As noted there, we’ll have a complete restock in all Daily Thunder shirts by next Monday, so please be patient as they seem to be a hot item this Christmas. You’ll get a shirt eventually and we’re already in the process of getting a few new models ready. And they will be neato, guaranteed.
Nice little story about Russ from Nike’s official site: “You know a coaches have a lot of different styles of play. And people like to say ‘that doesn’t fit the players’ or whatever. But I think it’s very important to stay focused on what the coach is trying to do with the team. Because the bottom line is: if you play within the team and achieve your goals together, all the individual stuff will come with that to. And if you want to make it to the next level, you’ve got to achieve those goals.”
In an SI roundtable the great Jack McCallum says the Thunder are one of his favorite storylines so far: “So as not to bring out the big storylines yet, I’m going to say the Thunder’s being above .500. Generally, a young team with one dominant scorer — Kevin Durant, at 28.3 points per game, is averaging 12 more than the second-highest scorer, Russell Westbrook — equates to a struggling team. But there the Thunder stand, just one game out of a playoff spot, even as people in Seattle remain angry about a franchise that was hijacked from under them. But “quarter pole” should be in boldface — it’s really early.” Read more…
Originally, I was going to come up with an actual list of gift ideas for a Thunder fan. I’m a man of the people and I want to help out any shoppers out there. But all I got was “basketball tickets” and then I couldn’t think of anything else. So I decided to be a tad more abstract. If Santa were real (which he absolutely is, 12-and-under DT readers), and he could grant us Thunder fans anything we wanted before this holiday season is up, what should we ask for? Here is my list and I did not check it twice:
12. A Phoenix Suns losing streak The Suns started hot (see what I did there? harf!), but have cooled (!!!) lately, losing five of seven in December. We all know about how OKC owns the Suns unprotected first round pick this year and while it looks very unlikely the Suns will fade (jfshfbsf!!!) it’s definitely possible. Consider: Last season at this time, Phoenix was 15-10, before eventually slipping and falling short of the postseason. I would never wish injuries on a team, but if Amar’e Stoudamire’s retina decides to explode again and Steve Nash loses an arm in a farming accident, I’m just saying I’m not going to cry over it.
11.A Daily Thunder shirt, of course Does this really need an explanation? The shirts should be completely re-stocked and ready to roll here very soon. My apologies if you missed out on the last go. I didn’t anticipate them flying off the shelves quite like this. But seriously though, thanks for buying them. Read more…
BDL, behind the box score: ”Ugly game, but potentially a promising one if you’re a Nuggets fan. Holding the Thunder to a tough night offensively isn’t the hardest thing in the western world to pull off, but the Nuggets still came through with a sterling defensive effort in the win. Oklahoma City managed just 95 points per 100 possessions in the loss, turning the ball over on a fifth of its possessions and shooting below 40 percent.”
HoopsWorld looking at the Thunder: ”The Thunder needs a team expected to make the playoffs to falter to have a chance. Portland may be giving them that chance as they have fallen apart of late due to a lack of chemistry and debilitating injuries. Kudos to this young team for hustling and taking advantage of their opportunities. By the way, the Thunder has just $38.7 million in salaries committed for 2010-11, and none of their expiring contracts are of players putting in more than 16.1 minutes per game (Etan Thomas).” Read more…
Sometimes you can just sort of sense when Oklahoma City is overmatched. The Magic game in Orlando. Boston at home. And definitely tonight against Denver. Ten minutes in, you just could kind of feel like the Thunder was going to have to hang on for dear life to stay close. It hasn’t happened all that often this year, but sometimes you’re just in over your head a bit.
Denver started the game 1-11 from floor as a team, but yet trailed only by two during that stretch. You knew that the shots the Nuggets were missing we going to start dropping and when they did, things were going to get rough for OKC. The fact the Thunder didn’t take advantage of Denver’s poor start really set the pace for this one.
Of course there are the typical (and good) excuses. Second of a back-to-back. On the road. Playing a good team. Playing a good team that is 10-1 at home. There’s not a lot of shame in losing this one. Denver is a force in the West people. Of course you’d love to have seen a closer game with a real chance to win, but sometimes you’re just outclassed. And that was absolutely the case tonight. Read more…
Two things to get you revved up for this one. Here you go and here you go. Those two games went a long way in making me dislike the Nuggets. I like Carmelo Anthony, a lot because he likes Oklahoma City, but in general, I don’t like the powder blue bunch. Read more…
Darnell Mayberry with an interesting story from last night: ”With his exploits, James had transformed the gentleman seated in the high-priced seat from fiery foe to friendly fan. For three quarters, the man offered his best Jack Nicholson, mercilessly heckling Cleveland’s superstar forward. No. 23 in the wine and gold even jawed back, on one trip down court appearing to annoyingly mouth the words, ‘Sue me.” But the fan slowly became a witness. James ended the first half by scoring each of the Cavs’ final 12 points. He had two three-point plays, a jump hook off the glass from the right block and two rim-rocking dunks. Twelve minutes later, James ended the third period in even more spectacular fashion, burying a barrage of deep 3-pointers en route to scoring Cleveland’s final 10 points of the period. By then, James had the middle-aged man fawning over his feats. Just before James inbounded the ball near the fan at the start of the final period, the man extended a closed fist. James graciously bumped knuckles. Durant, noticing the exchange while wrangling with his shoe laces, furrowed his brow then took exception. “You supposed to be on our side,” Durant said, pinching a piece of his white Thunder jersey. “What kind of fan are you?” Read more…
Two very good teams battled and one team won; probably the better team. I am okay with that. The Thunder represented themselves very well for most of the game….ok, well for three quarters and the more veteran deep playoff team put the foot on the gas to bring home the win.
I think many OKC fans would have dribbled in their drawers just a little if this game had been played before New Year’s last year. There were so many good things going for the Thunder. It’s pretty obvious that our expectations are just sky high after big wins against Miami and Orlando and teams of that caliber.
This game really seemed to be decided by a big momentum shift that came at the end of the third period. That was where the Thunder had the lead (75-68) and the mojo. Then Nick Collison came out to hedge on a screen and then recovered into the post. He was there just for a second and he got whistled for a defensive three second call. LBJ hit the technical making it 75-69. Next trip down LBJ nails a three pointer (with just a minute left in the quarter). We turn it over on a bad pass and just like a hot knife through butter LBJ nails another three. I said some bad words here because that tied it up at 75. KD gets fouled and makes one of two and Cleveland gets the defensiv rebound. Crap crap crap LBJ nails ANOTHER three to take the lead 78-76. There was no looking back. Read more…
I don’t even want to hear it. I don’t care if you’re excited about this game because a certain player is coming to town. That’s fine if that’s what has you amped for this game. I’m psyched to see No. 35 in white and a 12-9 team that’s got a chance to really make a big statement with a win over one of the NBA’s elite. Read more…
Watches are so named as a reminder – if you don’t watch carefully what you do with your time, it will slip away from you – Drew Sirtors
(Photo by Layne Murdoch/NBAE via Getty Images)
Forty-eight minutes. Forty-eight nerve-amplifying, pupil-dilating and excitedly exhausting minutes is just not enough. At least not for the Thunder’s shooting guard duality. And so, with two very different but equally impactful players on their roster, that age-old issue of time creeps its ugly head again. Is there enough time for both James Harden and Thabo Sefolosha on the court to both make the kind of impact they can to help the Thunder win games?
Maybe. But what if there is a more pressing question underlying the question of minutes itself? What if the real question is: Do Thabo and James affect the outcome of a game in a positive way equally?
Now there’s a dilemma. That’s a question that I’m not sure any of us really want to answer. Well, this isn’t a place for the faint of heart fan so let’s see how they each rank up among the NBA’s elite SG’s to get a better picture. Before we do that, let us not forget those individual grains of sand in the hourglass that both players have in a game thus far.
Thabo Sefolosha averages 32.5 minutes a game; James Harden averages 21.2 minutes a game.
Now onto where each ranks among the league’s leading shooting guards… Read more…
A quick look at Oklahoma City’s D-League affiliate, the Tulsa 66ers:
Thursday: Tulsa took on the Springfield Armor, a squad that features former Oklahoma State Cowboy JamesOn Curry as its leading scorer. The 66ers won 90-74, behind 20 points from Larry Owens and 23 from Cecil Brown. Mustafa Shakur had 10 points and 11 assists in the win and Byron Mullens added 14 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. DeVon Hardin had six points and seven rebounds and Latavious Williams added six and seven in just 11 minutes.
Saturday: The 66ers used a big third quarter to win their second straight, 98-91. Shakur led the way with 27 points (all in the second half), six assists and five rebounds. Byron Mullens added 19 points and six boards, Latavious Williams 10 points and seven rebounds and DeVon Hardin with four points and nine boards. (Video Highlights)
Thunder Player Recap
Mullens averaged 16.5 ppg, 7.5 rpg and 1.5 bpg for the week. He’s averaging 16.0 ppg and 10.1 rpg for the season.
Hardin 5.0 ppg, 8.0 rpg and 2.0 bpg for the week and is averaging 6.8 ppg and 7.3 rpg on the year.
Next week Tulsa has three games, starting with a road tilt against the Maine Red Claws Sunday. The week wraps up with two home games against Rio Grande Valley Friday and Saturday. Remember, you can watch all games for free on the D-League’s official site.
(Good day patrons of DT. Thank you for your dedicated support of Daily Thunder. Now buy yourself another DT-Shirt.)
You may or may not have seen this video before, but I really like it. I love the idea of a shoe being so personal and filled with meaning. It just makes it plain cool. The shoes are spiffy and the KD2 model is even slicker, but the little custom touches are what make this shoe so neat. I’m no sneaker connoisseur, but I did once own a pair of Jordan’s when I was younger. So I think I’m qualified to comment on this, right?
Brian Davis made the point at the end of the broadcast that the last time this franchise was 3 games over .500 was in 2004. Just let that sink in for a minute. I watched nearly every game that season and most games since and I can tell you that there has been some very mediocre basketball, and at times some really terrible basketball in the old green and gold and now the Thunder blue. But that aside, how great was it tonight to see the team regroup in the fourth quarter and absolutely gut punch the Griz? I mean we flat out got ripped in the third period scoring and could only manage to score a measly 10 points. That same group came back in the fourth and got the run started before the starters (with the exception of Harden) put their foot on the gas and took us home.
The Thunder had complete control of this game for three quarters. What was weird was that the three quarters weren’t concurrent. We won the first, second and fourth and got smoked in the third? You would have thought that the Griz sort of figured things out and were getting the shots and the matchups they wanted and would take a close game to the final buzzer but that didn’t happen. The thing that stood out to me was the Griz having total domination in the paint in the third and the jumphots and every other kind of shot not falling for the Thunder all at the same time. Zach Randolph was busy being a rebound hound with 13 in the quarter and 20 total boards. Of course I couldn’t help noticing that he did have 11 Orebs and 13 missed shots….nice way to pad your stats.
But like a light switch being turned on the Thunder suddenly wrested control of the paint from the Griz. Krstic and Green just got absolutely tough as nails on Gasol and Randolph in the fourth. Also Brooks began to double team whoever had the ball in the post in the fourth. Usually it was Durant cheating over. His long arms are quite a weapon. That’s just good coaching there. They don’t win this game without taking back the paint. Read more…
Two weeks ago, you ask me about this game and I’m confident. I’m thinking this is one of those “should win” ballgames. I’m thinking the only reason Oklahoma City loses is because it was flat or uninspired.
But things changed. Memphis started playing good. So good in fact the Grizz just took down the Brons in overtime this week and now have won three straight. But that’s the thing with mediocre-to-good teams – you can win any game, but you can also lose any game. And it’s not like the Thunder are some pushover squad. Heck, as of today they’re a playoff group. So how does that do you? Read more…
Throughout the week some of you drop some brilliant or at least somewhat thoughtful comments and so this is a try at highlighting some of them. Disclaimer: It’s not that I necessarily agree with all of them, but they were interesting and for the most part, well put. Consider everything [sic’d].
Expectations for Chewblocka. /wookiesound (Kirk): I have read all about Ibaka on numerous websites and watched just about every video of Ibaka there is to watch, from when he was in high school up through some of his games in the NBA. There is no doubt that this guy is oozing with athleticism.
Ibaka’s timing on blocking shots is flawless. He almost never jumps too early to block a shot. He looks like he could be a premier shot blocker once he earns more minutes in the NBA. And I belive he has a 42″ vertical jump, and for a 6′10″ guy that is flat out amazing leaping ability. That is actually an incredible vertical for any player regardless of size, but for someone that is 6′10″, that is almost unheard of. So he can get up and block just about any shot that comes near him.
His offensive game should come around quite nicely too. He has good range w/ his shot for a big man and can step out and knock down a mid-range jumper and he can occasionally step behind the 3 pt and line and knock down a trey. And obviously he can throw down dunks and score points off of offensive rebounds. Read more…
I think many OKC fans would have dribbled in their drawers just a little if this game had been played before New Year’s last year. There were so many good things going for the Thunder. It’s pretty obvious that our expectations are just sky high after big wins against Miami and Orlando and teams of that caliber.
A sweet road victory and three games over .500 baybeee!
