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I meant nuggets. Oops

I'm not gonna be able to take another first round loss to the nuggers in the playoffs. I almost quit watching basketball after mutumbo was on the floor of key arena after that game 5.

@justin

well, the reason would be that harden has played so well with the second unit you'd still like to get him some minutes there. can durant and westbrook adjust to another ballhandler? green wasn't much of one. I don't think sefolosha would bring much to the table on the second unit as guarding inferior offensive players would negate much of his value. I'm curious what your ideal rotation would be.

Harden spent too much time this game jacking 3s as well, and i always want KD to go in the paint more. prob would have been called for an offensive on Blake Golden God Griffin tho

Durant with a more intelligent breakdown of the game then Scoot Brooks.. not sure if that's a good or bad thing

At times like this I wish Durant was more like Kobe in post game press conferences

justin :
I really did not think we’d lose this game though. The obvious dagger was the Eric Gordon three defended so well by Thabo.

yeah same here. it reminds me of the toronto game. except we slept the whole game that time. i never thought we would lose. then Perk missed 2 FTs and yep, we lost an unnecessary game.

Average number of FTAs has been off some for the full period since the trade (Justin had those stats recently) but closer to normal in last 10.

% of Thunder games with 30+ FTAs is down from 48% before the trade to 30% since.

There was some concern moving from Krstic-Green to Perkins-Ibaka about greater clogging in the lane or other impacts. It is still early to know where the FTA numbers will settle but there may be some of that going on.

When we went up 86-81 I thought we'd finally pull away, but we just kept letting them back in it. Also, our record of winning going into the 4th takes a hit

@bosco

Durant and Westbrook did not have this problem with Jeff Green a lot of the time. There's no excuse not to start Harden, there's really no reason at all not to do it.

I really did not think we'd lose this game though. The obvious dagger was the Eric Gordon three defended so well by Thabo.

I still think thabo can start. the issue is the minutes played. I don't mind staggering the lineups a bit and getting harden in with the second unit. I'd just have harden always checking in between 4 and 6 minutes into the halves, 7 or 8 minute mark. the execution down the stretch has been so poor with sefolosha not even in. durant and westbrook have trouble thinking about a third option when they are on the floor together. they really don't want harden getting those touches that make him effective. brooks has to find a way to make that work.

we lead or were practically even in every single statistical category except for shooting percentage from the floor.. obviously the offense lost us this game.. 9 points for RW on 1-13 shooting, and he fouled out.. Brooks should require him to pick up 5 assists before he even makes a shot attempt

It's time for a coaching change. These guys are old enough to deal with a coach that won't coddle them and will hold them accountable. The fact that they're young gets used as an excuse for poor execution and decision making. Hey the spurs were a young team once upon a time and Pop molded them into a champ and didn't baby them. If you're not a strong x's and o's coach and you can't motivate enough to cover that up anymore then where does that leave you?

Bitter-sweet sports days the last two days. Stoked for my Rangers but then the Thunder let me down. If the sports gods won't let me have a win by both then I'm definitely hoping the Rangers lose on Tuesday because a Thunder win is much more crucial right now.

ChilamBilam12 :@justin

Its not that i in any way feel like we lost some irreplaceable player in Green, just that we seemed a lot more offensively balanced when he was on the floor.. which if i really think about it, is only because Westbrook and Durant chose to get him the ball in position to score.. something they don’t do for Harden, and something that Thabo can’t do period.. it has improved us defensively without question, and i love having Perk on the floor.. i just can’t put my finger on what is missing

Yes, correct floor balance is missing. The solution is to start Harden and get him integrated into the lineup so that Durant and Westbrook are used to him like they were used to Green. Brooks is too scared to make changes to the status quo, though. He's not going to do it.

MartzMimic :
And while there were certainly defensive lapses, it’s been offense in the second half that’s killed the Thunser these past two games.

Not quite.

Against Portland the offense was great but unsustainable in the first half, and the defense was poor. So the Thunder really couldn't take advantage of a terrific offensive half and take the kind of lead they should have taken. Second half? Offense comes down to Earth (predictably) and the defense isn't good enough to make up for it, but it wasn't horrible.

Tonight the defense was great but unsustainable in the first half, and the offense was poor. Nine turnovers, sloppy play. The Thunder held the Clippers to 77 points per 100 possessions in the first half or so, but only had a 10 point lead to show for it. Second half? Defense comes back down to Earth (predictably) and the offense isn't good enough to make up for it.

They're playing too loose and not taking advantage of good runs. They don't know the value of possessions, and the game plan offensively even when the right pieces are out there is is terrible.

Because if it was no big deal I say screw it and throw Nate in!!! See if he can get some chemistry going!

@Skeletor
I like this. A lot.

I mean the Star Spangled Banner

@dylan

Because he helps out little girls when they forget words to the Pledge of Allegiance

Eddie Martel earned the starting spot by being an all-pro quarterback with two superbowl rings, but Gene Hackman still went with Shane Falco. lol

@justin
Its not that i in any way feel like we lost some irreplaceable player in Green, just that we seemed a lot more offensively balanced when he was on the floor.. which if i really think about it, is only because Westbrook and Durant chose to get him the ball in position to score.. something they don't do for Harden, and something that Thabo can't do period.. it has improved us defensively without question, and i love having Perk on the floor.. i just can't put my finger on what is missing

I still think Brooks just needs the right assistant coaches, and very specific instructions that he should take their advice with considerable weight when determining lineups.

I've joked about him starting Maynor at PG before, but games like @GS remind me why that is a bad idea

Skeletor :
I’m all for him letting Brooks go and promoting Mo Cheeks

tell me one thing about mo cheeks that makes you think he would be better than scott brooks

I'm all for him letting Brooks go and promoting Mo Cheeks

Here is hoping Thomas... I agree 100% with you.. Anybody know what his family issue was yesterday? Could that be affecting him... Not wanting to give him excuses but maybe there is a lot going on distracting him? May have been nothing at all but was curious if anybody knew

We still want the Nuggets to beat LA. We will keep the 4, but we don't LA as the 1.

And while there were certainly defensive lapses, it's been offense in the second half that's killed the Thunser these past two games.

If Presti has to trade pieces away to get the head coach to make right decisions that should tell him something

lol, and Brooks yet again.. "well we just got outplayed".. really?. let me know something i didn't get from watching the game first hand

I cant believe, a terrible loss

Now, the guys need win the Nuggets in the 2 games

WHY NOT NATION :
Brooks should start Royal Ivey as a wake up call. Earn your spot kind of thing.

he earned it by oh i dunno, being an all-star

Don't even remind me of the Bulls. With good coaching we could be the Bulls

dragonbug82 :
@osano-whoa
3 is a lot in my mind lol. but yes, since its closer to playoffs the refs are …being shady at best. its like they know that if durant or westbrook got to the line all the times they deserved to it would be 15-20 point blow outs.

Well, we also got some gifts over the last month that nobody is mentioning. Over the course of a season a few game will have calls that go disproportionately one way or the other, it just happens we had a few close together. And really in all 3 games we should have won in spite of any disadvantage from one sided calls. We're a much better team than the Clippers and Portland, and we should have played better.

@ChilamBilam12

Green was worse than anything we've got now, of course the trade was the best option at the deadline. It shifted a problem to SG though and our coach doesn't really know how to deal with it, just like he did not know how to deal with the problem in the front court.

I'm thinking Presti will have to trade Thabo in order for Brooks to quit starting him.

the team looks disinterested. not even trying to run good offense. when you factor in durant, westbrook, and harden combine to shoot 14 for 47 you're probably going to lose. I'm really curious to see how the team responds in the denver games when a lot is on the line. they've looked especially unfocused and undisciplined the last two games. and that starts up top with brooks. let's hope they don't make a habit of it. we'll find out a lot about this team in the next three games. and I really think sefolosha should never see the floor in crunch time again.

Skeletor :
Stop blaming the refs people. We sucked it up and shot this game away as well as our inability to play defense. WE can D up Miami but not Portland and the Clippers

Oh i'm not blaming the refs for this one.. we lost it fair and square with poor play from the floor.. just making the point that when we aren't the team getting the calls, we just don't get the plays to make up for it

Brooks should start Royal Ivey as a wake up call. Earn your spot kind of thing.

Skeletor :
No I will not settle down. Best month in franchise history and now this. I could have had a great night tonight, but I bailed in order to watch the Thunder, and they treat me to this performance. If Brooks says in his press conference again how they just outplayed us, and we were just missing open shots, I’m going to find where he lives and slap him personally.

Quotes like this almost make losses like tonight worth it. Just so funny.

We've only lost 3 games in a row once this year. That is the only thing keeping me from completely losing it, and that was against Spurs, Orlando, and Lakers (understandable). This one against Portland, the Clippers, and Denver will just be a joke

Seriously you do need to chill skeletor... Your overwhelming negativity does absolutely nothing... If you are actually a fan of a team why the hell would you "call" it like that.. You just have to hope they can get it together... No sense in trying to be impressive in predicting the future

PS: i feel like Durant and Westbrook are so used to ignoring Thabo at the 3, that they just forget to look for Harden when he's on the floor.. its the only way i can reason him not touching the ball as soon as Westbrook and KD take the floor.. he literally becomes the invisible man on the starting lineup.. i like Perk, and what he brings to the game defensively.. but i'm really starting to wonder if giving up on Green was our best option at the trade deadline

These guys need more structure and accountability than Brooks will ever give them I'm afraid. Someone needs to call Russ out in that locker room.

WHY NOT NATION :
We really ought to check out the Cavs blogs more often to get some perspective.

this is also true. but in the same breath, we need to go to the Bulls boards and see some other kinds of perspectives.

Did Clay forget to send David Stern a birthday card or something? The officiating this past week has been horrid.

@osano-whoa
3 is a lot in my mind lol. but yes, since its closer to playoffs the refs are ...being shady at best. its like they know that if durant or westbrook got to the line all the times they deserved to it would be 15-20 point blow outs.

There's always the Medieval fair tomorrow to lift everyone's spirits...

Stop blaming the refs people. We sucked it up and shot this game away as well as our inability to play defense. WE can D up Miami but not Portland and the Clippers