Daily Thunder.com

 vs.

Okla. City Thunder (36-23, 17-12 road) at Denver Nuggets (39-21, 25-5 home)

TV: KSBI-52 (Cox 15, HD 715)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 8:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 106.7 (16th), Nuggets – 111.8 (2nd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.0 (3rd), Nuggets – 107.2 (16th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.8 (14th), Nuggets – 95.1 (5th)

View from the enemy: Roundball Mining Company

Oh boy. This is one of those where you can feel a little extra buzz to it. You know it’s important because you know the entire league is paying attention. Oklahoma City is actually just 2.5 games back of Denver for the Northwest Division lead. You’ve got Carmelo Anthony vs. Kevin Durant. You’ve got old and crafty (Chauncey Billups) vs. young and exciting (Russell Westbrook). You’ve got two teams trending upwards and making their strongest push of the season at the right time. Safe to say, this should be a fun game. Read more…

Preview Denver Nuggets

Today on ESPN.com, scouting guru David Thorpe did an ultimate style breakdown of Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony (Insider). He rated them both in seven different categories: shooting, scoring, making teammates better, on-the-ball defense, secondary defender, rebounding and intangibles.

Durant won four of the seven categories (shooting, on-the-ball defense, rebounding, intangibles), with ‘Melo only taking one (making teammates better). They tied the other two (scoring, secondary defender). Overall, KD had a score of 48 to ‘Melo’s 44. Thorpe said this, which I found interesting:

When I started breaking down video for these guys, the first thing that jumped out was just how ordinary they both can be when they’re not in shooting/scoring mode. These guys are special players, but at this point Melo and KD are not in the class of LeBron, Kobe or Dwyane Wade as all-around talents. We constantly hear about “two-way players” or guys who “do it all,” but there are very few of those players. Still, both Anthony and Durant can, in the right situation, carry a team through the playoffs and be the best player on a championship team. That puts them in select company …

Durant, of course, is far from his peak. Yet he’s already one of the very best 21-year-olds in NBA history and better all-around than Melo, which alone is impressive. And this season Durant may finish as high as second (to LeBron) in the Most Valuable Player voting and play in a couple of playoff series. Furthermore, if he can minimize his weaknesses in future seasons while developing his strengths, it’s entirely possible that he can defeat the King for both the award and the ring.

Certainly can’t disagree with Thorpe there. I think when we look back at Kevin Durant’s career, we’ll likely view this third season as his “Leap” year. Last season, he was fantastic. He averaged 25.3 points a game on wonderful percentages. But his team only won 23 games and there was that whole plus/minus debate. Now his team is challenging for a high playoff seed and he’s one of the league leaders in plus/minus. He’s got a realistic shot at the MVP and the scoring title. And to be winning head-to-head breakdowns against Carmelo Anthony and also mentioned in a potential debate with LeBron and Kobe is, well, awesome.

Commentary Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant

Help out a Thunder fan serving in Iraq. He has a ticket dilemma and is looking for help. He shares his season tickets with 2 other people (about 14 games each) and one of his friends can’t commit to next year. They are looking to find someone NEW to share the package. They have 2 lower level seats in Sec 110 that are $51 each seat per game. The season costs approximately $4284 for 42 home games but split 3 ways, it’s $1428 for 2 seats for 14 games. They are considering an upgrade to under the basket, but they won’t know about that until May. So if you’re interested in getting in on this, send me an email so I can hook you up with him.

Shaun Powell of NBA.com looks at if the Thunder are too young to win: ”They can win 50 games, make the playoffs, enjoy first-round home-court advantage and suit up the NBA’s leading scorer and MVP and still have zero chance at winning a championship. Such is life for the Oklahoma City Thunder, who must settle for a nice little run, a few playoff crumbs and a pat on the head for a job well done, all because the basketball gods have already declared them too weak, as in years, to carry the trophy.” Read more…

Bolts

Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images

BOX SCORE

This game secretly worried me. A big tilt against Denver was on the horizon, the Kings aren’t a marquee opponent and the Thunder had cruised fairly easily in their last two. There was a lot of reason to come out unfocused, uninspired and unready.

And they were guilty of all three. On one end, at least.

The Thunder didn’t bring the calling-card defensive intensity they’ve become known for tonight, allowing the Kings to 107 points on 54 percent shooting. But the offense was clicking once again, keyed by Russell Westbrook’s 30 points and 13 assists and Kevin Durant’s 39 points, as Oklahoma City squeaked one out, 113-107.

There are multiple things to be flustered about from this one if you’re a Thunder fan. The aforementioned defense. The absolute stinker the Thunder bench turned in (15 points, 10 rebounds total). The lapse in focus at times. But the good news is, it’s a win. And when you’re battling for a playoff spot and now playoff seeding, just winning is kind of sort of good enough. OKC didn’t play its best game – far, far from it – but the Thunder had more points than the other guy when the clock read zero and that’s what matters. Read more…

Recap Sacramento Kings

vs.

Sacramento Kings (20-39, 5-25 road) vs. Ok. City Thunder (35-23, 18-11 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 – 106.4 (16th), Kings – 105.6 (20th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.7 (3rd), Kings – 110.3 (27th)
Pace: Thunder – 92.8 (14th), Kings – 94.6 (6th)

View from the enemy: Cowbell Kingdom

We don’t pile into the Ford Center so much anymore to catch a glimpse of a star, but more to see our Thunder in action. And I definitely prefer it that way. But there are certainly some can’t miss guys still. LeBron. Kobe. Wade. Dwight Howard.  And while Tyreke Evans isn’t a superstar (yet) in the mold of LeBron or Kobe, he is absolutely a player you need to admire live. His speed, his size, his ability – everything about his game is fairly breathtaking in person. Seeing Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green is plenty to get me to pay the price of admission, but Tyreke Evans is certainly added incentive. Read more…

Preview Sacramento Kings

Clark Matthews already covered this a few weeks back, but a reader mentioned in the comments an incredible website that calculates your playoff chances and tells you who you should be rooting for or against on a night-to-night basis. It’s quite time-wastingly great.

So obviously, let’s look at the Thunder. For this week, Oklahoma City’s playoff chances improve if on Wednesday  the Thunder beats Denver (obviously), the Kings beat the Rockets, the Clippers beat the Suns and the Pacers beat the Blazers. If all that were to happen, OKC’s playoff odds would jump from 98.1 percent to 99.5. Clearly that could drop down or bump up again the following night, but it’s a cool way to follow the season.

It also has the spiffy chart that calculates based on “What If”. For instance, what if OKC goes 14-10 the rest of the way and finishes with 49 wins. That would give the Thunder a 100 percent chance of being in the playoffs. But what if OKC slides and goes 9-15 to finish. That would give the Thunder just a 66 percent chance at the postseason. There’s actually a 33 percent difference (99 to 66) between OKC finishing 12-12 and 9-15. Read more…

Commentary Playoffs

UPDATE: The Thunder has assigned Byron Mullens and Kyle Weaver to the 66ers.

A second straight month a Thunder player with a strong case for Player of the Month didn’t get it. Carlos Boozer was named Western Conference POM, averaging 21.2 ppg and 13.0 rpg as his team went 10-3. However, he did miss two of those games. Russell Westbrook averaged 18.8 ppg, 10.0 apg and 6.5 rpg as OKC went 9-2. Kevin Durant had a case too, averaging 29.9 ppg and 8.5 rpg.

A couple nice news items though. Scott Brooks was named Coach of the Month in the Western Conference as he led OKC to a 9-2 record. Also, from a press release yesterday, there will be no raise in season ticket prices for Thunder fans. Everything will hold steady. Maybe that means that the organization has no plans to spend big this summer though… Read more…

Bolts

During the DT Party last Friday night, I got into an interesting discussion with regular commenter Osano-Whoa about how he had previously never really followed basketball or the NBA all that much and felt like it was pretty cool how he and many other fans were growing in the game alongside the Thunder’s young nucleus when it came to the finer points of the game of basketball and the NBA’s unique nuances as well.

The reason this struck me as something noteworthy is because I personally have always watched the NBA as long as I can remember (I think a certain #23 pretty much cemented my love of the game back in the 80′s and 90′s during my formative hoop years) and so this experience of someone’s eyes being opened to an entirely new existence of sport and professional competition seemed pretty special to me as well because I think we can all remember back to a time when we were first handed a ball (either seamed, pigskin, round, etc) and took our first step into that joyful experience of playing a game that we love.

But despite there being a difference between individuals who have watched the NBA for quite awhile and people who only started once the Thunder (or even Hornets) arrived, there is one thing that neither group has experienced: Playoff basketball. And even though I run the risk of jinxing this team, with only 24 games remaining left to play and the Thunder sporting a 5 game lead over the 9th place New Orleans Hornets, this new experience of sport SHOULD be on the horizon and in the Thunder’s future. Read more…

Commentary

I’ve long attempted to avoid much mention of any playoff talk, mainly because I don’t want to be Mr. Jinxy. But now at 35-23 and sitting firmly in sixth in the West, this is getting serious. Not just “Oh I hope we make the playoffs!” serious, but like, “Let’s get a good seed so we might be able to do some damage” serious.

Now I’m not getting ahead of myself. I still feel like a five-game losing streak could be lurking around every corner. Something that rhymes with schmimjury could happen at any time. The NBA season is a marathon and we’re just over 65 percent done. So don’t start booking hotels and plane tickets quite yet.

But looking at John Hollinger’s Playoff Odds today, Oklahoma City has a 97.2 percent chance of getting into the postseason. But that’s not the best part. As it stands today, the Thunder has a 10.2 percent chance of getting to the motherflipping NBA Finals. That’s a similar percentage to Denver, Phoenix, Miami, Atlanta and better than Boston, Dallas and San Antonio. I’ll pause for you to re-attach your jaw to your face. Read more…

Commentary Oklahoma City Thunder

From SI’s Truth and Rumors: “Anyone who can handle simple addition knows that the Oklahoma City Thunder don’t have a great deal of freedom to pull in a big-time free agent this off-season. But for all those Thunder fans who didn’t want to believe their calculators, a salary cap wizard was happy to end any speculation for them. Bosh will be eligible to make over $16.6 million and the Thunder are expected to have no more than $12 million in cap room this summer. Bosh is seen as being a good chemistry fit with the Thunder however, and is from Dallas, which has sparked the rumors that he may take less money to head there. But clearly not that much less.”

Let me present Russell Westbrook’s case for February Player of the Month: 18.8 ppg, 10 apg, 6.5 rpg, only 2.3 turnovers a game, shot 46 percent from the field and his team went 9-2. Read more…

Bolts