Nets vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer
vs. 
New Jersey Nets (7-57, 4-29 road) vs. Okla. City Thunder (39-24, 20-11 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.6 (17th), Nets – 99.1 (30th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.9 (6th), Nets – 110.3 (26th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.9 (14th), Nets – 91.5 (23rd)
View from the enemy: Nets Are Scorching
Feel free to make a dimissive comment about the Nets. But remember this: They beat the Celtics just two weeks ago. They can beat people. They haven’t done it a lot, but it certainly can happen.
If anything concerns me it’s the distractions. First, James Harden is out. That’s a blow to flow and continuity. Second, a MONSTER game looms with the Jazz Sunday night. It would be very easy to look over the Nets and think about Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer. But if you forget about Devon Harris and Brooke Lopez, they’ll bite you. Literally. Brook Lopez bites people. Or so I hear.
New Jersey coming in: The Nets have lost four of five, most recently Wednesday in Dallas after holding a big lead. They did win in New York just six days ago, so the taste of victory is fresh with them. They’re 2-8 in their last 10 and are 4-29 on the road.
THE MATCHUPS
Everywhere except the five, Oklahoma City holds a substantial advantage. Russell Westbrook should outplay Devin Harris, though Harris is a good player. The Nets don’t have anyone to defend Kevin Durant. Jeff Green should have an edge on Josh Boone who he’s much quicker than and can take outside. Yi Jianlian who lit OKC up last time appears to be sitting this one out. Boone is a pretty strong offensive rebounder though, so OKC needs to be good there.
A lot of New Jersey’s success relies on a third scorer stepping up. Brook Lopez is obviously strong inside and Harris can score, but they need that third guy. Courtney Lee is supposed to be that guy, but I like Thabo on him. Terrence Williams has been playing better, but again, OKC has the defenders to match him. The bench obviously took a hit in losing James Harden for a few games, but luckily, the rotation has a chance to get sorted tonight against the Nets, and it will likely be Kyle Weaver seeing 10-15 minutes of gametime. New Jersey’s second unit is pretty soft as it’s headlined by Williams, Keyon Dooling and Kris Humphries.
Nonetheless, obviously this is a game we should be able to wipe our hands off afterward and move on without much thinking about it. New Jersey may have tested Dallas the other night, but it shouldn’t happen in the Ford Center tonight. All business for 48 minutes and then let’s get ready for Utah.
Tip at 7:00 CST. Go O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A-C-I-T-Y-T-H-U-N-D-E-R.
LOL I can’t believe how sloppy that ending was. Wow. Very lucky to win. Brooks better get their heads right for the Utah game. My Lord.
This is the worst win i’ve ever seen in my basketball-watching career lol.
This performance was similar to the one made against Sacramento at home at the beginning of the month and is better not to remember what happened the following match.
Positive note: nr. 40!
As long as we play Utah tough and don’t sleep walk into that game I’m OK winning sloppy but there have to be some concerns about the bench right now.. yikes.
What a joke of a game. We totally sleptwalked through that one. Pretty psyched for Sunday: potential playoff preview!
Let’s at least look at the positives. Green had maybe his best offensive night of the year (27 on 11-16 from the field) and Durant went for over 30 again on a very efficient night.
The Nets aren’t as bad as their record indicates, as was noted earlier in this post. If you go over to the Nets Are Scorching, there’s an interesting little article about them being the 23rd worst team since the All-Star break.
For a while I didn’t mind us just cruising with the ten/eleven point lead for almost the entire game. Good teams tend to do that against lesser opponents; conserve energy and kinda coast. That being said, the last 4 minutes were inexcusable. Hopefully Brooks’ll light a fire under their asses for Utah.
I think the key to this worse performance was RW0 not bringing up his usual play. It was really one of those game when you deserve to loose but your opponent is just to bad to win.
I have had this feeling for a while now, but tonight kind of confirm my feeling… RW play his game very differently between first half and sec half every games or most of the games. He does all the assists in the first half, and then playing the old RW in the sec half as always look for his own points…
Man, 2 pts win… Wow… Ok, I know the Nets did beat the Celtics…
Well, I do watch the games if that’s what you’re saying, and I’m brazilian and have to keep doing it with crappy streaming that gets cut off every 5 minutes.
Keep bashing the team all you want, I’d rather enjoy another victory and being on pace for 28 more victories than last season.
My opinion is the same: this is one of the youngest teams in the league and it’s still learning how to win. Expecting a 95-96 Bulls performance every single night is a bit of a stretch when your 3 best players are 21, 21 and 23.
After all, this team must be garbage, it won just 16 of the last 19 games, that’s probably due to the unfocused defense, terrible shot selection, terrible rotations, a feud between Russ and KD and so on.
Thunder need to avoid playing the Nuggets. I can’t think of a worse match-up for them.
We have no alternative to Harden. I’m so glad Presti drafted for Harden and got us Thabo. Imagine no Thabo and no Harden. Again respect to Sam Presti and Scott Brooks.
Lakers and King,please win.It will make today perfect
Not sure about the King, but Lakers should be good (hopefully) and Jazz is pretty lost… Which is good.
weaver played badly, i can only imagine kevs numbers
Didn’t bother watching this one, and it sounds like it was a good idea. I did catch the end of the Bucks/Jazz game. The Bucks are a darn good team, and it looks like people of Milwaukee have really gotten behind the team. That arena was rocking. If I were one of the top Eastern Conference teams, I’d be very afraid of the Bucks in the playoffs.
Andrew Bogut is playing some excellent defense. Skiles really has really influenced Bogut the most, that guy has improved so much this season.
@Vega
If in Eastern Conference,Thunder maybe is better than Hawk or Bos,and in round 1 play with them.
OK WAIT! If we win Sunday will we be a half game ahead of Utah, meaning 4th in the West??? Or am I ignorant….a distinct possibility.
@justin
It also helps that this looks to be one of Bogut’s healthiest seasons.
Пожалуй, соглашусь. Хотя свои нюансы здесь есть. Полезная информация. Воспользуюсь.