Jason Terry: Thunder ‘little brother’ to Mavs
Dallas guard Jason Terry pumps up the home crowd.
Throughout the 149-day NBA lockout and the first week of an abbreviated schedule, the entire Western Conference universe seemed to rotate around the Thunder. When OKC jumped out to a 5-0 record after seven days, it simply added to all the fawning.
Now the Thunder is riding a two-game losing streak and people are either jumping off the bandwagon, insisting they never liked the team in the first place, or are simply pleading ignorance.
After Portland manhandled OKC in its own refurbished building on Tuesday night, Trail Blazers power forward LaMarcus Aldridge was asked if he was getting tired of all the Thunder talk. “Nah, I don’t read papers or watch ESPN, so I haven’t heard nothing,’ ” Aldridge lied.
Dallas Mavericks sixth man Jason Terry says little has changed from a year ago. The world champion Mavs are still the team to beat in the West.
OKC is 183 miles north on Interstate 35 from the Metroplex and the teams met in last year’s Western Conference Finals. “It’s a big brother-little brother scenario,” Terry told ESPNDallas.com after the Mavs manhandled the previously unbeaten Thunder 100-87 on Monday. ”It is what it is. They’re good. They’re up and coming and they’re dangerous. When you got guys like (Russell) Westbrook and (Kevin) Durant on your ballclub, it’s tough any time. They’ve beaten us a number of times. Now, if you want to say in a series, that would make some intensity come to the rivalry.”
ESPN.com’s John Hollinger was among those to heap praise upon the Thunder during the lockout, but not lately.
The Thunder began as favorites to win the West and seemed to back up that impression with a 5-0 start, but I’d argue that the start was a lot less impressive than the win-loss record made it look,” Hollinger wrote. “They’re 5-1 after Monday night’s loss in Dallas but have scored only 14 more points than they’ve allowed. Were it not for a miraculous shot from Kevin Durant a week ago, they’d be looking at a five-game losing streak to the Mavs — an odd circumstance for a favorite, to say the least. All the attention is swirling around last week’s dustup between Russell Westbrook and Durant, and certainly Westbrook has seemed off his game in the early going; he has more turnovers than assists and is shooting 37.5 percent.
“Yet I’d argue the focus on those two masks deeper and perhaps more immediately relevant concerns. Such as whether the frontcourt will ever score a basket, for instance. OKC’s perimeter trio of Durant, Westbrook and James Harden is an outstanding foundation, but Durant is also outscoring the entire frontcourt group, 27.3 points per game to 21.9. I don’t mean the starters, I mean all of them. In fact, no Okies average more than eight points a game outside of their big three. I’d be less concerned about the frontcourt scoring if the Thunder could leverage their defensive talent into something more than an average defense. OKC was 13th in defensive efficiency a year ago and 17th this year, which basically requires the Thunder to have a league-leading offense or close to it to legitimately contend for anything important. They may very well tighten the D, get some extra juice from the frontcourt and justify all our preseason pontifications, but it might be a bumpier ride to that point than expected.”
With its huge win on the road against the Thunder, Portland already is 2-0 in the Northwest Division while heavily favored OKC is 1-1. Asked if players would still concentrate on division play in a shortened, 66-game schedule, Aldridge said, “Yeah, you do. I think you’ve got to think about it all. But the season is going by so quickly, you have to think about winning all your games.”
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
[...] Jason Terry: Thunder 'little brother' to MavsNewsOK.com (blog)Throughout the 149-day NBA lockout and the first week of an abbreviated schedule, the entire Western Conference universe seemed to rotate around the Thunder. When OKC jumped out to a 5-0 record after seven days, it simply added to all the fawning. … [...]
I think you need to get your head on straight now. You need to assign roles to your teammates and see that they constantly improve in their roles. It’s a whirlwind season, and you gotta suck it up early, win as many as you can, create your team chemistry, and want to get better and better as the shortened season progresses. There are definitely guys on the team that need to improve, but it’s still a bit early to hit the panic button. But I’m sure they know who they are. They’re professionals.