Comments on: Hey, who remembers what happened Sunday? Yeah neither do I

By: Crow

Crow — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:09:06 +0000

To balance the shot attempt reduction by the defense in my previous comment to the pace – increased turnovers and reduced offensive rebounding we need to add more possessions used at the free throw line.

By: kev

kev — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:14:27 +0000

Thunder Tim :why do we play well against good teams and not so well against mediocre teams? I wonder if PART of it is that the good teams are typically more veteran (thus older) teams, whereas the mediocre teams are less veteran (thus younger) teams. Since we’re relying a lot on effort and hustle and outworking our opponents, I wonder if that attribute is more effective against the older teams (who are perhaps saving themselves for a late-season run) than the younger teams (who are able to match our intensity)?

I don't agree - we dont show the same effort night in and night out . . .

By: Steven

Steven — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:31:48 +0000

As bad as everyone has thought Westbrook has played so far, his PER is 18.59 this year compared to 15.20 so he has improved a lot and is still only 21. I think people get frustrated cause he has so much potential and everyone expects to see it right away but everyone saw last night how valuable he can be when he has it going

By: dork

dork — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:19:26 +0000

@Thunder Tim

I don’t think many younger teams truley match our intensity. I think it has more to do with the team as a whole not preparing for a game against a lower level team the same way. Maybe a lil bit of ‘well we don’t have to do EVERYTHING right to beat these guys….’ Opposed to teams like orlando/miami where you can tell they are very determied to win.

By: Thunder Tim

Thunder Tim — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 15:14:07 +0000

why do we play well against good teams and not so well against mediocre teams?

I wonder if PART of it is that the good teams are typically more veteran (thus older) teams, whereas the mediocre teams are less veteran (thus younger) teams. Since we’re relying a lot on effort and hustle and outworking our opponents, I wonder if that attribute is more effective against the older teams (who are perhaps saving themselves for a late-season run) than the younger teams (who are able to match our intensity)?

By: B-RY

B-RY — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:42:28 +0000

@justin
Good points…

Apparently Durant is banned from giving people nicknames… especially ones like “sniper” for Thabo… he’s hasn’t made a three since.

I’m really hoping that Green is just nursing that hip or having a rough stretch. KD had one. RW has been spotty. So I think it’s just his turn.

It’s nice to know that not everyone has to have an amazing game to beat a team like the HEAT on the road… love that

By: justin

justin — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:19:37 +0000

It was a good win. Russell Westbrook hit his jumpers in the second half, when that happens obviously he’s a lot more effective. I take some issue with the comment that a bad game for RW is 7-12 with 7 assists because he had two real big stinkers back to back already this year. There is definite improvement, though. This game could have just as easily been a stinker if he misses those jump shots, if he’s going to be taking them he’ll need to develop consistency. It’s both exciting and frustrating seeing his guy develop but kudos for the performance last night against a good defensive team. I was afraid that he’d implode after the double technical but he maintained his composure; impressive to see from Russ.

Not much else to add that hasn’t been covered. Nenad Krstic was invisible on defense inside. James Harden again struggled. Ollie, Thomas, and Collison all played well. Serge Ibaka came in and made two mistakes in three minutes of play. Kevin Durant is a beast. Thabo Sefolosha is a wizard on defense but is 0 for his last 12 from three point range. Jeff Green’s getting a bit to perimeter happy, he seems to have success taking the ball closer to the basket.

Nice bounce back win.

By: KingGondo

KingGondo — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:17:22 +0000

And once again, I don’t think it can be overstated how much Etan Thomas brings to this squad. When we picked him up this summer, I basically expected a guy who could eat up minutes in relief of Krstic and hopefully keep the other teams’ big guys from getting easy buckets late in games.

Little did I expect such a defensive presence, nor could I have foreseen that perhaps my favorite 5 man lineup this year would be Russ-Harden-KD-Collison-Thomas. I love the fire Etan brings to our squad, and I really hope he sticks around for the foreseeable future.

Great win last night.

By: MartzMimic

MartzMimic — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 14:11:17 +0000

@Lefty
I agree. I just think we need to stop referring to our interior defense as a black hole. Obviously, you get better anywhere you can, but what we have isn’t as bad as we sometimes make it sound.

By: Lefty

Lefty — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:30:59 +0000

@MartzMimic I think we still have to look and see if there is someone we can find for that role, but I think it’s becoming less and less of a priority. Frankly, those guys cost a lot of money. And, they aren’t as effective at spreading the floor on offense as someone like Krstic is. This is why we beat Orlando, btw. Because they couldn’t handle Krstic on the wing. It’s kind of iffy so far whether we can depend on him, but when he’s at his best, this is a really hard team to stop.

However, if we were to find some young, defensive minded center for a good price, I say go for it, and we can keep him in the rotation. That’s one of the things I like about this team – the rotation. We have a lot of different looks we can throw out there, and I really do think it causes some confusion for the other team, not really knowing who our PG is or who our SF is with any given set.