Daily Thunder.com

Missed most of the game. Despite Durant’s poor shooting performance, I was encouraged in the first quarter of how often he was looking for his teammates. There were at least two occasions where he was able to feed players deep in the post for high percentage shots that they missed. One was a particularly nice play when he caught the ball on a curl off the elbow, everybody expected him to raise up immediately, which he did, but Karl was able to recover and challenge his shot; instead of shooting, KD fired a rifle to Kristic on the low block. It’s a simple fake but one that would be especially useful for him because I’m sure every team by now knows that he loves to shoot from that spot.

Dang it! Didn’t mean to post that! Anyway, I was going to say that Duncan will be a Spur for the rest of his career. No chance he ever plays anywhere else.

Kevin Durant remains a few hundreths of a point per game behind Carmelo.

And good god that first quarter by Krstic was painful. Every Biedrins offensive board was his fault and he blew so many open looks on offense.

@justin

Based on how we’ve fared against dallas and utah this season, utah is the no brainer matchup we should be shooting for. We just haven’t looked that great against dallas in the 2 games while we have beaten utah both times we’ve faced them

RW was the main guy tonight again… And I guess KD also picked a good night to be off too… That’s got to be one of his worst game, good taht he’s still able to pulled many fouls from the opponents so he could shoot that many fts.

Sammy :
And good god that first quarter by Krstic was painful. Every Biedrins offensive board was his fault and he blew so many open looks on offense.

But he made up for it with a wilt-like 3rd quarter

Westbrook was awesome. Hopefully this is a preview of what he could become…

@justin
That Warriors series was an anomaly. And I do not like our chances against Dirk. I would rather play Utah because we have a great defender(thabo) to put on their best player(D-will). Denvers front court would really abuse us in a 7 game series.

I’m renaming him Westcrook.

Duncan is only signed for 2 more seasons after this one. I really doubt he gets traded in that time but the future could hold surprises. If the Spurs go nowhere this season and next.

He might be more likely to hang it up after that than go to another team afterwards but we’ll see.

There are teams I can’t see Duncan going to. Thunder? I could see it but it would be a longshot.

Vega :
Dang it! Didn’t mean to post that! Anyway, I was going to say that Duncan will be a Spur for the rest of his career. No chance he ever plays anywhere else.

Most likely. But After seeing MJ in a wizards jersey, and Shaq in every jersey imaginable by now, i can’t write anything off

If Utah is healthy I don’t like our front court matchup. Dirk can score but I think we matchup better with them everywhere else. Utah has better defenders to throw on Durant, and a Jerry Sloan coached team scares me a lot more than a Rick Carlisle coached team in the playoffs.

justin :Kevin Durant remains a few hundreths of a point per game behind Carmelo.

Yup, but LeBron just had a crazy game tonight for 47 pts… That put him ahead of Melo and KD… Damn LeBron…
But, we are sitting 7th in the West and, only half game behind Spurs… Spurs will play Lakers on Monday so it should also help a bit in Thunder’s favorite…

I don’t think Duncan plays anywhere else because he’s not a ring chaser and he doesn’t seem like the kind of Shaq nacissist who will hang around forever way beyond his prime just to get records.

I am still thinking getting 8th will be a challenge. 7th seems like best case to me. If that is the case then it will be Lakers or Nuggets.

If Houston makes a trade, a good one, it will get tougher.

Houston can’t possibly keep T-mac’s contract around can they? They’ll get something for him..

The scuttlebutt suggests they are asking for a lot. I don’t know what they will get. I don’t think it will be great but it might be good enough.

There is a very good chance they’ll get nothing.

@Crow
I don’t see how you can say 7th is best case. Currently, OKC is 2.5 games out of 3rd, as crazy as that may seem. A month and a half ago, San Antonio looked like they were the 3rd best team in the west and Utah looked like they might slip out of the playoffs altogether.

A couple stats to chew on: we’re 4-7 in contests decided by 3 or less, the only team in the WC top eight under .500. If you’re to believe the stat nerds, those games are essentially a coin flip, so our record should be better than it is. On the other hand, we’re 10-17 vs. teams above .500, which is pretty bad. PDX is 14-16, Hou 14-18, Mem 13-16. San Antonio has actually been worse, going 9-17.

@555

According to everything I’ve read he’s at 29.4 PPG which is still behind KD and Melo…

Golden State basically gave up hope they could get anything for Claxton’s expiring. Most expirings yield nothing.

@justin
It’s a difficult contract to move. What trade do you suggest? Philly wants more than a giant expiring for Iggy + Dalembert.

I don’t think they catch the Lakers, Nuggets or Jazz. I guess they could catch one or more of Dallas, San Antonio and Portland but I’ll just not expecting it. They could most likely catch Phoenix in my opinion.

But I didn’t expect they’d be this spot so my opinion may not be that powerful.

@Sammy

I think something will come up before the deadline and Tmac will be somewhere else.. too many teams want to give up long term salary and the Rockets have the space to take some on.

The playoff matchups I want to see:

Cleveland/Miami
Orlando/Toronto
Atlanta/Charlotte
Boston/Chicago

LA/Houston
Denver/Memphis
Utah/OKC
Dallas/SA

Though I’m undecided who among Denver/Utah/Dallas I’d rather have OKC matchup with. Likely whoever’s banged up or playing worst going into the playoffs.

@Crow
How Portland has been playing as well as they have is beyond me. Kudos to them and Nate McMillan, but it wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see that team go down in flames. I don’t really have a prediction… I could see a 4th seed as easily as I can see the lottery.

If Duncan did go somewhere else I’d think it would most likely be a Texas team or Florida team. If he sticks around it will be for a ring. With no drama freaks. OKC might fit if they are a true contender. I don’t think he’d mind playing with Durant.

Under Nate Portland refused to just feel sorry for itself and kept working. They are very deep and they really know what they are doing on offense. 6th best on offensive rebounding even without their 2 centers for much of the time. Top 10ish on the 3 pt game even with a lot of wing issues.

Woah. It’s way late. The recap is up. Thanks for being here.

justin :It says a whole lot about our bench last year which featured 200+ minutes played for four played who are currently out of the league (Swift, Rose, Mason, Atkins), three that should be (Wilkins, Petro, Joe Smith), and the worst point guard in the league (Earl Watson)

Do not ever mention Earl’s name again, or I will find you and tie you to an office chair and tattoo you Swift tribal style.

We are only 2.5 games out of the 3rd seed. Kind of crazy.