Thunder cling to two point win over Nets, 104-102
Layne Murdoch Jr./NBAE/Getty Images
Boy am I glad this one is over and there’s a “W” in the good column instead of a “I want to bash my head in because I can’t believe they lost” in the bad column (what, there was a couple “L’s” in that sentence). This was one of the most anticlimactic games I can remember that I was waiting for the Thunder to blow open and they never did, letting the Nets hang around…and hang around…and then absolutely frighten me in the last few minutes.
The Thunder were in control from the get-go and never really looked like they might let this one slip through their fingers until there was, oh, about a minute and a half left to go, which is not exactly the time you want to be caught looking ahead to Sunday’s HUGE matchup with the Jazz.
When you’re up 15 points with 6:35 left in the fourth quarter and you only win by 2 points at the final buzzer, you know the old attention span waned a bit in the final period.
But if you watched this game, you kind of got the feeling that is exactly what the Thunder were doing as it seemed like everyone not named Jeff Green and Kevin Durant were kind of just going through the motions, doing just enough to ensure a victory.
Speaking of Jeff Green, what a performance. 27 points on 11-16 shooting (going 3-4 from deep) with 6 rebounds, 3 steals, 2 assists and 1 block. He pretty much carried the Thunder for long stretches in the first and second halves when the offense went stagnant (aka, Kevin Durant and/or Russell Westbrook were out).
The Nets played well for the most part but the majority of their starting unit other than Devin Harris and Brook Lopez also looked like they were going through the motions, which we all know can happen when you just find more ways to lose than win in a difficult season.
So how did this game end up being so close? Well, it really came down to two things: Bench scoring and Turnovers (yes, Westbrook, I’m talking about you). First things first, this was one of Westbrook’s sloppiest games handling the ball I’ve ever seen. I counted four separate occasions where he was dribbling the ball and it literally just slipped out of his hands and kept on bouncing. Yes, he still got 11 points, 10 assists and 4 rebounds, but when you factor in his 9 TURNOVERS, those 10 assists don’t look so hot. If he had held onto the ball then this would have been an A score for game management and being a floor general.
Second of all, this team desperately missed James Harden coming off of the bench. I thought Kyle Weaver definitely looked like he hadn’t played in the NBA in quite a few months (though his -20 was a bit of a shock) but he definitely brought effort, it’s just that his effort is nowhere near the same impact as Harden’s. Had he not picked up a personal foul and one assist with two missed shots, he would have had a very impressive zeros across the board, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen from a player earning 10 minutes of burn in a professional game.
Still don’t believe me that they missed Harden? The Thunder’s bench was outscored 53-20. All of the Nets starters had negative +/- and all but one of the Nets reserves had positive +/-. Translation: the Thunder’s bench got abused and just didn’t have the offensive firepower to fight back. I thought beforehand that people were undervaluing what Harden brings to the table and how much of an impact him being unavailable would be for the next four weeks, but I’m beginning to think that even that mindset might be something of an understatement itself.
All in all though, it can be hard to get up for a game against the potentially worst NBA team of all time so let’s just thank our lucky stars that Jeff Green had a monster game and Kevin Durant is simply awesome, finishing the game out with 32 points on 10-21 shooting and 12 rebounds.
- I think Russ has fallen in love with the long distance bounce pass in transition a little too much. But that being said, how sweet was his leading bounce pass to Thabo who as running full tilt in the first quarter?!
- Speaking of that play, I thought Thabo was going to bend in half when he hit the ground…and he almost did. So props to T-Bone for his flexibility.
- James. Harden’s. Bow-tie. Nothing more need be said. I almost cried it was so beautiful.
- Krstic had a very effective game in the post for the Thunder. 10 points on 4-6 shooting and 8 boards in only 28 minutes against mainly Brook Lopez. I wasn’t blown away but I was definitely impressed with how he handled himself on both ends of the court in the post.
- I’d like to thank the Nets for not playing transition defense in the first quarter. That really helped the Thunder’s offense get going and I’m pretty sure the majority of their 20 Fast break points came in that quarter, which ultimately helped them stay ahead in the end.
- Brian Davis and Grant Long photos from their early years. Don’t ask me why, but I always think it’s kind of fun to see how people looked when they were little. Oh, but apparently Davis went through a de-freckling phase in puberty…Um yeah, I have no idea either.
- Finally, I’d like to congratulate Kevin Durant on his 36th 30-point game of the season, breaking the Seattle/OKC franchise’s record for most 30 point games in a season. Something tells me this is only the beginning for Durant etching his name in the record books (MAX CONTRACT JULY 1! <Ehem>)
Most importantly of all, the Recap losing streak jinx is over!!!! I don’t have to feel guilty about the Thunder losing when I do recaps! Woo-hoo!
Okay so the win is most important as the Thunder hit the 40 win mark and moved into SOLE ownership of the fifth seed in the Western Conference, especially with the Jazz losing at Milwaukee tonight and now being only 1 1/2 games up on the Thunder going into Sunday’s gigantic matchup, but I still feel happy that I’m not some kind of DT Recap bad luck charm, too.
Bring on the Jazz! Bring on a game with HUGE playoff implications! How exciting is this getting, huh?
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.
Check…check…check…all night with this check….
Sorry had to.
Harden is a future 6th Man of the Year award winner. Thunder don’t need his scoring in the starting lineup, but they desperately need his bench scoring. Bringing Thabo off the bench would do absolutely nothing to help this team win.
Rounders. LOL.
To the defense of Russel, he was victim of a “pan hand” pandemic tonight, but I agree… not his most calculated or efficient game.
If the Thunder win Sunday they will be only a 1/2 game behind the Jazz, picking up a game on them with the potential victory.
if i send my shawn kemp vhs tapes to OKC, will one of you guys try to get it to serge ibaka for me?
@cwilson
With a win, the Thunder would still be a half game behind Utah. On another note, Kirilenko left tonights game with a calf injury
How did Humphries look? He’s a guy I would consider taking a look at if Collison got traded. Did he look like he would be worth signing?
And I want pictures of Harden’s bow tie.
@Vega
Check the DT twitter
KD’s shoes http://twitpic.com/188s5m/full Harden’s tie with a Green assist
http://twitpic.com/188hwo/full and Weaver’s form http://twitpic.com/188iey
I knew I was an idiot! Thanks.
Boy you can see a lot of what’s wrong with Weaver’s jumper from that picture. First, his off-hand thumb. It’s turned at the basket. It should be extended out, either up or away from the bucket.
Next, he’s completely tensed in his shoulders. His head is slightly tilted back, offsetting his balance. That makes him lean back a little on the jumper, which is a big reason he’s short so often on his shots. His follow-through on his shooting hand is good, but there’s too much distance with his off-hand from his shooting hand. A lot of times this means someone is using their off-hand to shoot the ball a little too much.
I’m no David Thorpe of mechanical expert, but that’s what I see from it.
Big loss by the Jazz going into tomorrow. A win on Sunday and the fourth seed and homecourt advantage against the Jazz will actually be in reach…
*clapping* Royce Young ladies and gentlemen *still clapping*
Yeah, the one you heard about on the “Home of Thunder basketball” The Sports Animal!!! LOL
I think it was funny that we were wondering what type of scoring would come from our second unit, and it turns out we need to worry about defense with them. Also I wish they would have ran some sets for jeff green in the fourth. I know durant is our star and he needs the ball, but jeff was hot and had quite a mismatch I thought. But I hope the team just got disinterested after they got up with a decent lead and the big game coming up, and this not be a troubling sign. we’ll see then…
@Vega
No thank you to Humphries. Even if Collison is gone, I’m not sure Humphries would get more minutes than DJ has so far and I know he’d be behind DJ in that scenario.
And more importantly, with 3 wins in the series, even if we lose the last game to them, we’ll own the tiebreaker.
win on sunday moves us into 4th place.
jeff green brought some predator skills tonight
“I thought Kyle Weaver definitely looked like he hadn’t played in the NBA in quite a few months (though his -20 was a bit of a shock) but he definitely brought effort, it’s just that his effort is nowhere near the same impact as Harden’s. Had he not picked up a personal foul and one assist with two missed shots, he would have had a very impressive zeros across the board, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen from a player earning 10 minutes of burn in a professional game.”
It’s my opinion that the only solution is for Weaver to grow a beard. Have him take to Harden for tips.
No, the Thunder would still have one fewer win than the Jazz after a win on Sunday, which is why they’d be a half game back of the 4th seeded Jazz.
@J.G.
Okay. Now that that has been clarified, we can restart the Rhino Smith bandwagon.
Just call me Captain Threadstopper. Seriously. Every time I post in an entry, everyone else stops posting.
SAS, the joke about Weaver and the beard was excellent. Bravo.
@J.G.
oh yeah you are right
Wouldn’t it still be a two game swing? They’d pick up a loss, and the Thunder would pick up a win.
@Vince
Thanks, I thought it was pretty good too.
In looking at the game a couple of hours after the fact, I suppose the thing to take away from it is to look at who stepped up when it was crunch time and we could have thrown it away and lost: KD and Russ (who, admittedly, played very poorly the rest of the game). It’s going to be crucial for them to step up and lead the team in closing minutes like this if we’re to have any success in the playoffs. This is the sort of game that KD can use to solidify (as if he needs to) his status as the Thunder go-to guy at the end of a game. Russ came up clutch reasonably well too, I thought. And it was very refreshing to see Green notch up points in his best KD impersonation. I was hoping to see them get into a shooting match to see who scored more.
@Anonymous
Yes, but they’d still have a win ahead of us, so we’d be a half game back
If we win Sunday:
Utah: 42-24
OKC: 41-24
@Anonymous
It would be a two game swing, technically, if they had played the same amount of games. If the Thunder were to win on Sunday, their record improves to 41-24 [that was fun to type!], and the Jazz fall to 42-24. They have one more win and a couple tenths of a percentage point on us.
More Green on the post up… His “baby hook” is coming along nicely.
oh wait, this wasn’t our 10th straight loss?
I must be reading only the gameday threads…
jokes aside, it was an ugly, ugly win, but the team is in an incredible situation if we win against Utah.
Someone forgot the box score.
Defensive Breakdown
Yawn. I was disappointed. Yes, the fact that we needed all forty eight minutes to beat the Nets was sad, but I was more disappointed that we didn’t get to see more of Weaver, and that we didn’t get to see DJ White AT ALL. I wanted something new. I do like to score the game defensively, but it gets old when you know you’re going to see the same thing over and over:
• Westbrook switching off Harris on nearly every possession in the 4th quarter
• Ibaka being overeager on getting shot blocks
• Durant and Green having rebounding issues
There is no way the game should have been this close. It really boggles the mind.
Nenad Krstic (+11)
Krstic had a great defensive game, and it wasn’t necessarily his defense against Brook Lopez. The Nets (for whatever reason) don’t post him up much – I only have one entry where the two were matched up in the post together (and Lopez shot) and Krstic forced a miss. But being a center is more about team defense. For example, Krstic successfully contested three of point guard Devin Harris’s shots. He also forced Trenton Hassell to commit a turnover on the baseline. Nenad committed one mistake – a defensive three second call. Meanwhile the heir apparent, Serge Ibaka (at least in the minds of some of the commenters on here) committed two major ones that directly led to five points for the Nets.
Thabo Sefolosha (+10)
Here’s another guy that brought his “A” game. He only made one mistake (a shooting foul on Terrence Williams in the 4th quarter). Thabo used his thirty minutes on the floor well, as he racked up five contests, two deflections, and two blocks.
Jeff Green (+6)
Jeff Green had a decent game, which is customary unless he has to guard a four with skill in the post (David West, Zach Randolph, etc). He usually plays very good pick and roll defense, but he whiffed on one early in the first quarter. The ball was out high with Devin Harris (Westbrook). Brook Lopez (Krstic) was the screener, while Josh Boone (Green) was on the left wing. We see this all day – Krstic comes up to help with the guard, so it’s a four on three for the rest of the team. We usually do a great job helping. But on this play, Green is supposed to help in the lane with Lopez. But instead, he stays out to protect against the pass to Boone. Boone is NOT an outside shooter (he has attempted ZERO threes on the year). Meanwhile Lopez is averaging a team high nineteen points per game. Again, Green really does a good job in this situation (most of the time). Well, on this play Green chose Boone and left the lane open. Lopez finishes with a dunk at the rim.
Nick Collison (+3)
Kevin Durant (+2)
Kyle Weaver (+1)
He didn’t get to do much. But I saw what I expect from Weaver, he does a very good job of getting around picks. Westbrook: please take note.
Eric Maynor (-1)
Maynor got lit up by Keyon Dooling; so much that Maynor got lifted in the second quarter even earlier than usual.
Russell Westbrook (-3)
Serge Ibaka (-4)
Ibaka had a miscue in pick and roll defense. Maynor was guarding Dooling. Kris Humphries (Ibaka) was the screener. Maynor fell into the pick, so Ibaka was on his own against Dooling, who was behind the three point line. Before last night’s game, Dooling had made forty-three three pointers on the year (at 36%). He can’t be left alone. Meanwhile, Ibaka was worried about Humphries, who averages seven points per game. Not only that, the Thunder’s shell defense would have taken care of Humphries anyway. It’s an easy call – Ibaka should have forced Dooling to put the ball on the floor. Instead, he gives Dooling plenty of room, and he watches Dooling swish a three. It was even more comical when I watched the very next play. This time, Josh Boone (Collison) was the screener. Collison correctly came out to slow Dooling – long enough for Maynor to catch up. Meanwhile Boone rolled into the lane and was bottled up by the help.
This is a clear example of Ibaka’s lack of basketball IQ. Hopefully it will improve as he plays basketball more; but right now it’s not good.
I was bored so I went through the pregame comments to see what people thought of the close game . . .
More than one said that Weaver had a bad game. So I rewatched his ten minutes. I didn’t see one mistake. I don’t know what people want. He stayed in front of Williams the whole time.
I guess all eyes were on him due to Harden was out. He is not Harden (on offense). He wont be able to make up Harden’s points on the defensive end. Again, if you think I missed something, please let me know – I’m open to criticism.
Also Justin, Weaver’s -15 means very little to me. The +/- stat (IMO) is not useful because it contains too many variables.
@Royce Young
Shawn Marion thinks your shot form breakdown of Weaver is spot on.
@Kev
I wasn’t as disappointed with Weaver on defense as I was on offense. We barely scored with that second unit, and if Weaver can’t function on offense how does he fit on this team with Thabo here? I know he’s been out and he’ll have a lot of opportunity to prove himself with Harden hurt so hopefully it’s just rust.
And I agree with others that he just looked slow on defense. I’ll take your word for it that he played well on defense though because I don’t want to have to watch this game again.
The Utah game will be a measuring stick, they move the ball a lot and he’ll have to play some help and close out, etc..
@Kev
For me, it was constantly watching Weaver’s man just run by him with the ball at half court and Weaver struggling to keep pace. I don’t know why he struggled last night (though I did toss out a couple of reasons up above and had another added to the list). Hopefully, playing at this level will be something he can take to practice and get more up to speed with the game by Sunday.
I don’t think anything has changed – he is not a scorer. We knew that last year – just because Harden is out, doesn’t mean that he’s gong to suddenly stop scoring . . . he’s a good 10th/11th man to have for these injury situations . . .
Ibaka, Westbrook, and Maynor all looked worse than Wesbtrook on defense, I guess that’s why I’m puzzled by why Weaver’s play is getting so much attention . . .
@Kev
Nenad was the man. I couldn’t believe he forced a miss when Harris had him on ISO on one of the last plays of the game.
agree . . .
According to new data released at 82 games Durant is 12th highest in the league in total points per minute in the “clutch” (4th quarter or overtime, less than 5 minutes left, neither team ahead by more than 5 points), 15th in FG attempts… and probably somewhere between 60-75th on clutch shooting efficiency.