Home > Bolts > Tuesday Bolts – 2.23.10

Tuesday Bolts – 2.23.10

Small announcement: Daily Thunder Night is on for this Friday at TapWerks in Bricktown. I’ll have a lot more details in the coming days, but I’ll be there at 5 p.m before the Thunder plays Minnesota and you’re welcome to pile in around then. The first 50 people to show get free parking (TapWerks is about two blocks away from the Ford Center).  We’ll also likely have some door prizes and drink specials available. I’ll have more details as we get closer to it, but I just wanted to give a heads up so you can maybe make arrangements to be there. If it goes well, we’ll make an effort to do these more often, for things like the draft and away game watch parties.

The Thunder won this award called a “Stevie” that honors businesses for excellent in… stuff. The Thunder won the category “Front-Line Customer Service Team of the Year.” I’d say that’s well deserved.

Power rankings! Stein has OKC at SIX: “A trade for a vet would have been nice, and ”Durantula” still doesn’t work for me as a nickname, but there isn’t much else here to protest. Not when OKC is a tidy 20-8 during Durant’s streak of consecutive 25-point games.”

Chris Mannix from SI: “Kevin Durant extended his streak of 25-plus point scoring performances to 28 and helped the Thunder extend their season-high winning streak to nine. Still, as much as Oklahoma City’s offensive firepower gets the headlines, it’s the D that deserves the credit. After finishing 27th in the NBA in defensive field-goal percentage last season (47.5), the Thunder have improved to second best (43.7) this season.”

Up to FOUR on NBA.com: “Kevin Durant’s streak of 25-plus points is at 28 and the Thunder’s winning streak is at nine. Russell Westbrook is averaging 19.7 points, 6.9 rebounds and 9.3 assists during the latter. He recorded his second career triple-double on Sunday.”

Nine at HoopsWorld.

Seven at Sporting News.

If OKC loses tonight, everyone should know it’s Mike Baldwin’s fault. He has a story today showing the longest streaks in NBA history. Talk about jinxing it.

On the B.S. Report yesterday, Simmons had Rockets GM Daryl Morey on. They talked about the Thunder a surprising amount (Simmons is infatuated with us). Give it a once over.

Taylor Griffin on his return to OKC: “About 2 head 2 shoot around. I been hearin rumors about the Skirvin hotel in OKC being haunted but I know I slept great! ?!?”

Baldwin on OKC catching some breaks: ”Give the Thunder credit. They’ve made their own breaks by playing standout basketball for two months, going 20-7 dating back to a pre-Christmas win at Phoenix. In the midst of the easiest portion of their schedule, the Thunder can put some distance between them and the Hornets, Rockets and Grizzlies to nail down a playoff berth and be a viable contender for the No. 4, 5 and 6 seeds. Especially if they keep winning games and catch some breaks.”

Truth and Rumors on Scott Brooks being the leading candidate for Coach of the Year: “Scott Brooks may need to add space to his personal trophy case if his Thunder keep on winning. But the Thunder’s lead man will tell you that’s the last thing on his mind. “The last individual award I won was MVP of my college team,” Brooks said. “You think I care about individual awards?” Maybe not, but if the Thunder continues its winning ways, Brooks might have to make room on his mantle for the Red Auerbach Trophy.”

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@clarkem
yeah, but could switch/double hill in the post, but really it wont matter much, im sure dragic will play a ton of minutes, unless we get him in foul trouble, maybe thats what we need to do, attack him and hill, so they run out of ballhandlers

@f5alcon
I just like Westbrook more defensively. If we let Maynor guard Hill I can see Hill just taking him down low and scoring over him.

@clarkem
we have the speed advantage at pg over hill with maynor and probably even ollie so even if its not westbrook we can get to the rim.

clarkem :We need to figure out a rotation that assures us Russ is on the floor when Grant Hill is at point. Hill is bigger and might try to take advantage of us on offense, but I think Russ is stout enough to hold his own and we can rotate help at him. When we are on offense though I want to see clear outs and send Russ full sprint at Hill.

sometimes Brooks brings back Westbrook early in the 4th to play with Maynor, so your strategy may work . . .

@crick

I'm just glad I'm not a Bullets fan. Someone bring back Bernard King.

We need to figure out a rotation that assures us Russ is on the floor when Grant Hill is at point. Hill is bigger and might try to take advantage of us on offense, but I think Russ is stout enough to hold his own and we can rotate help at him. When we are on offense though I want to see clear outs and send Russ full sprint at Hill.

@kev

Agreed that it was a no-brainer. Howard's was a big part of the Finals run and got to an all-star game so he's been really popular in Dallas despite the last couple of seasons. Guess he's some fans fav player on the team, including a couple of my buddies. I root for the Mavs except when they play OKC so I love the trade. They'll get over it once Mavs secure home-court.

Thunder vs. Mavs in 1st rd would be a great series.
Hoping to see some Thunder v. Mavs playoff series while Dirk's still in his prime.

crick :
Lookout OKC, he’s coming here, and he means business!

as soon as he finishes his Trigonometry homework

Rhett :@crick

I know the Wiz have been doing well, but some of my Mav friends didn’t want to see Howard go. Not saying it didn’t help the Wiz, though I don’t believe they’ll keep winning at the rate they’ve been since the trade.

true that,

just seemed like an odd phrase "from bad to worse" in light of their recent success. A more appropriate one would sound like "wow, just as they were turning things around and doing great, this happens"

No Howard means more burn time for Al Thornton. He's been underperforming for my DT team this season.

Rhett :@crick
I know the Wiz have been doing well, but some of my Mav friends didn’t want to see Howard go. Not saying it didn’t help the Wiz, though I don’t believe they’ll keep winning at the rate they’ve been since the trade.

why? Howard hasn't done anything for about two years now . . .that trade was a no-brainer . . .

@justin

He looked awesome before the trade too. When Jamison was out to start the season, Blatche was out of control.

@crick

I know the Wiz have been doing well, but some of my Mav friends didn't want to see Howard go. Not saying it didn't help the Wiz, though I don't believe they'll keep winning at the rate they've been since the trade.

f5alcon :

justin :Andray Blatche has looked awesome for Washington since the trades.

yeah my fantaasy team has been good because of him@kev

we have beaten denver, and have single possession losses to the cavs and lakers, but close doesnt count.

they didnt have Melo, so that doesnt count . . .

justin :
Andray Blatche has looked awesome for Washington since the trades.

yeah my fantaasy team has been good because of him

@kev

we have beaten denver, and have single possession losses to the cavs and lakers, but close doesnt count.

Anyone else think Darren Collison for Nic Batum would make a lot of sense for both teams? Forgetting for a moment about the hissy fit Portland fans would throw.

@kev

Wow! Talk about hopping into a time machine.

hey Justin, Grant Hill will run the point when Dragic rests . . .

Andray Blatche has looked awesome for Washington since the trades.

Sammy :OKC at 4? That’s crazy talk. I don’t feel comfortable slotting them above 7. I’m not yet convinced they’ve overtaken Boston.

putting us above Boston is foolish - we're very good but we need to beat the great teams first (Lakers, Boston, Cleveland, Denver) before we even THINK about being a top 5 team . . .

Rhett :@Sammy

Wow. The Mavs pick up Butler/Haywood for Howard a week before he blows a knee. It just gets worse in DC. If there were any Mavs fans that didn’t like the trade…

actually Wiz have been killer since the trade -- they've won 3 out the last 4. They beat:

Minnesota
Denver (!)
Chicago

the only loss was to Toronto, and that was very, very close.

@Crick

ha! that made me laugh

That's the second time this season. Utah traded Ronnie Brewer and he tore his hamstring. Crazy.

Lookout OKC, he's coming here, and he means business!

@f5alcon
No thanks. We already have a really good back up for Durant. His name's Jeff Green. *ducks*

@Sammy

Wow. The Mavs pick up Butler/Haywood for Howard a week before he blows a knee. It just gets worse in DC. If there were any Mavs fans that didn't like the trade...

@justin

I'm not really a fan of having a hard cap, but if we did away with all the rules EXCEPT the hard cap like Morey was suggesting, I think I can get on board with that.

@Sammy
maybe we can get him cheap in the offseason to back up durant, he wont play a tont of mins and an acl tear isnt a recurring injury so he could still be decent.

Goran, the magic Dragic
Played for the Suns
And subbed for Nash with ailing back
In the land of the Bro-ingtons

(* sung to the tune of 'Puff the Magic Dragon' *)

And this is what happens when you don't hit refresh for a while and your comment losses some of it's relevance.

More fun with Google motion, taking stock of teams rather than individual players:

http://covertlyaquireddata.blogspot.com/

I have no issue with the streak. KD always has the tendency to keep shooting through his misses. That's what great shooters do. Eventually they get their shot to fall and win us the Knicks game. The only time I've seen him actively going for the streak was during the Mavs game, which wasn't close. He hasn't been forcing things to get the streak. He's just taking all the shots he normally would take. He makes a good percentage of those shots anyways.

@Sammy
ah man that sucks. He was playing so well for the Wiz too. I always hate when that happens to players.

Goodbye Josh Howard's career. Apparently he just tore his ACL.

NOOOOOOOOO!!!!

Not Goran Dragic!

oh man, we're screwed... Russ can't keep up with him!

;)

OKC at 4? That's crazy talk. I don't feel comfortable slotting them above 7. I'm not yet convinced they've overtaken Boston.

Goran Dragic is a much better defender than Steve Nash.

Looks like Nash didn't make the trip to OKC for the game tonight. Westbrook should have a field day with Goran Dragic.

Brooks is a lock for COY. We're winning with defense and the players are buying into the system.

Wasn't planning on going to the game friday, but I guess I am now. Or maybe I'll just watch it @ TapWerks. Either way, I'll be there.

i only wash my zombie sonics shirt after a loss...lets just say its gettin pretty dirty and i like that

Are we going to have name tags at the party?

Anonymous :I’ll definitely be at the party, Thanks Royce!

Sorry that was me. :-)

Fantasy tidbit on Harden geared to keeper leagues:

James Harden, SG, Oklahoma City Thunder: Harden has quietly had a very solid rookie season off the bench for the Thunder, proving he has the versatility for a fantasy-friendly game when he gets more playing time. He's a knock-down shooter from long range, and although his sub-40 percent mark from the field may turn you off, there's reason to expect improvement. Thanks to hoopdata.com, we can see he's shooting 43.6 percent at the rim against a league average of 60.7 percent. Considering how athletic he is (listed at 6-foot-5, 220 pounds, he has a true NBA body), that probably can be chalked up to learning on the fly. In just 23 minutes per game, he's averaging more than three free throw attempts per contest, so getting into the lane isn't a problem, nor is dishing to find the open man (2.1 assists). Toss in a solid steals rate (1.0) and the fact that only Thabo Sefolosha is standing in his way as a starter, a cheap investment in Harden now should pay off big-time for next season and beyond.

@Omar
Yeah I recall that too. And, the criticism might be valid were Durant only shooting like 37 percent... but he's shoot extremely well right now. He's very efficient.

@Bryan
I must have missed that. I just remember during the knicks game when it looked like the thunder had no shot to win, there were some people on here saying how the streak needed to end.