Following the Thunder’s big win over Boston Wednesday night, Kevin Garnett was frustrated with the fact Boston took just 17 free throws to OKC’s 34, with Kevin Durant taking 15 of those. So he decided to articulate it on live television. Cover your ears if you don’t like bad words.
If you prefer not to watch and hear Garnett’s potty mouth, here’s what he said: “I thought we were playing Michael (expletive) Jordan the way he was getting the whistle. Durant damn near shot more free throws than our whole team. That’s the game.”
With Durant dropping 37 points in Boston, I can understand the confusion for Garnett, but it has nothing to do with the whistle. Garnett has a big mouth so this is nothing new, but with OKC winning one of its biggest games of the year over the Celtics, hearing KG go sour grapes is kind of satisfying. As Garnett griped, all I can think of is this. Mmm, tears.
Oklahoma City was right where you’d want to be on the road against a good team. And I have no idea how. After three quarters, the Celtics were shooting 67 percent from the floor and the Thunder were shooting 48 percent. Yet somehow, the game was tied.
So many times we’ve seen this young Thunder team walk into this situation and completely clench up. The offensive execution goes first, then they give up a few big rebounds and finally, the just can’t knock down the shots. Most times, the finger is point at Kevin Durant if he doesn’t take over late for his team. The game in Portland comes to mind. But tonight? How does eight HUGE fourth quarter points, four rebounds and stellar defense do you? KD owned the game when he had to, scoring 20 of his game-high 37 in the second half. Read more…
Playing Boston after two weeks rest at home isn’t easy. So playing in Boston on the second of a back-to-back definitely isn’t easy. The good news for the Thunder though is the a good numbers of their players got some rest in a blowout win over Philly last night and also, that Paul Piece likely won’t play tonight. Read more…
An incredible stat that was flashed on NBA Fastbreak last night: Over the past 20 seasons, Kobe Bryant holds the record for most 25-point games in a season with 68 (2005-06). Michael Jordan is second on that list with 67 (1990-91).
On Tuesday against the 76ers, Kevin Durant had his 65th game of 25 points or more. And guess what? KD still has nine games yet to play. It’s a very, very real possibility that Durant will score 25 or more points over 70 times this year. And he’s only in his third year. And he’s just 21 years old.
KD on the MVP: ”To be honest I get kind of tired of people talking to me about it,” Durant said before the game. “Those awards really don’t mean anything to me. My first year coming in, winning Rookie of the Year, being in that race was cool. That was something that I wanted to accomplish. But it’s all about winning for me right now. Trying to get to the playoffs, trying to get to a championship (level), that’s what it’s about. That stuff is over for me, going out playing for awards. I don’t even think about it to be honest. But it’s cool to be in the race.”
For three quarters, Oklahoma City had command of the game, but never took complete control against Philadelphia. While the Thunder led pretty much throughout, Philly was always a couple stops and a couple long balls away from getting it close. The lead swelled to 15 in the first half, but the 76ers hung around, hit shots and kept the Thunder lead around 10.
And then the fourth quarter started. OKC started the period on a 19-4 run to completely assume control of the game, but here’s the intriguing part: The Thunder bench scored all 19 of those points. In fact, not a single starter scored at all in the fourth quarter. The bench accounted for all 27 points. I find that fairly amazing in a game that wasn’t a blowout at the end of three. Starters played substantial minutes in the fourth. Eric Maynor finished with nine, Serge Ibaka 10 and James Harden 12. When the Thunder bench plays well and everyone defends, this team is really, really tough. Read more…
We all remember what happened in Indiana two weeks ago. The Thunder was flat, unfocused and unready. Well, here’s another chance at a game like that. Let’s hope that Pacer game was a lesson learned. Read more…
One team that has consistently job a pretty good job on Kevin Durant has been Portland. In three games, KD is still averaging 26 ppg against the Blazers, but he’s only shooting a pedstrian 35 percent from the floor. The Blazers make Durant work for the ball, they push him, they bump him and the bracket him the best they can. Plus, it helps to have a good defender like Nicolas Batum.
Rip City Project put together this quality video of the Blazers defending Durant. In a lot of situations, KD gets the shot he wants, but just missed it. Such is life in basketball.
But one thing you’ll notice is that he settled for a few 3s when there may have been a better option. For whatever reason over the last three weeks or so, KD has taken more and more three pointers. Consider: In January where Durant shot 53 percent from deep, he took 47 treys. In February, he took 46 3s and shot 44 percent. But so far in March, he’s shooting only 24 percent from 3 and has taken 66 3s. In the last five games, he’s taken 26 3-pointers. That’s what you call settling. Read more…
Ken Berger of CBS Sports with nice feature on how OKC built a winner: “They’ve done it with the NBA’s lowest payroll at $49 million, the youngest starting lineup in the league and the youngest GM — likely the only one who emulates renowned prog-rock drummer Neil Peart in his spare time. Throw in Kevin Durant, the lowest-maintenance superstar in basketball, and former journeyman point guard Scott Brooks as the head coach, and you have the perfect storm for making arduous, long-term vision seem like an overnight success.”
HoopsWorld notes the good health in OKC: “The team has played 72 games so far this season. Durant has started all 72. So has Russell Westbrook. And Thabo Sefolosha. And Jeff Green. Only Nenad Krstic amongst the Thunder starters has missed any games – and he’s missed two. So how rare is that, to have a starting lineup so complete this deep into the season?” Read more…
Perhaps no week has better encapsulated this season’s Thunder team than the last one in terms of highlighting the surprising strengths and woeful weaknesses that plague a playoff bound basketball team who seems capable of beating anyone when firing on all cylinders and then capable of being destroyed by anyone when only a few of those cylinders show up ready to go.
First things first, the up-and-down nature of this team is by no means a surprise. After all, this is one of the youngest teams in the NBA who have three members of their starting five with only three or fewer seasons under their belts and three of their four reserve members being rookies. When you have a group as young and relatively inexperienced as that, consistency is going to be an issue and inconsistency should not come as any real surprise.
Just look at how they played Friday night against the Lakers and then watch the Blazers game on Sunday night; the Thunder were almost two entirely different teams except for a few bright spots here and there (namely Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka).
But their youth is also a reason to be tremendously impressed and hopeful for the future of the franchise because, well, young teams don’t perform this well over an 82 game season and almost never defend and play as a cohesive unit enough to even sniff the playoffs, let alone have a shot at a sixth, seventh or eighth seed at this point in the schedule.
So the Thunder are ahead of the curve in development. But the next 10 games (and hopefully beyond) are not about what the Thunder will develop into next season or the seasons after that. The next two and a half weeks is about where the Thunder are at right now and what, if any, damage they can do once they reach the playoffs.
So who is the Thunder this year and what five traits best define them, for the good and the bad?
They’re cheap (only $14.99!) and best of all, you’ll be part of the cool kids group. They’re on sale NOW so quit reading this filler text and go buy a stinking shirt. What I like about it, is while it’s a playoff shirt, it kind of fits the mentality for this franchise as a whole, playoffs or not. Plus, it could be a nice little collector’s piece to remember OKC’s first venture into the postseason. Imagine looking back 15 years from now and remembering your Why Not? shirt? I bet you’re tearing up right now just like me. Anyway, get you a shirt if you so please.
Playoff shirts go on sale at NOON CDT. Buy them in store at Tree and Leaf or online. Don’t miss out on the movement.
Jason Quick of the Oregonian with an interesting note about the last play: ”From there, the Blazers hung on, throwing a surprise at the Thunder for the game’s most important possession. With the score 90-87, the Thunder had the ball with 12.8 seconds left. The Blazers knew Kevin Durant would attempt a three-pointer, but instead of putting Batum on Durant, the Blazers used 6-foot-11 Camby to force Durant to shoot over his long arms. “We had been saving that,” McMillan said with a smile. “We didn’t know when we would use it, but we thought we would at some point because Marcus moves his feet so well and he is tough to shoot over.” Read more…
We’ve all seen this game before. Close throughout, but your team just never can get over the edge. They’ll reach up and touch it, but they just can’t quite climb the hump. Oklahoma City cut Portland’s lead to three, to two, even tied it once at 84-84 on an gorgeous lob from Russell Westbrook to Serge Ibaka. But immediately after, the Blazer scored four straight. It was just one of those games, and even though we’ve seen this story before, it’s still pretty frustrating.
Even with the Thunder down three, with possession and 12.8 seconds left, it just didn’t feel good. Kevin Durant got a decent look, but it went begging short, Andre Miller knocked down two clinching free throws and that was that. It’s not necessarily upsetting or even frustrating, but more just your typical loss. Make one more play, grab one more rebound, hit one more shot and maybe things are different. But as so often happens, that big play didn’t come and as a result, OKC came up five points short. Read more…
And thus, we will conclude the week of very difficult games at home. So far it’s been a pretty successful one I’d say. Turn the close loss to the Spurs into a win and no matter what happens tonight, this would’ve been a good week. But depending on what happens against Portland, this can either be an OK week or a very good one. Read more…
Monday, March 29th at 12 PM CDT, Daily Thunder and Tree and Leaf will be releasing our official Thunder playoff shirt. Now yes, I realize there are still 11 regular season games remaining. And yes, I realize it’s POSSIBLE a very bad thing could happen that we will not speak of. But yesterday we announced the shirt, thus potentially igniting a massive jinx and what did our Thunder do? Beat the Lakers by like 85 points. So I think we’re cool.
Anyway, the shirt is totally cool. The WHY NOT? comes from Russell Westbrook’s bracelet that was highlighted in a Yahoo! article a few weeks ago. And we feel like it perfectly represents this run this year and the potential going into the playoffs. Seriously, Why Not? Why can’t they? Why won’t they? You decide what that means. And we’ve heard all year how next year the Thunder will be a team to consider. This team will be good, but not now. Wait until next year. They’re too young, they’re too raw, they’re too experienced. Be patient. Well guess what? NEXT IS NOW.
