Tuesday Bolts – 12.29.09
(Fake) Nets color man Jim Spanarkel shared his thoughts on the game last night via Twitter: “And just like that…Kevin 
Durant consummated my man crush … I do feel like Bella from Twilight and Durant is my Edward. I bet he glows in sunlight … Nenad making a great homecoming. I miss his scent. I miss his laugh. I miss him being with me.when this is over, we should get an apt together.” UPDATE: Evidently, the Spanarkel Twitter is a fake. I feel so used. And dirty. But mostly used.
Mark Travis of But The Game Is On with some thoughts: “With all that said, this game was all about Kevin Durant. I told y’all he was good. What a fun basketball player to watch. He just gets it. I know I am not a LeBron fan but I can honestly say I think Durant is already a smarter basketball player or at least he is smarter at 21 than LeBron was.”
Mark Ginocchio of Nets Are Scorching; does this sound familiar?: “Another day, another bad Nets loss, and another opportunity for me to openly wonder where and when can the Nets find their victories this season? It’s getting to the point where I’m openly bartering with the basketball gods – I’ll take the bare minimum – give me 10. Just no more history books. No more futility to top all futilities.”
An interesting note on Nenad Krstic: “One may suggest the Nets were wise to pass on matching the $15.6 million offer sheet that Oklahoma City gave to Krstic one year and one week ago: The Serbian center — once a rising star during his four years in Jersey, before tearing his ACL 36 months ago — was averaging 8.2 points and 5.1 rebounds in only 22 minutes per game before last night. Then he trashed the Nets for 19 points (7-for-12) and seven boards in 32 minutes, including a 3-for-3 start that got OKC off to a 16-9 start. “I’m not disappointed with him at all,” said coach Scott Brooks, who plays a lot of small ball out West. “Those aren’t bad numbers. It’s all matchups. It’s like a four-man rotation there … and when teams go super-small, we can switch everything.”
Ball Don’t Lie, behind the box score: “The Nets couldn’t defend, at all. Oklahoma City was playing it’s usual brand of veteran-y ball with youngster-y panache, but this time it led to a hot night on offense — 115 points per 100 possessions. Durant dropped 40 and was fantastic, no Jamal Crawford-stuff here, and the team would have won by 25 had James Harden (who missed all 10 of his looks from the floor, but played well) not had such rotten luck.”
Power rankings! Dime has OKC at 14: “Conversations about the Thunder begin and end with Kevin Durant, but Russell Westbrook has been kind of a beast lately; averaging 18.6 points, 5.6 boards and 8.6 dimes in his last five games.”
NBA.com at 14: “With a visit to New Jersey on Monday, the Thunder have a good chance at their first three-game winning streak. Only one of their next eight opponents has a winning record. That’s Utah, who they host Thursday and trail by just 1 1/2 games for eighth in the West.”
Marc Stein at 13: “Factoids, factoids, factoids: OKC is 12-1 when it puts up 100 points, Durant has 13 30-point games already and the Thunder reached 15 wins on the day after Christmas … after needing until March 2 to get there last season.”
HoopsWorld at 14: “The Thunder earned a lot of respect this past week, giving the Lakers a real challenge and then beating the Suns in Phoenix.”
KD was the Daily Dime’s Monday best: “Dropping a season-high 40 points on the Nets’ curb is one way to keep the Meadowlands down. Overall, Durant made 15-of-22 shots from the field for OKC, which has won three games in a row.”
Kiki Vandeweghe: “I think we did a very good job in the first half,” said Vandeweghe. “We were right there with them. The Thunder are a very good team with a lot of confidence. They are playing at a very high level right now. When you’re that type of team, you turn it up at the appropriate time defensively.”
40pts is one thing, but how efficient is 15 of 22 shots! Durant is gonna be one of the G.O.A.T and he’s on our team! I so grateful to not have any other team but the one we have in the Thunder, also proud to wear my Durant jersey around in other cities.
Now if we could just get sum alternate jerseys, I would be a as a kid in a candy store.
Durant is like the kid in class that always gets an A on the test . . .
You EXPECT him to carry the offense and get 30 . . .
you are surprised and a little disappointed when he doesn’t . . .
I (admittedly) am spoiled . . .
Is that really Spanarkel’s twitter? I thought it had to be fake. If it’s real, he’s instantly my favorite broadcaster.
The scary thing is he is only 21 and because he is a shooter he wont have a drop off like lebron will in his later years when he gets slow. He will be a top 5 all time scorer barring injury
I read the Nets Are Burning game recap last night, and it definitely reminded me of watching the Thunder the first half of last year. I’m glad that it looks like we’re past that.
Kevin Durant is one of only a few players in the top 20 in Offensive and Defensive Win Shares. LeBron James, Paul Pierce, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant.
hopefully the bench bounces back after last night, cant beat the wiz if harden goes 0-10 again, maybe he can go 10-10 from 3 or something
I don’t know Jim Spanarkel, but he’s immediately become my least favorite sports guy. Anyone who has had a female friend, girlfriend, or wife force them to watch or read any of the Twilight series knows why.
On a side note, I’ve been making all sorts of crazy trades on NBA 2K10 lately and it’s affecting my view of the real team. When are we going to land Al Jefferson, Marc Gasol, or Chris Bosh in real life?
hey don’t forget to add eric maynor to your thunder players twitter list!
@f5alcon
The thing is, he can do that. It’s just will he? Hopefully.
Yep, just found out the Spanarkel Twitter is a fake. I’m sad. I wanted it to be real so badly.
washington isnt great defensively, so we should be able to score at will against them.
at least harden knows he needs to bounce back
“jHARD13
We got the job done!!..didn’t play well but gotta bounce back!”
not worried about their lack of defense . . .
I am worried about
1) it’s a “revenge” game and they are at home . . .
2) they have the offensive firepower to match up to anyone . . .
Washington’s defense is no surprise, but they’ve been horrible offensively. Caron Butler is playing horribly, Jamison’s been inconsistent, and while Arenas is playing better he’s still not what he used to be.
They can’t move Arenas and Butler might be worth moving if he keeps playing like this, but this is a team that’s going to have to blow it up and start playing some of their young guys (McGee, etc.)
good call . . . their offensive rating is 22nd – that’s not good for their (assumed) potency . . . I fell into that trap . . .
@Kev
i mean they could beat us, but we tend to do well against bad defensive teams.
KD and Green will be back home in front of friends and family. I’m sure they’ll have that extra emotion tonight to perform at the top of their games.
Also, Truehoop linked to an article called “if advanced stats voted for nba all-stars” and Russell Westbrook makes the team.
http://fresnobeach.com/?p=11120
did i just hear an anchorman quote
Hahaha, well im glad it’s not the way we get all stars because anyone who will start Haywood over Howard must be outta their minds.
And yet mcgrady is almost an all star starter, the current system isnt much better.
If westrbrook put up the numbers he has the last few games over a whole season, he would easily be an all star
I learned one thing from the game last night from the Nets announcers. Krstic’s nickname from the Nets is pretty cool.
Lawrence Frank called him Curley (I wonder why that name didn’t stick in OKC). Krstic’s nickname in Serbia was Krle, but obviously Curley is way more American.
http://www.nba.com/nets/chat/krstic_chat_transcript_011508.html
@f5alcon
True, but I didn’t see KD on the list either.
@GAP
durant has a bad 2 year adjusted +/- because of last season, which was their main factor for choosing players.
@John-o
I wonder if there was anybody named mo on the team with lawrence frank and krstic
deep breath… 4 in a row a possibility… how awesome is that!!!
i just want to get passed utah then it could be 11 in a row
@f5alcon
I am all about winning though Utah (as it is a game i’m actually going to
)
Royce anyword on the watch party?
I think some of our success is because maynor is a much better backup then our previous backup Pgs and even though last night he didnt put up great, still equal or better then what ollie or livingston would have done. A healthy collison in the front court also helps
@dork
cool, yeah that should be a fun night, though i gave my ticket to my mom so she can go with my dad.