I was in the Thunder’s locker room an hour before tip-off in a Western Conference semifinal Game 7. I stood there for a minute, looking at every player sitting in their chair next to their locker. I was trying to get a good sense of what the feel was. What the players might be thinking, how they were feeling. I know that I was so nervous that I needed to carry around a barfbag all day, but 60 minutes to tip, those guys were ice cold.
Joking, laughing and chatting just like it was a December game against the Raptors coming at them. The arena was filled with about as much nervous tension as it could possibly have, but the Thunder were all business. Just a quiet intensity. A reasoned focus. This was the biggest game of any of their lives — a Game 7 in the Western Conference semifinals for crying out loud — and they weren’t about to get tight. They were playing at home in front of their people which meant everything was going to be fine.
And they had Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden. In order to beat the Grizzlies, the Thunder were going to need something big from at least one. Two, and things would look good. But all three? The Thunder are darn near unbeatable. Harden hit three straight 3s in the third and finished with 17 off the bench. Russell Westbrook put up the first triple-double in a Game 7 since Scottie Pippen in 1992 (14 points, 14 assists and 10 rebounds). And KD, well, he was KD. Read more…
I’m not sure there’s anything that anyone can say that will take the edge off. This is Game 7. This is big time.
At this point, we definitely know the matchups, we know the adjustments, we know what it takes. I think the Thunder’s a more talented team. Actually, I’m pretty sure I know that. But are they the better team? That’s to be decided today. Read more…
Many of us predicted it, but it still feels a little overwhelming. Game 7 is upon us. Thank God its in OKC! Thank God KD will never play that bad twice in a row!
In Deep Thoughts, TGR recaps Game 6 and looks at some keys to a victory in game 7. We also talk about how Disney is on crack when it comes to parenting.
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You knew it wasn’t going to come easy. For a little while there, it looked like it just might. The Thunder revved up the offense and really appeared to be taking total control of the game, holding a 13-point lead with a few seconds to go before halftime.
Then Shane Battier hit a wild buzzer-beating 3. And then the Grizzlies poured it on the Thunder.
Oklahoma City held a 10-point lead at halftime, but Memphis carried over Battier’s 3 for a 9-0 run and held the Thunder to just 29 second half points. OKC just had no rhythm offensively. The defense was good enough to win. But scoring 29 in a half just doesn’t cut it. There’s a lot of blame to go around, but I’m actually putting this one on Scott Brooks. Here’s why: Not that Brooks would ever make an in-game adjustment, such as alter his second half starting five, but it was obvious that Lionel Hollins’ move of putting O.J. Mayo in the game and having him and Tony Allen defend Russell Westbrook while leaving Mike Conley on Thabo was working. Read more…
This is where you hope past experience really does mean something. Where you hope the Thunder learned, developed and evolved a bit. Game 4 on the road in Denver with a chance to close, Oklahoma City was right there, but a number of elements prevented the Thunder from finishing it out. It was on the road against a team with a ton of pride and good home crowd. It was tough. Read more…
Did you know “Top Gun” was released 25 years ago Monday? Seems like only yesterday that I wore out my VHS copy of that movie when I dreamed about being a Navy aviator. Alas … I’m not.
As it turns out, there are plenty of famous “Top Gun” lines that apply to the Thunder’s postseason run so far. (And for the record, the kindergarten-ish version of myself disagrees with the IMDb average rating for “Top Gun” of 6.6 out of 10 stars. To this day, I stick with my original rating of about 14 out of 10.) Read more…
Holly MacKenzie of TBJ on Russell Westbrook: “In other words, I think we’ve been kind of unfair with respect to how we’ve criticized the play of Westbrook during this postseason. It’s easy to do and it makes sense if you’ve only watched a handful of Thunder games this season, or glance quickly at a stat sheet. As with everything else in life, the easy way isn’t always the right way. It’s not fair to Westbrook to paint him as problem child when dissecting Thunder losses, then forget about our arguments when discussing Thunder victories.”
John Hollinger of ESPN.com with his breakout playoff players: “In the Memphis series, Harden has proved particularly valuable as a ball handler. He has 21 assists in five games, including 17 in the three Oklahoma City wins, and although his jumper has betrayed him, his ability to get to the free throw line has provided a nice boost. Harden has made all 24 free throw attempts against Memphis and for the postseason has earned 48 trips on just 68 field goal attempts.” Read more…
For a second straight year, the NBA’s scoring champion was named first team All-NBA as Kevin Durant joins Dwight Howard, Derrick Rose, LeBron James and Kobe Bryant on the team.
Durant gathered 69 first team votes and 492 points, which is the lowest of the five. All-NBA teams are voted on by the media.
Russell Westbrook was named to the All-NBA second team after a major breakout season. Westbrook joins Dwyane Wade, Pau Gasol, Dirk Nowitzki and Amare Stoudemire. Westbrook also had the lowest total on the second team, barely edging Chris Paul.
The third team is Paul, LaMarcus Aldridge, Zach Randolph, Al Horford and Manu Ginobili.
Kendrick Perkins also received a couple votes, which is pretty ridiculous considering he played only 23 games this season. Read more…
John Hollinger of ESPN.com on Nick Collison: “This stat can be a little “noisy” in single seasons, but using data from multiple seasons makes it even easier to identify the most successful players. Combine the data from the past two seasons and rummage through the list of names for those who were in the top 15 in both seasons, and you’ll get four players who represent the cream of the NBA crop — LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Nick Collison and Dwight Howard. Wait, wait, whoooooaaa there … what was that second-to-last name again? Did you say Nick Collison? The guy who averages 4.6 points and 4.5 rebounds? THAT Nick Collison??!?!?! Believe it.”
David Roth of GQ with a profile in obscurity: “That being Oklahoma City, the city where Ivey has continued to cement his status as the most important third-string point guard you’ve never thought about. Like Ivey, OKC is something of an afterthought—a city that was never supposed to have a NBA team, a city whose best restaurant is generally agreed to be a Golden Corral and whose zoo’s prime attraction, a chimp named Mwami, keeps escaping his enclosure, as if even he would rather be in Tulsa.” Read more…
After Game 4, I think most of us said something like, “Man, I don’t think I can take another one of those.” So in Game 5, the Thunder took care of us. They ended it in three quarters, not overtimes.
The Thunder straight up ran over the Grizzlies in the most pivotal game of the series. The first quarter was close, but after that, it was on. This team flipped something on and basically dump-trucked Memphis for three quarters.
The defense was spectacular, the Thunder shot the lights out, the energy never wavered and in the end, Oklahoma City took the biggest game in the series 99-72 to take a 3-2 series lead. I’m not sure I could really pinpoint a moment the game turned, but the Thunder certainly appeared to be the team with the energy. It was probably the home crowd that lifted them up, but the Grizzlies just had an unfocused look about them. They missed a ton of layups, went 14-23 from the line and between Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol, Memphis only got 24 points and 12 rebounds. Credit the Thunder defense for sure, but the Grizzlies didn’t appear ready for the punch the Thunder threw. And when it connected, they just wilted. Read more…
Forget the teams and actual players, how do we bounce back from Game 4? The game lasted somewhere around four hours in real time, 63 minutes in game time and saw players in each starting five play 55 or more minutes. It was a complete drain, and with only a day off in between, the question is all about energy. Who’s got it? Read more…
If I approached you in October and gave you a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that the the Thunder’s path to the Western Conference finals was a best-of-three series with home-court advantage against the Grizzlies and a best-of-seven without home-court advantage against the Mavericks, you’d take it, right?
Yes. A thousand times yes. And that’s why it would be a shame if the Thunder blew its golden opportunity to play for the conference championship, and perhaps even the NBA title. Read more…
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop on Russell Westbrook: “Kevin Durant has notably better efficiency with notably lower usage than his teammate. There’s also just something about seeing the point guard dribble up, pass not even one time, and take a shot. You only get so many of those before the basketball gods get antsy. Realize this is no condemnation of Westbrook, a wonderful young player. Just a “things to work on” kind of note. The point is merely that if his three or four toughest shots per game were, instead, passes, then the Thunder’s offense would be better.”
Shoals with more on Westbrook: “Then there’s Westbrook, who lives in some alternate dimension halfway between the Thunder’s nerdy virtuosity and the Grizzlies‘ unhinged defiance. The question may not be is Westbrook bad for Durant, but do Russell’s teammates even really understand him anymore? It’s entirely possible that Westbrook may be an altogether more ambitious kind of ball-hog, one whose differences with the team are philosophical, not personal. And in that, they’re more of a problem than ever.” Read more…
Have you caught your breath yet? Better yet, are you breathing period?
Just like Game 5 against Denver, last night’s game was the kind of thing you’re going to talk about with friends the rest of your life. It wasn’t just the best Thunder game in history, it was maybe of the all-time playoff games in NBA history.
This tweet to me from @struts10 summed it all up to me: “Just heard a noise from the kids room, my six-year-old was up that whole time watching his Thunder win in 3OT.” Seriously, that says everything to me right there. These moments, we’ll remember. All of it’s just so awesome.
And in a game like that there are about 200 hundred “moments” that are memorable, unbelievable and heartbreaking. As a fan, these are the games that truly put you to the test. The players have the luxury of actually playing. We just have to sit on our hands and watch. It’s excruciating.
In a game that lasted more than four hours, there were twists, turns, ups, downs, big plays, small plays, middle plays and so many crazy moments that you forgot about because they happened in the first quarter and that was so, so long ago. So here are my top 10. Read more…
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