Wednesday Bolts – 11.25.09 Substitute Edition
THANKS JG!
What is it they say about the company you keep? The Elias Sports Bureau has a pretty eye-opening statistic. “Kevin Durant scored 28 points on Tuesday, giving him 407 in 15 games this season. Only three other players in league history had as many as 400 points over the first 15 games of a season at age 21 or younger: LeBron James (twice), Shaquille O’Neal and Michael Jordan.”
Darnell with a nice recap of the game: “And while Durant certainly did his part, with easily identifiable playmaking consisting of pinpoint passes and big-time buckets, Sefolosha made his mark where he routinely does — on the less glamorous defensive end. The Thunder notched its fifth road win and first in Utah since 2007 because of one key defensive switch Brooks made to start the second half. The Thunder’s coach put Sefolosha on Jazz point guard Deron Williams, who had single-handedly kept the game from turning into a blowout late in the first half.”
In case you missed it, there’s a familiar face at #2 on Maurice Brooks‘ Defensive Player of the Year Race: “2. Thabo Sefolosha, Thunder: He is building a reputation as one of the top one-on-one defenders in the NBA. Go check the tapes to see how he slowed down Brandon Roy, Kevin Martin, Kobe and D-Wade. ”
Kevin Ollie will have an MRI today: “Kevin Ollie, who missed Tuesday’s game at Utah with a sore right knee, will undergo an MRI exam today. Ollie said his knee has been troublesome for about three weeks, but the pain became unbearable in the first quarter of Sunday’s road loss against the Los Angeles Lakers when he attempted to challenge a shot by guard Jordan Farmar.”
Chris Silva has seen this before: “There were times when four, even all five Thunder players touched the ball on a single possession. Seeing the Thunder move the ball tonight made me think back to a passing drill during practice in which it has to make 100 consecutive passes through an offensive set before a shot goes up. The passing looked fluid against the Jazz.”
Silva also noted just how multi-dimensional the Thunder’s offense was last night in Utah: “Minus a five-minute scoreless stretch in the fourth, the Thunder scored every which way. It scored in transition (20 points), off turnovers (25), from behind the arc (8-for-18) and at the free-throw line (22-for-25). Kevin Durant had 13 points in the first quarter, Kyle Weaver scored five of his seven points in the third and James Harden and Jeff Green each scored 10 in the second quarter. “
An interesting question from Darnell “One of the things that Sam and I talk about every day, we have a team that has to earn minutes,” Brooks said. Translation: the days of PT liberally being handed out ended with Russell Westbrook last season. No longer is the Thunder in the phase of speeding players’ development by awarding extended minutes without merit. Ibaka and Harden are clear cases. Neither figure to unseat Thomas/Collison or Sefolosha so long as those veterans are more consistent and better defensively, no matter how lofty the rookies’ ceilings. But that doesn’t mean the position battles won’t intensify as the season marches on.”
@f5alcon
But do you really think he SHOULD be behind Livingston and Ollie on the depth chart?!?!?
I don’t know what Weaver does in practice, but I like what he does in games… Brooks needs to re-evaluate.
Harden can only play point on offense… which means he can only sub for Westbrook when Thabo is on the court to guard the opposing PG. This presents a problem… hopefully Weaver’s injury is VERY minor.
@B-RY
what? thats not a problem. Thabos not on the court when Harden comes in? Stick Durant on the opposing PG!! (thats half sarcasm btw
) If you think about it it could (theoretically) work size + lengh = playing WAY off of the PG but still able to contest shots…. hey worst case scenario here people 
yes and no, they are making the young players earn their minutes and weaver turns the ball over way more then ollie, he has 3 TOs in 4 games ollie has 3 TOs in 14 games. He brings more to the table offensively though, both points and assists, his length also makes him a better defender. Really i feel like if we are up by more then 10 points with 8 minutes left we should play the backups until the lead dwindles to 10 then put starters back in, we may lose a handful more games but the starters get a few extra mins of rest and our backups get experience.
I’ve got my fingers crossed for you Kyle.
I like DJ as a conventional PF. He had a good post game in college, but it hasn’t really shown up yet in the league. If he can bring that, then a Jeff Green to DJ White rotation is a really big change of pace. Different players with different games.
@dork
Interesting… and scary!
It’s amazing how quickly depth diminishes… I just hope that one of the three (Weaver, Ollie or Livingston) get’s back on the court… soon!!
@f5alcon
Good idea but bad in action. If you take starters out of the game when they are up by 10 (which in the league is not a decent margin) and the starters are no longer “with the flow” of the game and come back ice cold you would loose a lot more games than you would think.
that’s the only way that DJ helps us is if he can post up – that part of his gane has virtually disappeared . . . I have no idea why . . .
@Kev
My guess as to why his post up game dissappeared is the competition. (Now I didn’t see any of his college games) but I know that in the NBA its MUCH harder just getting decent post position. Not to mention that at 6’9″ and at PF most of the guys will be just as big if not bigger than he is aswell as potentially more athletic.
Easy… the state of Oklahoma already filled it’s quota for amazing post play while Griffin still wore Crimson…. hopefully, the new year gives us a clean slate.
good point – still, you think that he would at least attempt it more often, especially since he plays so much garbage time – I guess bulking up would help . . .
also, I watched a D-League game last year in Tulsa, and he didnt even post up then – puzzling . . .
I had said last 8 mins of the game, so really they wont sit more then a few minutes, against utah durant checked back in with 6 minutes left, we had a 16 point lead, he missed 2 shots and had a TO the rest of the game, so him being in the game didnt help us, he could have sat 3 more minutes if we waited until it was an 8 point game.
I’m guessing that Durant gets to play whenever he feels like it… and since he loves playing… that’s going to be often.
yeah im sure thats the case, but i feel like we risk injuring our stars needlessly, esp the last minute of the game, no reason for starters then if we are up by double digits, maybe my 8 mins is to risky, but the last minute or 2 isnt, our bench is much better then last year they shouldnt collapse like they did last year.
@f5alcon
I would say up 15 with 8 mins to maybe, maybe 4 min mark. After that 4min mark, in NBA, its too risk with only a 15 point lead
yeah well no lead is ever safe, but the odds of winning with a 15 point lead and 4 minutes has to be pretty high.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceLlz7dOOvY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCEsVa3ZBZA
Via Darnell’s Twitter:
DarnellMayberry
It’s not all bad, folks. S. Livingston had stitches removed from his knee 2day & says the timetable for his return is up to him. #OKCTHUNDER
And seconds later:
DarnellMayberry
The #OKCTHUNDER has waived forward Ryan Bowen. A backup point guard could soon be added.
HOLY CRAP!
http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/11/25/nba-power-rankings-entertaining-lakers/
we are 12th on fanhouse rankings
I always loved Mike Wilks for a backup. He was an awesome team guy and he could play. He got a little run with the team in the teams last year in Seattle.
I think the reason why DJ doesn’t get any touches in the post is because of the offense Scotty uses. We don’t post up hardly anybody. Brooks likes to spread the floor and that even includes Krstic. Watch the LA game and see how they purposefully put Bynum on the block and feed him. It never happens for us.
Watching the Bucks vs. N.O. Ridnour is handling the ball quite a bit. He and Jennings are kind of sharing the PG duties.