Thunder 95, Hornets 89
Nuggets from my notebook in Monday’s win over New Orleans.
- Kevin Durant desperately needed something good to happen to him. Anything. Little did we know, that something would come on the defensive end. Durant’s D on David West in the final six minutes won the Thunder this game. The Hornets were playing through West and were going to ride him to victory. But when Durant switched onto him, he used his length to better contest West’s shots and throw off his rhythm.
- Durant helped force three straight stops against the Hornets inside those final six minutes. He had two blocks, one on West and one on an Emeka Okafor dunk attempt, and one great contest on West.
- It’s likely that Thunder heads everywhere want to see Durant play similar D throughout the gtame. But that isn’t likely to happen. Not anytime soon at least. It takes too much focus, too much energy, too much effort. Durant isn’t ready to do that while sustaining his offensive exploits. The best thing about it is the Thunder has pieces around Durant that allow him to be able to focus more on offense. For now, the most you can ask out of Durant defensively is a more consistent effort.
- Russell Westbrook: 12 points, two assists, two steals and one rebound in the fourth quarter. Said Durant: “The last three games he’s been doing that. Me and Jeff’s shots haven’t been falling at all. I pulled him to the side and said, ‘I’m just going to do what I do on defense and if you see an opening, just go.’ He did a great job of that.”
- And this quote from KD deserves its own bullet. “That’s the new Russell, man. He’s just taking over games and controlling games. That’s what we need for us to win.”
- So, too, does this one from New Orleans coach Monty Williams on Westbrook: “He is an All-Star. He plays at a level that causes teams to scout him 10-15 minutes during a practice.”
- It’s become easy to gush over Westbrook stuffing the stat sheet on a nightly basis and base his development on that alone. But it was something so small and simple that he did tonight that sent the loudest message about his maturity. It happened with 7:26 remaining in the fourth quarter. Westbrook stole a pass from Willie Green and had an easy layup opportunity in transition. But Westbrook slowed up and passed to Durant. Westbrook knew KD needed it. Durant had scored 19 points on 6-for-19 shooting prior to that point. “I just tried to get Kevin an easy shot,” Westbrook explained. “I definitely could have laid it up. I was just trying to get him going. We were going to need him to finish out the game.”
- Something you might not have seen at home but I refuse to let go unmentioned here is the leadership role that Thabo Sefolosha took on late in this one. As the Thunder came out of a timeout with 5:50 left to play, Sefolosha pulled his four teammates into a huddle near the scorer’s table, said a few words and tapped them on their chests. Sefolosha’s message? Essentially, that it’s winning time. Sefolosha told his teammates that they were playing timidly and that the final minutes of games is when things have gotten away from OKC in the past. Sefolosha wanted his teammates to have each others backs and close it out strong. “Everybody can be a leader on this team, and Thabo was at that moment,” Durant said. “And that gave us a big push.”
Power Lunch Chat Recap: John Rohde
Russell Westbrook Talks Dunk Contest
By now, we’ve all gotten used to seeing Russell Westbrook take flight for soaring dunks like the one he had Sunday night at Houston. They’ve left us in awe and made us salivate over the possibility of the Thunder’s point guard one day participating in the slam dunk contest.
The NBA has asked Westbrook to be a participant in this year’s contest. Westbrook said he’s politely declined. But Westbrook could change his mind since he’s likely to be in L.A. for the 60th All-Star Game anyway.
But here’s why Westbrook is hesitant. He just doesn’t see himself as a dunk contest type of dunker.
“I don’t really have trick dunks and all that,” Westbrook said. “I just like games. The dunk contest is totally different from what it used to be. You got to do a lot of different stuff to get points. You got to flip and bring out a lot of different (stunts) to get some points.”
Westbrook had an opportunity to be in the contest as a rookie during the 2009 All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. But fans voted in Rudy Fernandez as the final participant over Westbrook and Joe Alexander. And Fernandez supplied a largely forgettable performance.
“I was willing to do it then,” Westbrook said. “One of these years I’m going to be in it. I just don’t know if it’s going to be this year. But I will be.”
-DM-
Rockets 99, Thunder 98
Nuggets from my notebook from Sunday’s loss at Houston.
- I’ll remember two things about this one: how the Thunder didn’t come out with any intensity whatsoever in the first half and how Kevin Durant’s 20-footer at the end came inches short of giving OKC a win in a game it had no business being in.
- The Thunder would have won this game by 20 had it came out ready to play. Instead, the starters looked largely aloof in the opening 24 minutes. And still, the Thunder trailed by only eight at the half. This loss is squarely on the starters’ shoulders. Said Durant: “We didn’t really have too much energy. We brought that energy in the second half and almost won the game. But we’ve got to start off a little better. We had it in spurts. But we’ve got to go back to how we were playing the last four or five games, starting off with a lot of energy. And that starts with me, Russell, Jeff, Thabo and Serge. We got to do a better job. I have confidence we’ll do it next game.”
- Early in the second quarter, Brooks went with a bench unit of Eric Maynor, James Harden, Thabo Sefolosha, D.J. White and Nick Collison. The Thunder trailed 37-25 shortly after White came in for Jeff Green. And with almost no scorers on the court, it looked like the deficit would only get worse. But a funny thing happened. The four bench players and Sefolosha actually played with effort and peeled off a 6-0 run. The starters came back and the Rockets lead immediately grew to 11. That’s effort.
- I thought Durant’s shot was good when it left his hands. He has the ability to make those game-winners, but it just hasn’t happened for him. And after the game, he voiced his frustration. “I’ve been working so hard on that only to come up short time after time. But I got to keep being positive, keep believing and keep working. Hopefully it’ll start to change. I’ve had one in four years.”
- The actual attempt was a decent look. You can’t really blame Durant for taking that shot. The one he hoisted at Indiana at the end of regulation was a different story. But this one was a solid shot. My only issue with Durant’s choice tonight, and after most of his potential game-winners, is that it was a fadeaway. Durant’s always falling backward or leaning sideways on his last-second shots. And it’s never a surprise when they come up short or bounce long or miss inches to the left or right. He’s tall enough to shoot over just about anyone an opposing coach can put on him. And I for one would like to see him square up and get a more textbook and rhythmic shot off.
Thunder 110, Pacers 106
Nuggets from my notebook from Friday’s win at Indiana.
- If you had one game ball to hand out after this one, who would you give it to? Most of you would probably say Russell Westbrook. He had a career-high 43 points on 13 of 24 shooting and pulled down eight rebounds while dishing out eight assists and turning the ball over only three times. That’s certainly MVP worthy. But my game ball would go to Jeff Green. All you needed to do was see him limping around out there like Willis Reed tonight to understand why. Green played one of the gutsiest games I’ve seen in my five years of covering the NBA. He could barely walk on his bum left ankle but did anything and everything he could to help his team pull out this victory. His defense on Roy Hibbert while playing through pain served as the epitome of all the Thunder’s cliches about sacrifice, team, resiliency and commitment.
- I wouldn’t be surprised if Green missed Sunday’s game at Houston. That ankle won’t get any better on the plane ride to Texas.
- The reason I started this post posing the question about the game ball is because I got into a little debate about just that with Kevin Durant. You know where I stand. But you might be shocked to hear who gets his game ball. “The game ball goes to Byron Mullens,” Durant said. “Hibbert got it going for a little bit there and he came in and stopped him. He slowed him down a lot and that allowed us to get out and get some easy baskets.”
- While I respectfully disagreed with Durant, Mullens was indeed huge. He played five minutes tonight, checking in with the Thunder down 64-50. Replacing an ineffective Serge Ibaka, who got the start for an injured Nenad Krstic (back spasms), Mullens played great defense on Hibbert and forced him further away from the basket while contesting his shots better at the rim when Hibbert did get good looks. Said Thunder coach Scott Brooks: “We had nobody to stop Hibbert, and I thought (Mullens) did a fantastic job of battling and fighting him and not giving in to his play. I thought those five minutes were a big part of our win. We had no answer for him at that point in the game. And Byron came in and (did something) that’s not easy.”
- It would be easy to look at Durant’s 9-for-26 shooting (1-for-8 from 3-point range) and say he had a bad game. But his defense was excellent at times tonight. He was credited with only one blocked shot, but I counted two in the final minute and a half of regulation, on Hibbert no less, that helped the Thunder force overtime. Brooks had high praise for Durant’s D after the game. “I think he’s been our best defensive player the last three games, and I give him credit because he wants to be a special player. Special players have to be two-way players.”
Mavs 111, Thunder 103
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday’s loss to Dallas.
- Watching Tyson Chandler run the floor in the opening 20 seconds made me think, ‘Man, what if?’
- Knowing that Dallas was on the second night of a back-to-back, John Rohde said to me early in the game that Dirk Nowitzki looked tired. I leaned over and responded, ‘Wait until the fourth quarter.’
- The Thunder had 18 assists on its first 18 made field goals.
- Russell Westbrook had seven assists in the opening period and nine at halftime. He’s now tallied 19 assists against three turnovers in the first half of the last two games.
- OKC entered the game averaging 17.8 assists, the second fewest in the league. But in the last five games, the Thunder has averaged 22.8 assists. That would rank eighth if you could throw away the other 10 games.
- The Mavs love the 3-ball. They shot 19 through three quarters and looked foolish for doing so. That is, until they four of eight in the fourth quarter to ice the win.
- Quietly, the Thunder has shot much better from 3-point range of late. OKC went 6-for-15 from downtown tonight, and things could be turning around in that department.
- If I’m a Thunder fan, I’m worried about the attitude Thunder coach Scott Brooks and his players took after this one. Those 3-point bombs provided a convenient excuse for how this one got away. Players and coaches explained this loss by Dallas getting hot from 3 at the right time. And that, of course, makes it easy to overlook what the team didn’t do right at the other end. The offense was again dismal in the fourth quarter. The Thunder shot 9-for-23 (39.1 percent) in the final frame, and had it not been for a few early Serge Ibaka buckets (one being a putback) and a few garbage time scores, this one would have looked much worse.
Aldrich now on Tulsa time
Thunder rookie Cole Aldrich on Wednesday was assigned to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Developmental League.
Look for Aldrich and second-year center Byron Mullens to alternate going back and forth to Tulsa throughout this season. Rookies and second-year players are the only ones on NBA rosters permitted to play in the D-League. A player is allowed a maximum of three assignments per season.
Cole is a big part of our future and right now wasn’t seeing a lot of playing time. This just gives him an opportunity to go to Tulsa and play. We’ll work with him. We’ll still go there as much as we can to help him practice and watch games.” – Thunder coach Scott Brooks on rookie Cole Aldrich
The 11th overall pick in the 2010 NBA Draft, Aldrich has appeared in five games this season, averaging 1.0 points, 2.2 rebounds and 9.6 minutes per game. He joins the 66ers for their home opener against the Iowa Energy on Friday at the Tulsa Convention Center.
Aldrich is the 16th assignment by the Thunder to the 66ers. During the past two seasons, Thunder roster players have appeared in over 100 D-League contests with the 66ers. The 66ers were purchased by the Professional Basketball Club LLC on July 31, 2008, and are the Thunder’s minor-league affiliate. The Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs are the only two NBA teams to have an ownership agreement with their minor-league affiliate.
He needs to continue to grow as a player and get better. That’s the great advantage of having a team in Tulsa. we have an opportunity to physically watch them, not just on tape.” – Brooks
Report: Collison Deal Worth Roughly $11M
According to a report by ESPN.com late Tuesday night, Thunder forward Nick Collison’s four-year contract extension is worth slightly more than $11 million.
The Web site reported that Collison’s deal is a carefully- and creatively-constructed, front-loaded contract that will pay the eight-year veteran more than half of his money in the remainder of this season.
With the Thunder still more than $6.5 million beneath the $58 million salary cap, the organization was allowed to offer Collison a signing bonus of that amount to cover most of the deal. When Collison’s new deal kicks in during the 2011-12 season, however, his salary will decrease to just over $3.3 million, according to the report, and falling to $2.2 million in 2014-15, the final year of the deal.
The uniquely constructed deal is expected to allow the Thunder to retain a key veteran glue guy while also maintaining maximum financial flexibility to keep its younger players, Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Jeff Green, James Harden and Serge Ibaka, together once their future extensions kick in.
“(Thunder GM) Sam (Presti) came to me with an opportunity to maybe get something done,” Collison said following Tuesday’s practice. “We worked on it and got to a deal we thought was good for both parties. I think we’re both happy with it.”
-DM-
Questions & Answers With Nick Collison
Nick Collison has signed a four-year contract extension with the Oklahoma City Thunder that will keep him with the franchise’s longest-tenured player with the organization through the 2014-15 season.
Collison on Tuesday talked about why he chose to stay in Oklahoma City and where he sees the Thunder headed.
Q: Somebody likes you. That’s got to be a good feeling?
A: Yep. For sure. I’m really excited to get a deal done. The biggest reason is I’m happy to be here. We got a good thing going on. I want to be a part of it. The organization has been great to me over a long period of time now. It was just a good fit for everybody involved.
Q: Did you see it coming?
A: I think players would always like to get a little bit of security and kind of knowledge of the future and what’s going to happen. Sam (Presti) came to me with an opportunity to maybe get something done. We worked on it and got to a deal we thought was good for both parties. I think we’re both happy with it. I’m just real excited. The organization has taken a lot of steps in the right direction and I wanted to be a part of it for the next steps that we hopefully take in the next few years.
Q: Was there a moment in the last few years were you thought this is the place you wanted to be?
A: Like I said, people have been great to me. I’ve got a lot of friends in the organization. I’ve been here since I started my career. We do everything in a first-class way. The players obviously are No. 1. We’ve got a really good group of guys that kind of came together last year. And that’s what I want to be a part of. But the entire staff, our medical staff is really top notch, Donnie Strack and Joe Sharpe. And that’s big for me being older and coming into the last few years of my career. Those guys like Dwight Daub, the strength coach, and Marc St. Ives, who I’ve been with since Day One, are guys that really do a great job and are guys that I’ve become friends with. So it’s a place I’ve been comfortable for a long time. And basketball-wise, we’ve got a good future. And I have a role here. I think they appreciate what I do. I just didn’t see a reason to try to go anywhere else. For me to get a four-year deal, that’s something that’s good for me personally and I’m just excited to get it done.
Thunder 117, Wolves 107
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s 117-107 win over Minnesota.
- As I watched Michael Beasley, a general thought entered my mind. Is it possible for a player his age to actually get worse defensively every year? My man plays no D.
- The ball movement in this one was exceptional. The Thunder had 10 assists on its first 11 made field goals and finished with season-high 29assists on 40 buckets.
- Russell Westbrook must love seeing Minnesota on the schedule. It’s like every time he plays the Wolves he goes out and does whatever he wants to on the floor. He came two assists shy of tying his career-high, which came against…Minnesota last season.
- Not sure what happened to the Thunder at the line tonight. OKC missed a ton…a whole eight. The Thunder was, however, 10 for 10 from the stripe in the final 43 seconds to clinch the victory. No surprise there.
- The Thunder had a 40-16 advantage over the Wolves at the foul line. That kind of rate will win you some ball games.
- Darko Milicic nearly took over this game. And for that, the Thunder should be ashamed. Dude started the fourth quarter with seven points and two assists. And the two helpers he dished were absolute dimes! Why Kurt Rambis chose to stop running things through him and instead put the ball in Beasley and Luke Ridnour’s hands is beyond me. But the Thunder should be thanking heavens he did.
- This was not a good showing in the second half by the Thunder. OKC let an 18-point second-half lead turn into a six-point Minnesota advantage midway through the fourth period. Just about every Wolves player who saw action had a good game. The Wolves like to push the pace, and the Thunder, maybe against its will, played into their hands from the start thanks to some early steals and stops.The defense has to be better.
- We knew coming in that the Thunder’s role players would have to adjust to the return of Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. But in their first opportunity to maintain the inspired play we saw in the previous two games, the trio of Serge Ibaka, Eric Maynor and James Harden were somewhere between below average to average. They combined for 18 points, six rebounds and six assists. But none of them shined, and Ibaka’s defense was dreadful.
