Durant & Beasley
ESPN the Magazine got some exclusive access to Kevin Durant and Michael Beasley recently. Makes you look forward to the Dec. 6 meeting between the Thunder and the Heat……
-DM-
Rockets 100, Thunder 89
As I wrote for Tuesday’s paper, Oklahoma City followed its worst loss of the season with perhaps its best effort yet.
Every player I talked after the game pointed to Saturday’s players-only meeting following the 25-point blowout in Philadelphia as reason the team played its best 48 minutes of the season. The drought to start the third quarter really hurt.
So too did Luis Scola’s 23 points and nine rebounds. OKC can live with players like Yao Ming getting 19 and 12 and Ron Artest getting 17 and 11. But if the Luis Scolas of the NBA world are going to have near career nights against the Thunder it’ll be tough to collect many wins.
Save the first seven minutes or so in the third quarter, when the Thunder got off to a 1-for-11 start shooting the ball, the offense looked the best it has all season. The final numbers — 89 points, 40.5 percent shooting — don’t indicate as much, but the ball was moving, players were cutting and finally this team was getting easy baskets. Not many teams are capable of winning with a 39-point second half.
A few notes…..
* Kevin Durant’s 29 points mark his best performance of the season at home. And it’s about time the Ford Center fans got a chance to witness the type of performances he’s strung together on the road and some of what he’s capable of doing on any given night. Durant had entered the game averaging 24.6 points on the road and 16.8 points at home. Here’s what he had to say about his hot start (10 first-quarter points) leading to his best home performance……
“It definitely helped my confidence, because I couldn’t get it going in this building. And by starting off like that, my teammates did a great job of trying to get me open and getting me open shots and getting me lanes to the basket so I could help them out as well.”
* Durant’s seven rebounds were one shy of his season-high, set back on Nov. 10 in a 107-99 loss to Indiana. Durant said after the game that he’s placed more focused on rebounding lately….
“I was kind of upset with myself that I wasn’t going down there getting some boards early (this season). I had a couple of games where I might have had five or six. But I’ve just got to continue to get down there and get boards and help this team. I think once I rebound we can be a better team.”
* Jeff Green had a solid first half before disappearing in the second half. He had 13 points on 4 of 7 shooting at the break and ended with 16 points on 5 of 14 shooting. For the mathematically challenged, that’s three points on 1 of 7 shooting in the final 24 minutes. But the good news on Green on this night was his continued accuracy from behind the 3-point line. He made his first two 3s and finished 2 of 3 from beyond the arc. A guy who hit just 27.6 percent of his treys last season is now shooting 48.3 percent from deep through 11 games, ranking among the league leaders in the category.
“I think he’s improved an awfully lot,” said coach P.J. Carlesimo. “It’s 11 games. But (it helps) if you can do something consistently for a while. Last year, he shot the corner 3 in particular very well. The long range shooting is something he worked on this summer. It’s no question he’s a better shooter than he was when he left in April. So that’s encouraging. But I don’t want him to live on the 3-point line either…I’m encouraged by the way Jeff is shooting, for sure. But I still like Jeff getting to the rim, getting to the free throw line and posting up.”
* Robert Swift got a good lesson tonight against Yao Ming, and surprisingly held his own. Yao had just eight points, five rebounds and two blocks in the first half. Swift had four points, five rebounds and a block in the first half. But, as expected, one guy exploded in the final 24 minutes and it wasn’t Swift. Yao finished with 19 points, 12 boards and three blocks. Said Swift……..
“He’s one of the best centers in the league right now. You just go out there and try to make him struggle as much as possible. It’s a difficult matchup for anybody. At his height, you just try to wear him out and run him down.”
Briefly
Chris Wilcox will play Wednesday against the Clippers…Desmond Mason is expected to miss up to two weeks with a sprained elbow…The Thunder committed just 13 turnovers, 10 coming from the trio of Durant, Earl Watson and Russell Westbrook…Westbrook and Durant combined for nine of the Thunder’s 10 steals…OKC was out-rebounded yet again, this time 48-39…The Thunder has now given up 100 points or more in five straight games…There were 18 ties and 14 lead changes Monday.
-DM-
Thunder-Rockets Live Blog
Thunder-Sixers Live Blog, 6 p.m. Saturday
Thunder vs. Knicks live blog
Thunder-Magic Live Blog
The New Look Swift
Robert Swift has cut his hair.
The bushy red locks are gone, and the 7-foot center is now sporting a small Mohawk look.
“I’ve been wanting to cut it for awhile actually,” Swift said at this morning’s shootaround. ”I just got home from practice yesterday, and there’s this barber shop right downstairs in my apartment complex so I just walked over there.
“I just wanted to change it up. I’ve had it the same way for almost three years. I had it long, cut it to shaggy but it was still long and I just decided to go back to short. I’m kind of waiting for it to grow out a little bit but to start it’s perfect.”
As far as real news goes, Kevin Durant is a game-time decision tonight against Orlando with a sore left ankle. Forward Chris Wilcox is definitely sitting this one out, his second straight, with a knee injury.
-DM-
They Had You Thinking OKC Thundercats
Before Brian Davis and Grant Long, Oklahoma City’s first set of NBA broadcasters was a pair of 30-somethings that go by the name Dante and Galante. The two, employees of the Orlando Magic, set up a live stream of the Orlando Pro Summer League back in July and quickly became fan favorites during the weeklong summer league for their wit and overall disinterest in the games. But around here, fans took to them because of how much airtime they gave the then yet-to-be-named franchise in Oklahoma City.
Galante, whose first name is George, is the Magic’s director of communications and will be inside the Ford Center on Wednesday when the Thunder welcome Dwight Howard and the Magic.
George was gracious enough to take a few minutes to reflect on all things OKC during its first ever NBA summer league.
Q: How did the summer league broadcast get started?
A: That was our third summer league this past summer. The summer league broadcast came about three years ago when we decided that we were going to video stream the games. And after the first day fans were kind of complaining. It’s a coaches cam. It’s essentially just meant to be for the coaches to look at scouting and that type of thing. So it’s a one camera operation upstairs. And the internet was just patching into that feed so they could give some fans some insight since it’s closed to the public. But they couldn’t recognize any of the guys. So we went up there the second day three years ago and kind of planned on doing it straight, trying to call the games as you would call the games. But the action in summer league is so bad, it’s borderline unwatchable so we decided to just start having some fun with it. We started taking e-mails, and the next thing you know we were barely even talking about the basketball game and everybody seemed to like that better than an actual broadcast.
Q: Who is Dante, your partner on the broadcasts?
A: Dante Marchitelli. He’s our radio manager. But then he also does our sideline reporting for home games on the radio. And he’s actually had a couple of games on T.V. as a sideline reporter as well for Magic T.V.
Q: Did you and Dante know each other long before starting? You two seemed to have good chemistry on the broadcasts.
A: We’re friends at the office. Dante’s been with the Magic for, I think this is his ninth or 10th season. And I’ve been with the team since ’95. So we’ve known each other for awhile, and we both have pretty similar personalities and we get along really well. So it just happened to be that we had pretty good chemistry on the air.
Q: How did Oklahoma City’s unknown name at the time become such a big talking point?
A: Since (summer league) was right when the move was announced, Dante and I had decided that we were just going to play around. We had a list of nicknames at the time that we had just made up. And we were going to call them something different each time just because it was such a mystery about the name and this and that. So we were just going to have some fun with it and give them a different nickname each time. And one time we called them the Thundercats and that was the one that after a while we got a ton of e-mails in response to that one. And we just decided that that one was going to stick for the rest of the week and we went with that.
Q: Were you sold on Thundercats, and did you know that you had people thinking that was the real name?
A: We knew after a day or two because we started getting e-mails that people thought that that was what it really was. So then we just kind of fed it a little more. We knew that that wasn’t the name and we were just making it up and it was so ridiculous. But it was just fun to keep it going at least for a couple of days.
Q: What do you think of the name the ultimately chose, the Thunder?
A: Dante and I like to take credit for that. We were the original founders of the name even though it didn’t get carried out the whole way. But we like to think we had some part in picking the Thunder. Even though we know that’s not true, we’re going to stick to that until, well, hopefully they don’t move again. (Laughs.)
Q: You guys were getting thousands of e-mails during the broadcast. Is there one in particular about Oklahoma City that you remember most?
A: No. We decided that we were going to let the fans throw out nicknames. And some were suitable for air and some weren’t. We had so many. We had 13,000 e-mails over the five-day span. So there really isn’t one that sticks out. They were all funny in their own way.
Q: Russell Westbrook turned a lot of heads out there. What was the buzz around the league like on him at that time?
A: He really opened up a lot of eyes. Once he got going during the week, he really opened up a lot of eyes. Just had a lot of poise on the floor. Lightning quickness. Good decisions. Decent shooter. So I think he was definitely one of the top performers that week no question. But Kevin Durant playing in that one game was probably the highlight of the week when nobody knew he was going to play and then the next thing you know he was out on the floor.
For more Dante and Galante, click here. And at the 5 1/2 minute mark of this video, ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt talks with the two about the Oklahoma City Thundercats rumor.
-DM-
Thunder Players on All-Star Ballot
Kevin Durant, Chris Wilcox and Nick Collison have been selected to appear on the 2009 All-Star ballot, released today by the NBA.
Voting beings Thursday, and fans will have the first chance to vote inside the Ford Center on Monday, Nov. 17 against the Houston Rockets. Voting ends Jan. 11 for paper balloting and Jan. 19 for NBA.com and wireless balloting.
One way or another, OKC is likely to have a representative at this year’s All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. Second-year players Durant and Jeff Green, along with rookie Russell Westbrook, figure to be in the Rookie Challenge.
Personally, I’d like to see Desmond Mason jump back into the Slam Dunk Contest after winning it as a rookie in D.C. in 2001. I’m sure he’s got plenty left in those legs.
-DM-
Pacers 107, Thunder 99
INDIANAPOLIS — How does a young team learn how to close out games?
Perhaps there is no way to speed that process. But until the Thunder figures it out we’re likely in store for many more nights like Friday at Utah and Sunday against Atlanta and Monday at Indiana.
Coach P.J. Carlesimo, in eloquently breaking down how to win close games in the NBA, made closing out games sound so simple.
“We need to play a lot better individual defense when the game is on the line, and we need to take better care of the ball,” he said. “I’m encouraged because our overall defense is much improved. But we need people to step up on both ends of the floor in the fourth quarter. It’s not just about making shots. It’s about getting back on defense, guarding your man and defensive rebounding. That’s how you win games.”
Why can’t the Thunder do it? That’s the million dollar question.
Before the final six minutes of tonight’s loss to the Pacers, I thought Oklahoma City played one of its best games of the season. Then it gave up 29 points in the final period, turned the ball over down the stretch and couldn’t make a shot because it continued to settle for jumpers rather than get to the rim.
While some will say this season isn’t about wins, I view every W as a priceless treasure for a young team in search of an identity. Learning is a much more pleasant process when you see your hard work leading to desirable results. Brains tend to shut down when progress isn’t palpable and things seem to be an exercise in futility.
But tonight’s downfall was clear. The Thunder got away from what made it so successful in a first quarter that saw it take a 34-24 advantage and once lead by 15. In the first period, Oklahoma City had 10 assists, six coming from Earl Watson. OKC had just nine in the final three periods.
When the Thunder stopped moving the ball the easy shots dried up. OKC shots 52 percent in the first quarter, and it’s no coincidence that it shot 25 percent in the second (four assists in the period), 41 percent in the third (three assists) and 35 percent in the fourth (two assists).
Nick Collison said it best….
“When Kevin (Durant) scores close to 40, it’s great for us, but we’ve got to find a way to get some easy buckets, too.”
Until then, OKC figures to be on the wrong end of close games.
-DM-
