Wednesday Bolts – 11.4.09
Happy birthday to my little brother. He turns 18 today. Go buy a pack of cigs today little bro. I won’t tell mom.
And also, yesterday was my wonderful father-in-law’s birthday. Thank you for being born so that you could create the person that is now my beautiful wife.
Kevin Durant didn’t take the loss so well: “Played tough…I missed key shots… I apologize to my teammates, back to work tomorrow..thanks for the love and hateful comments.”
Ball Don’t Lie, Behind the Box Score: OKC’s star was Thabo Sefolosha. Kevin Durant may have dropped 28, but he needed 24 shots to get there and turned the ball over seven times, to say nothing of some iffy shots down the stretch. Thabo harassed Kobe Bryant into a slightly-less-than-awesome game, which is accomplishment enough. Kobe’s been jawing with Thabo for years, and usually he lets these sorts of things get to him. Actually, tonight he let Thabo get to him. But he didn’t let his anger completely take over, as it has in the past, which led to losses. Not even after Kobe was jobbed on a couple of calls.”
FanHouse: “It was the premiere matchup of the evening, Kobe Bryant versus Kevin Durant. It took an extra five minutes to decide the contest, but in the end it was Kobe and the Lakers coming out on top by a three-point margin. Bryant dropped 31 points on 9-of-22 shooting, while Durant scored 28 points on 10-of-24 shooting, missing all eight of his three-point attempts.”
Trey Kerby on the game: “ABOUT THE LAKERS / THUNDER GAME By far the best game of the season to come down to a Thabo Sefolosha airball followed by Lamar Odom airballing a freethrow. Hands down the best game to end like that … CHILL OUT Etan Thomas, with your overemphasizing rebounds. Ersan Ilyasova, with your Zach Randolphing three-pointers to end games. The Oklahoma City Thunder, with your several airballs in crunch time. The Milwaukee Bucks, with your terrible plays to end halves. Juwan Howard.”
HP: “The Thunder lost to the Lakers, as of course they had to. There is an order to this universe, and a team without an offensive set cannot beat the best team in the league. but Etan Thomas and Jeff Green made them earn every single inch of it. Thomas has been revitalized with the youngsters. He’s setting good screens, running the screen and roll, cleaning up misses, and very loudly protecting the paint, his lair, his cubs. Green in the span of four minutes in the fourth hit a pull-up jumper post-pump fake, jumped so high I really thought he cleared the rim to intercept a lob, and absolutely annhilated Ron a block that was called foul. There’s a fascinating mentor relationship forming between the two,and seeing both men working is something of a lost art right now. Green is turning into something special and Thomas is simply NOT the guy you want to run into in a dark and stormy back to back. There are a lot of reasons the Thunder lost. These two are not a pair of them.”
Some folks are clearly worried and upset with Kevin Durant’s two airballs to finish the game last night and reader Andrew wanted to point this out. Granted, Kobe was a rookie and KD is a third-year, but the point remains:
Some guy wrote something about the Thunder again in the Daily Dime.
One Laker fan wasn’t excited about Thabo’s “defense”: “Kobe Bryant, who had the flu while playing in this game, had to have been fouled by Thaba Sefolosha at least 50 times all night long, but Thabo ended up with just three fouls while Kobe had five (two of which came while he was trying to get away from Sefolosha, who was holding him on both occasions).”
Writing about Jeff Green, the invisible man: ”If I gave you the following stat line, who would you guess it belongs to? 19.7ppg, 7.7rpg, 1.3spg, and 1.0 bpg. Need a hint? He’s a power forward, he plays in the West, and he’s getting better. Any guesses? David West? No. LaMarcus Aldridge (close…but no), Paul Millsap…sorry. What if I told you that he played with a superstar and that he wasn’t even the second most recognizable player on the team? Give up? Ladies and Gentlemen, I am pleased to introduce to you….Mr. Jeff Green. That’s right Jeff Green. Are you laughing yet? Go ahead…get it out now. Because by the time this article is over, you won’t be laughing anymore.”
@kev
Stats never tell the whole story. Those stats certainly don’t highlight Kobe’s composure v. Durant’s rough decision making down the stretch, but I think people are overlooking what a nice job Artest did in the fourth and in OT. Everytime Durant caught the ball he was at least 30 feet out with a face full of Ron. A few times, he had to post up and use his body just to create enough space to dribble the ball.
Clearly Kevin showed his youth last night, but it’s not as if he stunk it up the entire game and cost the team a W against the Kings or something. It was the Lakers and Ron Artest. Give the guy a break. The composure will come.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
Weird, I sit in 112… how did I miss that?
@dork
Add in a little bit of European flair and call him “Il Duce”.
I will refrain from being mean… but really Jenni Carlson?
http://newsok.com/multimedia/video/48234776001?custom_click=lead_story_title
@Bryan
Probably because it was at the end of the game when everyone was on their feet. They escorted him out at the tunnel right under me, between 108 and 109.
That’s on the other side of the basket… and to be honest my eyes didn’t leave the court much.
@Bryan
I even generally agree with some of her (Jenni’s) comments. But the general tone from which she approached the piece is just irritating and condescending.
I didn’t like it.
I disagree – and I will liken it to the no-show that LeBron pulled a no show after the Cavs were bounced out of the playoffs last season . . .
if you’re going to bathe in applause and cheers when you win, you ahve to answer the bell when you mess up – nothing big, just something along the lines of “I had a bad game, I know it, I will get better”. It’s that simple . . .
I’m glad I’m not the only one who feels like I’m a 3rd grader when she’s talking to me (via video, of course).
Carlson. Can’t stand that broad. “Look, Daddy! I’m a hard-nosed journalist! This is my tough-girl face.”
I don’t know why we have to make excuses for our best player when he folds down the stretch – there is no comparison between guarding Kobe and guarding Durant . . . one player moves around, comes off picks, and drives fearlessly – the other one spends most of his time standing in place waiting for the ball – I am rewatching the 4th now – Artest expended little energy on defense because little energy was required. Durant has to start moving without the ball.
@Kev
I’m not saying that SOME criticism isn’t warranted and I’m not trying to make excuses, but it wasn’t as bad as many are making it out to be.
And frankly, I don’t expect much better against Ariza and Battier on Friday. But it will come. It will.
@Jax Raging Bile Duct
And she got the whole IOU thing backwards…. last time I checked it’s Durant that owes us and not the other way around (at least that is the point she was TRYING to make).
Kevin Durant took a lot of stupid shots, but that’s not really the problem. The problem is that when the ball went to him that was the end of the offense, he hasn’t been facilitating offense for others and that’s one of the things he has to work on. All is well and good when his shot is falling, but he’s a detriment to the team when it isn’t because he doesn’t really do anything else very well but score.
Hey Royce, I’ve got a perfect, brilliant smart thought of the week:
That guy Mark, the Laker fan with the blog in today’s bolts, is an ass!
@Joe
HAHA! Done and done.
Roddy Beaubois is starting tonight for the Mavericks, scored the first 9 points for the Mavs. Went off for 30 something in summer league. In my eyes I would consider him a significant upgrade to Ollie (who does some nice things, but is an offensive liability when we don’t have enough firepower on the floor). I know that we drafted him “for” the Mavericks, but we should have thought about drafting him for us. Byron may have some potential, but nowhere near Beaubois’. He’s going to be a fine pro, and I don’t think anyone here could say with any sense of confidence that Byron Mullens will be.
I didnt like the Mullens pick then – your post is just icing on the cake . . .
I didn’t like it then either. But it probably wasn’t as bad as Vaden, I think giving up a second-rounder for Buddinger rather than Vaden would have been much better too. I remember we worked him out, should’ve followed through.
In other relevant NBA/Oklahoma news: Taylor Griffin saw his first NBA action tonight. He had 2 points and 1 rebound in 8 minutes. Nothing spectacular, but good for him nonetheless.
He’s officially the best Griffin in the league however.
Many times I call Thabo syphilis.
It’s love
@Kev
I’m with you on the “I messed up,” but responding to each and every twitterer (tweeter?) who makes an asinine and derogatory comment to him is, I would say, beyond the realm of admitting you had a bad play, no?
I’m not saying that he should respond to any of them . . . I was under the notion that he was irritated that people were criticizing him – I may be incorrect on that -