Note: There have been some issues lately with the spam plugin I use holding normal posts for moderation. If while you’re chatting tonight that happens, I apologize in advance.
I don’t know what the deal is with Oklahoma City and New Year’s Eve, but it’s something of a tradition now. Well, maybe not a tradition seeing as the Thunder’s just 2-0 since playing here in OKC on Dec. 31. But that’s the key: 2-0. And with a good team in the Hawks coming to town to welcome in 2011, going 3-0 isn’t going to be easy. Read more…
So Bill Simmons showed up at the Thunder-Nets game Wednesday in Oklahoma City. For those of us, myself included, who enjoy Simmons’ columns and podcasts but also want him to fully embrace the Thunder, a reaction of maybe 10 percent of the intensity of the Double Rainbow Guy swept over us.
Why was Simmons here? What did his presence mean? Why does it matter to me and people like me that he was at the Thunder game, and what he thinks about the team and city?
Simmons is the most popular sports columnist in the U.S., and by extension the world. (I’d be surprised for various reasons if China and India, the only two countries more populous than the U.S., have sports columnists as widely read as Simmons.) I suspect that it’s not even close. That also makes him the most polarizing, thanks to the combined natures of sportswriting and popularity.
Readers who don’t like Simmons probably don’t like him for the same reasons readers don’t like other columnists: They don’t like his style, or his opinions, or perceived biases and so on. But many other sportswriters and columnists seem to have a particularly pointed dislike of ESPN.com’s Sports Guy, and it most certainly is the result, in most cases, of jealousy of one kind or another. Common criticisms include charges that he’s not a “real” journalist, mainly because he doesn’t do locker room interviews or face many of the people at whom he takes shots, that he makes too many jokes and that he’s a homer. In reality, those critics within his profession are mostly jealous that he makes more money than they do, that he has more readers than they do, and that he has all that despite writing only once or twice a week and talking mainly to his professional and real-life friends on his podcasts. Read more…
It’s hard to complain about the first two months of Oklahoma City’s season — though many do anyway. The Thunder entered 2010 just four games over .500 on its way to a 50-win season, but enters 2011 well above that mark and appears set to win more than 50 games this year.
Still, there’s plenty of room for improvement. The Thunder could and should make, and stick to, several new year’s resolutions in 2011 that could push it to a top-four seed in the West playoffs. Just like many people look themselves in the mirror on Jan. 1 and say to themselves, “I will do (blank) to become a better person,” Oklahoma City would be well-served to look itself in the mirror and tell itself the following:
1. Serge Ibaka will become a better positional defender.
Ibaka is without a doubt the most intimidating interior presence for the Thunder. But as a positional defender, he is far from being the most effective. Most of Ibaka’s highlight-reel blocks come as he bails out a teammate or stands tall against a face-to-the-basket offensive player who is challenging the rim. Read more…
Shoals has some resolutions for Kevin Durant: “It’s been a blast to watch Russell Westbrook come into his own, and make us ooh and ahh with every other possession. The bottom line, though, is that Durant is this team’s best player, and began this season expected to emerge as one of the league’s true elites. He was supposed to make a leap forward this year after his amazing showing at the Worlds; the Thunder were expected to improve over least season’s inaugural playoff appearance. Durant would become more of a playmaker, initiating the offense more often, and continue to improve as a defender. Well, it’s time he make it happen. As Rob Mahoney pointed out this week, the Thunder’s unremarkable start may just mean that, like the Spurs in the past, they take their time getting it together. Durant has lately started to look more like the player we saw this summer; Christmas Day was certainly a good sign. However, we want to see the MVP candidate we were promised. And, if the Thunder are going to themselves move up in the league’s rankings, they do, too.”
Cole Aldrich has been sent back down to Tulsa. That’s why he was nowhere to been seen last night. Read more…
After one quarter, it was looking like we had a total grind on our hands. The Thunder turned the ball over six times in the first 12 minutes, shot right at 40 percent and struggled their way to 24 points. It was one of the ugliest quarters in weeks. I think we all started having flashbacks of three overtimes.
Things quickly turned around in the second quarter though. One big difference between this game and the last one? Kevin Durant. Having him helps. Some. Well, a lot.
But what really sparked the Thunder into the blowout was they started playing defense, forcing the Nets into long jumpers, which led to long rebounds which led to transition opportunities. Plus, OKC pressed the Nets into 15 first half turnovers which helped the running game. It was really another bench sparked event, led by James Harden who nine in the second quarter and really kicked the Thunder into gear.
After things got settled down and OKC started playing, the Thunder cruised on. Kevin Durant poured in 27 points on 11-19 shooting in only three quarters. Russell Westbrook had 17 and seven assists in just three quarters. The Thunder led by 18 going into the fourth and the bench did its job, extending the cushion out to 25, meaning the starters got a good long rest. Read more…
I feel like I talk about the opportunity for bounce-back all the time. But that’s because the Thunder’s pretty good at it. This season after a loss, the Thunder’s 9-1. That’s seriously good. Read more…
Over the past couple months, we’ve been treated a healthy number of videos and tweets from Kevin Durant’s new “neighbor,” Mathias Murphy. From the beginning it was fairly obvious this was a plot from Nike to draw up some viral chatter and I think was fairly successful.
What started out as some kind of weird thing to try and show how normal Durant is turned into a rather enjoyable series of videos showing off KD’s stuff, his personality and also giving some insight into what makes KD, KD.
Durant’s team has been one of the absolute best at fully embracing the power of social media channels and this campaign just showcased how deft they are. Not only did they get passed all over the place, but through Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, KD’s profile and visibility got raised just a little bit more.
It may have been something intended to just sell more sneakers, but I thought it was all pretty well done.
Lee Jenkins of SI on OKC’s terrific foul shooting: “Last season, the Thunder shot 80.5 percent from the line, breaking Brooks’ barrier. This season, they are shattering every other threshold, leading the NBA with 84.3 percent, on pace to break the all-time record of 83.2 percent set by the Boston Celtics in 1989-90. The most common lament among casual fans is that the modern player cannot shoot free throws, but the Thunder are one of the youngest teams in the league, and they are having no trouble. They did not shoot under 80 percent in a game until the season was a month old. They have shot over 90 percent six times. They sank 33 of 34 against Utah, 28 of 29 against Houston, 35 of 37 against Philadelphia, 25 of 27 against Minnesota. The 22-year-old Durant is shooting 89 percent and the 22-year-old Westbrook is shooting 87 percent, and when Durant misses one, Westbrook calls him Shaq.”
Award talk from USA Today: “For once, the conversation isn’t about Kobe Bryant or Kevin Durant as clear-cut favorites. Bryant has Los Angeles Lakers teammate Pau Gasol and Durant has Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Russell Westbrook sharing the spotlight.” Read more…
The Thunder is a team that’s hard for me to put a finger on. They are on pace to have the highest FT% and highest percent of total points to come from free throws in league history. Whenever a team is on pace to set an NBA record, it by definition is unprecedented, but the Thunder are peculiar in other ways, too. OKC’s top 3 or 4 players are perimeter players that mostly get their points from scoring inside or going to the line, while the big men shoot at a high percentage from outside. Are there any precedents for a team like this, and can we learn anything from these similar teams? That’s what I’m hoping to figure out in this column.
I don’t have the basketball knowledge or memory (or age for that matter) to just watch the Thunder play this season and tell you exactly which team they are most like, especially if you want to look back deep into NBA history. That’s someone else’s forte. I’ll stick with what I know, and that’s the numbers. So, statistically speaking, I’m going to try to determine which teams are most like the 2010-2011 Thunder, and hopefully these comparisons will put some perspective on how the Thunder are doing so far, and what we might expect from them for the rest of the season.
There have been a couple implementations of NBA statistical similarity used in the past. Neil Paine of Basketball-Reference had an article with NBA team similarity scores based on the Four Factors (eFG%, ORB%, FTR, and TOV%. If you don’t know, read the link, it may change your life). The article was pretty great, and his methods seem to produce good results comparing the most important parts of NBA success. However, the Four Factors aren’t everything. They capture the areas of efficiency for a team, but they don’t capture much of how the efficiency happens. For example, eFG% is the most important Four Factor, but there are many different ways to achieve a high eFG%. Good 3-pt shooting, post play, or a fast pace are all common methods to generate a high eFG%, but these playing styles are very different. The thinking is, as a season goes on, and as a team enters the playoffs, certain combinations of strengths and weaknesses could perhaps translate better to success, and the Four Factors method may or may not miss this. Read more…
Zach Lowe of SI looks at the best and worst courts in the league: “Worst: Oklahoma City: The only court in the league that has a blank interior paint, the edges of the paint in one color (yellow) and the half of the circle above the foul line in a different color (Thunder blue). Doesn’t work, perhaps because the shade of blue Oklahoma City uses isn’t deep enough to go well with a bright yellow. The center-court logo is a weird triangular thing that doesn’t scream anything in particular to me. The baseline is nice, though. Build on that.”
Let me throw in my thought on it: Totally agree with Zach. I’ve never liked the Thunder’s court. I hate the use of yellow. OKC has like 14 different team colors so it’s odd to me that they picked yellow as the secondary color to go with the blue. I feel like the Thunder’s court is just so bland. There’s nothing classic about it, nothing interesting. It’s probably my least favorite thing about the franchise. Read more…
Different game, same result. In the first meeting between the Mavericks and the Thunder, Dallas outscored Oklahoma City 36-22 in the fourth quarter by just outclassing the Thunder. They hit shots, played stellar defense, got physical and basically took the Thunder out of their game.
Like I said, different game, same result.
The Mavericks outscored OKC 24-12 in the final frame tonight sans Dirk Nowitzki as Dallas beat the Thunder 103-93. The key stretch in the game came mid-fourth as Dallas went to a zone on the Thunder, which OKC didn’t really solve. The Thunder went almost four minutes without a point, missing outside jumper after outside jumper. A lot of them were solid looks for good shooters. Kevin Durant doesn’t miss that often when he’s open. But they didn’t go down. If they do, this might be different. The way basketball works. Amazing how good an offense can look when shots go in. Read more…
A true opportunity to make another statement for the Thunder. The Mavericks are at the top of the West and are performing as well as anyone. They defend, score and have crunch-time operators. They’re really, really good. But OKC can play with them. OKC can beat them. The Mavs already got the Thunder once in Oklahoma City when the Thunder fell apart in the fourth. Let’s hope for lessons learned. Read more…
This was kind of the topic of discussion in Saturday’s game recap after Oklahoma City’s win over Denver, but I wanted to look a little more closely at Kevin Durant’s work out of the double-team.
Teams have been doubling KD on the catch when he’s posting as well as off the dribble. After his 21-point third quarter, the Nuggets were determined to get the ball out of Durant’s hands. OKC tried to isolate on the wing with Durant, relying on him to either distribute as the double came or score if it didn’t. It worked out pretty well for the Thunder down the stretch and really showcased some more maturity in KD’s ever evolving game. Read more…
The Mavericks have defended Kevin Durant well says Jeff Caplan of ESPN Dallas: “As phenomenal as last season was for Kevin Durant, he still couldn’t extract the one thorn in his side: The Dallas Mavericks‘ defense. Since he entered the league as a rookie with the Seattle SuperSonics through his third season when he emerged as a bona fide MVP candidate with the Oklahoma City Thunder, Durant has put up more bricks against Dallas’ defense than any other in the league — and that’s when the Mavs had been considered only decent defenders. In Durant’s career, he’s averaged fewer than 20 points a game against just two teams — Dallas (18.7) and Orlando (17.6), but he’s played more than twice as many games against the Mavs (11) as the Magic (five). His career field goal percentage is below 40 percent against only two teams, the same two: 37.4 percent (68-of-182) against the Mavs; 37.0 percent (30-of-81) against the Magic.”
Does the Thunder need a rival Darnell Mayberry asks: “So does the Thunder and Oklahoma City need a rival? Having one could boost fan interest even further and turn regular season games against a particular opponent into playoff-like atmospheres. But the Thunder hasn’t had an issue with interest. OKC has sold out 13 of its 16 home games this season.” Read more…
Kevin Durant gave Thunder fans quite the Christmas present tonight, dropping a season-high 44 on the Nuggets in a 114-106 win.
And he did it with just four points in the fourth quarter. Yet, he completely took over the game. How you ask?
As Durant would say, “hockey assist.”
After piling in 40 points through three quarters, including a spectacular 21-point third, Durant looked well on his way to a 50-point night. Or at least on his way to surpassing his career-high of 47. But the Nuggets threw a constant double-team at him every trip down and Durant showed off how much he’s improved. He passed with confidence out of the doubles, moved the ball to open men and found cutters in a position to score. Denver tried to take Durant out of the game by taking the ball out of his hands, but he took over by giving it up. Serious evolutionary stuff here people.
“The only thing I was thinking was ‘hockey assist’,” Durant said after the game. “I just wanted to catch the ball as close as I could to the basket and go from there.”
Of course Durant couldn’t lie after the game though. He looks at the scoreboard. He knew how many points he had. He had 50 on the brain. But he wasn’t going to get greedy on Christmas. He was fine with what he had and the only other present he wanted was a nice Thunder win under his tree.
“Back of my mind I wanted it bad, but I wanted a win worse,” he said. Read more…
vs. 
