonight… you are just the most obnoxious
The problems were down low…. period
@justin
your an idiot… along with The Don…
pay attention to the game… westbrook was helping off on kaman because they were doing a pick and roll… id rather have baron davis shoot that than have kaman make a layup… PAY ATTENTION TO THE GAME OF YOU ARE GOING TO COMMENT!!!!!
the fact is that we are not even close to being in this game without Westbrook. And if he had hit that last shot, he would have been a hero and everyone would have been talking about how great he’s been the last two days.
Instead, the shot doesnt go down and you get to hear a lot of crybaby BS from people only interested in throwing hissy fits, not watching the game or paying attention.
I mean, obviously the idiots are going to be the loudest, but let’s get a grip.
Other than Durant… nobody was shooting the ball worth a darn. And the Clips denied him the ball late. RW took what he was given and came up short.
Besides, half of you were in here whining about Durant’s inability to hit clutch shots… now tonight you are screaming cuz they couldn’t get the ball to him.
@dylan
Remember when The Don was crucifying Durant earlier in the year?? haha thats why no one can take The Don seriously
@grant phillips
yeah, every fanbase has people like that are not exactly fans of the team as much as they are fans of being miserable when things don’t go their way. I’m a Cubs fan, I’m used to it, haha.
Easy everybody. Let’s not get too loud in here.
@dylan
haha… i dont get them. they expect the team to be perfect everytime… im a yankees fan so you know there are some real idiots there if they dont win every game. you have your highs and your lows… especially with a young team… and hell westbrook nearly had a triple double tonight btw
Excuse me but I don’t think there’s any need to call me an ‘idiot’ just because you disagree with my opinion.
Russell Westbrook was in good position to challenge that shot by Davis toward the end of the game. He backed off and just let him shoot that ball. You don’t give up an open three in that situation no matter what because it makes it a two possession game. Yes, if it’s a choice between and open three or a contested layup you take the contested layup in that situation. There were defenders there to challenge Kaman if it came to that, Westbrook just backed off Davis and gave a half hearted effort to challenge.
Westbrook took 5 shots in the last six minutes of the game and made one of them. Three of them were heavily contested. It doesn’t matter how everyone else is shooting, RW had the worst FG% of all our players last season (Thabo included); he is not the guy you want calling his own number in those situations.
Take a look at Kev’s post in one of the earlier threads and check out how Russell Westbrook was defending on the perimeter, especially when picked off. He’s lazy and ineffective. Really, there’s no excuse for that when other guys are at least trying.
Good teams excecute their offense and defense down the stretch and don’t allow the other team to take them out of their game. If KD is being denied the ball, get it to someone else. Westbrook is an inefficient scorer and should not be shooting to win games. Period.
So all I have heard in the last 15 minutes is bickering about our offense. Frankly, the offense did pretty good. Fastbreak points weren’t high, 3s stunk, but our defense…what the heck man. Let’s talk about defense please. Before this game we were third in the league and first in 4th quarter defense, which the Clippers did explode in the 4th. What happened?
westbrooks hand was in his face justin… like i said before… if your gonna comment, actually pay attention to the game…
he didnt just let him shoot
@grant phillips
I am going to watch it again here soon but I’m pretty sure it was not as the commentators mentioned the poor defense as I was watching (not OKC broadcast).
Brooks looked a little miffed at RW for letting Davis get that shot off. It’s a valid criticism to say that RW screwed up and that he had a rough time guarding Davis in general.
But, rather than pick on your favorite boogy man, look at the game AS A WHOLE. Westbrook’s play down the stretch is not even an issue if other players are making their shots. The Thunder had plenty of open looks but didn’t have the legs to get it done. They also got beat in the paint WAY too much and let the Clippers get way too many second chances and third (and I’m pretty sure fourth) chances to make buckets.
I haven’t looked to be sure, but I think this is only the team’s first or second back-to-back. As is always said, tired legs from back-to-back games usually diminishes jump shooting percentages and defensive effort – the two things the Thunder lacked most down the stretch.
And the bench got out scored too….
There was other bad play (Jeff Green, looking at you) for sure, but our star player kept us in the game and gave us an opportunity to close it out at home. Jeff Green tied up the game at 85 with about 6.5 minutes left in the game. From that point on, Russell Westbrook was 1-5 from the field (four points) with zero assists and one turnover. Aside from the desperation threes to end the game, the whole rest of the team was 2-4 from the field in this same span of time. Do you see what’s wrong with that picture?
Well that sucked. KD played great. Russell was decent. Everybody else could use a good yelling at (not that it would help anything, but I would certainly feel better). The refs were down-right unkind in the 4th period, but our guys own that loss. Anybody know what the shooting percentages were in the first half? It felt like we couldn’t hit anything beyond 3ft out. Ugly night that I hope to forget soon.
Same ol’ Dai, just a new image and moniker.
I can not believe we lost that game.
You know some actually had some nerve to call into the radio aftershow and blame the loss on Westbrook.
I didn’t get to really focus on the game b/c I was at a party, but I’m watching now and and Westbrook is flying around, trying to create something (ANYTHING) and everyone is either deferring or reluctantly shooting the ball. Thabo looked completely flat with his jumper and if my man, Green, could have drained that 3 near the end I have no doubt that we finish this game and mark an ugly W in our column. I know we are a culture that loves to lay the blame on someone but how about laying some of the blame on the coaching staff that plays these guys 40+ minutes. That doesn’t affect our guys? Because, Jet Zero was giving people inside looks, outside, midrange, everything and no one else had the legs.
But….we’ll get ‘em next time and THE DON et al. will be worshiping at the altar of Westbrook only to be forgot the next time our 21 year old PG makes a mistake in a clutch moment, rendering our least favorite poster into a cataclysmic frenzy not yet experienced by any franchise faithful.