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Thunder at Jazz: Pregame Primer

vs.

OKC Thunder (20-6, 11-5 road) at Utah Jazz (13-11, 11-4 home)

TV: ESPN (Cox 29, HD 720) FS OK (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 754)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 9:30 CT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 107.7 (4th), Jazz– 104.9 (10th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.1 (14th), Jazz – 105.0 (21st)
Pace: Thunder – 93.5 (3rd), Jazz – 91.3 (18th)

View from the enemySalt City Hoops

This is a pretty big swing game. Either the Thunder had a successful road trip going 3-2, or it’s a disappointment going 2-3. In fact, stretch it out to this run of eight of nine on the road. A loss makes OKC 5-4 in that stretch, a win 6-3, which would be very good.

The Jazz have overachieved, but they’re also a pretty good team. Al Jefferson and Paul Millsap inside will give the Thunder fits and they have capable outside shooters. The Jazz aren’t a loaded team, but they score a lot in the paint and can get easy baskets.

Utah coming in: Lost at the Pacers Tuesday.

Three Big Things

1. Turnovers.

2. Turnovers.

3. Turnovers.

Tip at 9:30 CT. Go Almost Done With This Road Trip.

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ChilamBilam12 301 pts

i'm gonna go ahead and predict that many of the issues plaguing us as of late are going to fade out once we get Thabo back into the lineup next week.. our outside defense will no doubt improve, our rotations will get back to normal providing our starting lineup with the decisiveness it has been lacking, our second unit will be all but whole once again (as much as it can be without Maynor).. everything that has really taken a hit with the exception of a solution to the turnover issue

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

ChilamBilam12 Haha, Thabo as saviour?!?! This is rich

ChilamBilam12 301 pts

Daniel Plainview when did most of these major issues start to rear their ugly head?.. we haven't lost a game this season that Thabo has started, not a single one.. his absence on the floor does is a lot more about what it does to our rotations and our defensive prowess then it is about what he actually does on the score board, and anyone who had truly followed the team closely this season would have noticed how out of sorts we are with him out of the rotation and riding the pine

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

ChilamBilam12 Theres no doubt he may assist some of the cohesion, but correlational data is not that same as causational data. The absence of Maynor is the the biggest factor to us being out of sorts

ILikePancakes 1913 pts

Let me copy a comment from ESPN board from our game tonight:

If you take out the fluky 0-13 game that Westbrook had this season, he's shooting 49%. No other guard in the NBA is averaging 23 ppg on 48% shooting, 49% without that horrific game. Bottomline, Thunder $@%!$@% and NBA $@%!$@% all around need to appreciate what he is. He's on track statistically to some day possibly become Wade / Kobe -lite. Not as good as them, and probably never will be anywhere close. But the next best thing after them.

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

Russ, 3 assists, Hahahaha. Perk almost had mroe by way of accident. a bad omen

FREE_COLE 1232 pts

Daniel Plainview looking at stats in a vacuum must be real fun. How many assists does he lose because the bigs can't catch? Yes, Russ is not Chris Paul and is not likely going to average double digit assists. But without him, our record is worse then it is better. Get real

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

FREE_COLE Oh, he might lose 2-3 assist, but thats par for the league. No PG comes down and shows off as much as him, especially with the two time scoring champ on the team. absurd. You, get real. Only homers with blinders can not possibly see the second rd exit in the offing.

ILikePancakes 1913 pts

Daniel PlainviewFREE_COLE Dude, did you even watched the game? KD had no gas in the tank, he was clearly tired and couldn't show himself. Russ HAD to create for himself.

tydude 441 pts

ILikePancakesDaniel PlainviewFREE_COLE this was a tough road games they beat at Portland and at Golden state and at tonight and we did a good job on Monday Tuesday and Tonight

FREE_COLE 1232 pts

Daniel Plainview I'm not gonna argue with you. It's February. Playoffs aren't for a while. Let's leave the future in the future for now, especially with KD AND RUSS playing mostly excellent basketball. It's a lockout season, players get tired. Durant was exhausted, Russ stepped up. I'm not sure what you really want. Look at every championship team, basically ever. They all have a second primary scorer to step up. Ours is the point guard.

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

FREE_COLE And they all passes the ball, and they all had a center that averaged more than 5 pts a game

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

Russ, you have single handedly turned me off the thunder. Id be surprosed if we made it out of teh second round. yuck. Garbage win, more TO's than assists, doesnt seem to bother anyone. Durant is apparently irrelevant on this team.

tydude 441 pts

Daniel Plainview playoffs is not into April we will be much better team when the playoffs start

Grolgar 226 pts

Daniel Plainview Awesome! Go away.

Arent 593 pts

Daniel Plainview Man, I can't imagine how angry you'd be if we lost the game.

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

Arent This sillly little victory isnt going to translate to the playoffs.

PNT 109 pts

Daniel Plainview Bye. Close the door on your way out will ya?

ChilamBilam12 301 pts

Daniel Plainview idk what your issue is bro.. Westbrook single handedly kept us in last night game, and was the only guard with consistent production tonight.. he is making smart shot selections and though the turnover bug has hit him, he hasn't had a whole lot of options.. KD has look incredibly inept the last 2 games, and when he isn't moving off of his defender and standing at the 3 point line begging for the ball, what do you want Russ to do?.. half the turnovers Russ is being credited with are because he is attempting to force the ball to a well defended KD who isn't moving off of a defender who is draping him.. you need to wake up to the obvious, that without Russ we are a .500 team at best right now

justin_mia 1356 pts

Daniel Plainview There are things to not like about Russ' game but he wasn't bad tonight.

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

justin_mia You have no qualms about him shooting twice as much as Kevin and only getting 3 assists? Sure, a few of those were attributed to misses, but an off night for a pg who averaged over 8 last year should be no less than 6. You know as well as anyone this isnt going to translate to post season victories

justin_mia 1356 pts

Daniel Plainview He had 28 points on near-as-is 60% TS. Also had five steals. Yes he took some creative liberties but ragging on him for only having three assists in a game where he scored so efficiently seems weird.

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

justin_mia Efficency on 3 assists is an anomaly and not something any coach would strive for from a pt guard. The trajectory of Russ's shot attempts - and, yes, Ive already complemented his improved shooting %- is alarming and will not hold up.

OBoymuzik 1861 pts

Daniel Plainview congrats man, Kobe has fans that arent lakers fans. lebron has fans that arent heat fans. now KD has fans that arent thunder fans!!!

ChilamBilam12 301 pts

something i also noticed after his one and only turnover.. Perk stopped putting the ball on the floor. Idk if it was by design or default, but if Brooks can just convince the guy to either go straight up with the ball, or kick it back out to a shooter, i feel like Perk would be a much more consistent asset.. the only time he looks truly lost and becomes that low post turnover machine, is when he decides to attempt that ugly dribble

Lost Ones 679 pts

Lets talk about MVP talk there really isnt a clear winner this year rose has been injury plague lebron has been lackadaisical sense dwade came back.. and kd has been lazy lol

Grolgar 226 pts

@Lost Ones So far 1 LBJ 2 Kobe 3 KD 4 DH12 5 Rose

ChilamBilam12 301 pts

any win is a good win.. but this turnover plague has got to end at some point, 7 in the first quarter and 11 at half is just unacceptable. These guys are much much better then they are portraying as of late, and i know a lot of it is fatigue, but they need to sit down and really focus on offensive play sets and smarter ball movement

Remify 971 pts

ChilamBilam12 I felt like Scotty actually made an adjustment at half (hallelujah) of telling russ to pull up for more easy mid range since he has been hitting them instead of driving too fast and turning it over.

ChilamBilam12 301 pts

Remify ha, idk if we should credit Brooks or if Russel just finally woke up to that obvious solution.. either way it was a nice change to witness, and honestly he made much smarter decisions with regards to his passing in the second, as most of the turnovers were either the result of offensive foul calls or bad ball handling by KD, he really just looked in a funk tonight

Grolgar 226 pts

Can you imagine if Brooks had left at half?!? We would have won 200-300 points!

tydude 441 pts

Grolgar dude we are 21-6 that is the best record in the west and Brooks is a good coach

Lost Ones 679 pts

tydudeGrolgar woah i agree with the first twooo but brooks a good coach? child please

tydude 441 pts

Lost OnesGrolgar we are 21-6 that is a good record and he has done a good job so far except for the turnovers

ILikePancakes 1913 pts

tydudeGrolgar Yeah, maybe i hate Brooks, but i'm much more stupid than Presti, so i'll trust in his every choice.

f5alcon 1019 pts

tydudeGrolgar he was being sarcastic, he likes brooks

Lost Ones 679 pts

Like i said before i rather ibaka give us 2 blocks and a double double rather then 10 blocks and no points.

ILikePancakes 1913 pts

We won, with our best player taking only 10 shots.

Feels good, man.

tydude 441 pts

ILikePancakes we play really good tonight and we have couple of days off

Daniel Plainview 44 pts

Russ: Avg shots wins - 17,7, losses - 22

Remify 971 pts

Daniel Plainview hero mode..

Remify 971 pts

Daniel Plainview he shot 50% tonight, made the adjustment of pulling a mid range instead of driving for a turn over. I have no problem whatsoever with that.

OKCBornandBred 347 pts

Great HT adjustments by Brooks. Only 7 TOs after HT. RW played out of his mind, and THIS is the Ibaka we want to see every game. Offensive and defensive force with tons of energy. Even Perk got some boards and second chance points, and made what I thought was a huge pass to DC43. Finally, I was ready to slaughter Reggie Jackson, but he redeemed himself by finishing strong. Strangely weak game by KD and Harden and we still ran away TOs in all. Thank where this team could be with just a few adjustments!

Grolgar 226 pts

OKCBornandBred This can't be right because BROOKS IS THE WORST COACH EVER!!!!!

tydude 441 pts

GrolgarOKCBornandBred and he is the all star coach

PNT 109 pts

Thank goodness we don't have another 5 game road trip until April.

Remify 971 pts

man, if russ keeps shooting mid range like that, maybe he wont need to drive full speed and turn it over. just speed burst to 10-12 feet and pull up. unguardable.

MrButterNuts 553 pts

Remify BUT DURANT DIDN'T GET ENOUGH SHOTS ARP ARP ARP