Charles Barkley’s criticisms don’t add up
As Charles Barkley remains steadfast in his criticism of the Thunder, one obvious question remains: If OKC has such little hope of winning a championship, how does it keep winning so many games?
With Thursday night’s 105-102 victory at Orlando, the Thunder has the best record in the NBA (29-7), the best record at home (15-1) and is within one game of having the league’s best record on the road (14-6).
Barkley sees many flaws in the Thunder, the most prevalent being that OKC is a jump-shooting team that struggles with its half-court offense. The Thunder indeed relies heavily on the jump shot and at times struggles with ball movement in its half-court sets. This will come to the forefront in the playoffs when the pace slows, play becomes more physical and the half-court game takes on added importance.
But what if your jump shots keep going in? OKC is second in the the NBA in field-goal percentage (.474) behind Miami (.487), the overwhelming favorite to win this year’s title. Because a half-court offense becomes more important in the playoffs, wouldn’t this be advantageous to good jump-shooting teams like OKC?
Kevin Durant is shooting a career-high percentage from the field (.512), as are Russell Westbrook (.469), James Harden (.475) and Nick Collison (.656) – and all by substantial percentages. The last time the Thunder/Sonics franchise shot this well from the field was 1995-96 when it finished the season 64-18 and lost 4-2 in the NBA Finals to the 72-10 Chicago Bulls, the winningest team in league history.
Barkely also criticizes OKC for having only three scorers in Durant (28.0), Westbrook (23.6) and Harden (16.7). This trio ranks second to the league’s most heralded threesome of Miami’s LeBron James (27.7), Dwyane Wade (22.8) and Chris Bosh (18.4), and trails by just 0.6 combined points (68.9-68.3). Isn’t having three prolific scorers a good thing?
OKC’s inside combination of Collison, Kendrick Perkins, Serge Ibaka and Nazr Mohammed is arguably the league’s best defensive frontcourt, and prides itself as such. They don’t demand the ball, but will gladly mop up misses and accept any open looks. Terrific Karma underneath. Again, a good thing.
During TNT’s pregame show on Thursday night, Barkley twice said of OKC, “This (Orlando) is not a good matchup for them” and he repeated it again at halftime. An hour later, the Thunder completed a season sweep over the Magic and won for the first time in Orlando since 2004.
Barkley credited Westbrook for his Wednesday performance at Philiadelphia (22 points, season-high 13 rebounds) and co-analysts Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal also shared how Westbrook could improve. It was accurate and helpful criticism without trashing Westbrook, as many have been prone to do.
Barkley: “One of the keys to being a great player, you can always get your shot. The key for him (Westbrook) is, ‘How can I get Kendrick Perkins six points? How can I get (Thabo) Sefolosha (out with a foot injury) six points?’ That’s when you become a great player, when you make the players around you better. When you make the players around you better, it makes the game easier.”
Smith: “There’s five ways to be a superstar — points, scoring and assists, but the others things are leadership and tempo of the game. He (Westbrook) can create a tempo of the game … that he can get those guys easy baskets. Kendrick Perkins should just be laying it in. He can do that. The issue is, he (Westbrook) is so good at scoring he says, ‘Why should I, because I could get by my guy, too.’ But sometimes that will make you go over the top and be a championship team.”
O’Neal: “Those guys (Durant, Westbrook and Harden) score 66 percent of the team’s scoring and the big guys only score 12 percent. The question is, do the big guys need to score more? Do you want to trade what they’re doing on offense for defense? I think they’re doing well, but the question remains, ‘Will they play this way in the postseason?’ Chuck said it, I said it, you said it, ‘You live by the jump shot, you die by the jump shot.’ ”
Until the playoffs arrive, it appears a team with many flaws will somehow keep winning many games.
Recapping All-Star Weekend
A bunch of random thoughts and observations from three days in Orlando.
- Russell Westbrook was one of two people who became the first to welcome me to Orlando. Take a look for yourself.
- Kevin Durant nearly ruled the weekend. He narrowly lost a tiebreaker shootout to Kevin Love in the 3-point contest on Saturday. And then he ran away with MVP honors in the big game on Sunday. The guy is a superstar. He never shrinks in the moment. The only time he’s even come close was last year in the 3-point contest in L.A. But that doesn’t even count because KD didn’t take the event serious.
- As coach of the West Celebrity All Stars, Durant did watch his team get drubbed by 29 on Friday. Said Durant: “It was bad. I won’t be the next Scotty Brooks, I know that.”
- Brooks on his experience this weekend: “I loved every minute of it. I will cherish it for the rest of my career.”
- At this point, I can’t fault LeBron James and Blake Griffin and any other big name you want to throw out there for turning down the dunk contest. It’s virtually impossible to impress anymore. Everything might not have been done yet. But we’re just about there. Besides, any star who signs up for the contest would only be setting himself up for failure. Everyone would go in expecting the greatest show since MJ and Dominique. And there would be no way they could live up to the expectations.
- With that said, LeBron’s left-handed half windmill dunk in the first half of the All-Star game was better than about seven dunks we saw in the dunk contest.
- In case you missed it, here was LeBron’s explanation on not joining the dunk contest. “It’s not me,” James said. “I’m not a dunk contest type of guy. I’m an in-game dunker.”
- Immediately after offering up that explanation, James was asked what he would do if a $1 million, winner-take-all pot was the prize? “Then I’d reconsider,” James said. “Wouldn’t you?”
- The next time someone nationally criticizes Westbrook or KD, Thunder heads should jump for joy. Because, clearly, all it’s doing is bringing the two players closer together. They’ve bonded extremely well in the face of outside negativity. More and more, they’re having each other’s back and making it a point to support the other on and off the court. That hasn’t been clearer at any point quite like their media sessions on Friday afternoon. Durant listed Westbrook as the best in-game dunker. Westbrook, meanwhile, named Durant as the game’s most clutch player, the league’s toughest cover regardless of position and the teammate whose couch he’d prefer to sleep on if he had to. Keep in mind they were on opposite sides of the room, far from an earshot of the other, as they supplied their answers.
- One of Westbrook’s best answers of the weekend came when he was asked what skills he would combine to form the ultimate point guard. “The skills I got,” Westbrook said.
- Dirk Nowitzki proved he didn’t belong in the All-Star game. If I’m a snub, I look at his seven-point performance on 3-of-8 shooting and I’m heated.
- Charles Barkley did nothing to taint his standing as my all-time favorite interview. I got a few minutes with the Round Mound of Rebound on Saturday night and he was once again a great interview, albeit in a much more condensed version. Think what you will about his opinions or his jokes. But I love that the guy speaks his mind and tells it like (he thinks) it is. It’s rare and it’s refreshing. (more…)
Thunder 124, Nuggets 118
Nuggets from my notebook from Sunday’s win over the Nuggets.
- It took Kevin Durant 4 1/2 years to record his first 50-point game. It’s going to take some time for that to sink in for me.
- The story in this one was the Thunder did something no other team in NBA history has ever done. That is have a player with 40 points, a player with 50 points and a player with a triple double. Russell Westbrook had 40 points. Serge Ibaka had a triple dip with 14 points, 15 rebounds and 11 blocked shots.
- Durant and Westbrook became the first duo to score 40-plus points in the same game since Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen in February of ’96.
- Ibaka’s 11 blocks were a career high and set a new franchise record.
- Here’s something our man Berry Tramel pointed out to me that is truly amazing about this game. Nobody else on the Thunder played well. Think about that for a second. That’s hard to do in this kind of barn burner.
- Denver is a really good team. You can’t take anything away from the Nuggets. They play hard and they never quit. But this one shouldn’t have come down to this. The Nuggets came in missing Nene, Danilo Gallinari and Rudy Fernandez. OKC should have won by 15.
- Nobody’s going to want to hear this, but this game is a classic example of why Charles Barkley is always bagging on the Thunder. It was perhaps the most entertaining game this season. No doubt about that. But for the Thunder to struggle with an injury-plagued Nuggets team, playing on the tail end of a three-game road trip, and need overtime, at home, and a statistical feat that’s never been done in the history of the NBA doesn’t exactly scream championship caliber. Again, it was a great game. Tons of fun to watch. But it shouldn’t have come to this.
- A lot of people already are using this game as proof that Durant and Westbrook can co-exist, saying ‘See! I told you so.” Slow down. It’s one game. In the regular season. Against an injury-plagued Nuggets team. I’m not saying they can’t co-exist. Not even close to suggesting that. But you’d be jumping the gun if you used this one instance as the final shred of evidence that there won’t be any issues down the road. Let’s wait and see what happens come playoff time, because there are clearly on-court issues that need to be ironed out.
- Durant admitted after the game that him and Westbrook are improving in that department, though. “I think this year we’re starting to play off of each other a little bit better,” Durant said. “We were trying to find each other. Our teammates were trying to find us. We didn’t force anything. That’s the best part about it.” (more…)
Thunder still not best in West
NBA on TNT crew of Shaquille O'Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley.
On Monday night on TNT, the Thunder beat the Boston Celtics for the third straight year inside TD Garden. For more than two hours, the telecast crew of Kevin Harlan, Mike Fratello, Chris Webber and David Aldridge heaped praise upon the Thunder, which has the NBA’s best record at 12-2 after its 97-88 victory at Boston. But when TNT joined its studio crew of Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal outside Staples Center in Los Angeles, the Thunder quickly played second fiddle again.
Johnson asked the panel to pick a series winner between the Los Angeles Lakers and Thunder right now and all three without hesitation picked LA. The Lakers are too big and Kobe Bryant is simply too good for OKC to win.
LA then went out and nipped Dallas 73-70 on a 3-pointer from Derek Fisher with 3.1 seconds left. The Lakers scored seven total points in the third quarter, shot 38.2 percent from the field, shot 10 percent from 3-point range (1 for 10) and Bryant went 7 for 22 from the field and finished with 14 points.
Some excerpts from the TNT experts:
Webber on Thunder forward Serge Ibaka: “He is athletic, smart defensively. He’s a great shot blocker and a great inside presence.”
Fratello on Thunder head coach Scott Brooks: “He really knows his players and he knows which guys to let grow and develop and which ones he can get on a little bit harder. He wants players to grow and experience this learning process and by the way, they’re winning a lot of games in this process.”
Webber on Thunder sixth man James Harden: “The best teams that I played against had role players that were superstars. They took their role seriously and they knew the importance of their role to the team. (Harden) has embraced his role (as sixth man) and has made sure that the bench is better for that.”
Smith on point guards Rajon Rondo of the Celtics and OKC’s Russell Westbrook: ”They are the only two teams that have guards, besides (Chicago’s) Derrick Rose, that consistently get into the paint.”
Fratello on Thunder forward Kevin Durant: “He is a very unselfish player. He has the God-given ability to score the basketball whenever he wants to. He understands the team aspect of the game and is a willing passer.”
Barkley’s predictions on the best teams in the Western Conference: “The Portland Trail Blazers and the Denver Nuggets are the two best teams I have seen in the West.”
O’Neal on the Thunder being 12-2: “They’ve had an easy schedule.”
As you can see from ESPNstats, the Thunder ranks No. 1 in the NBA in RPI and No. 8 in strength of schedule. O’Neal is partically right in that OKC often has played teams not at full strength such as San Antonio (no Manu Ginobili), New York (Carmelo Anthony), Memphis (Zach Randolph, Darrell Arthur) and New Orleans (Eric Gordon and Trevor Ariza), but other teams also have enjoyed the same benefit. In addition, the Thunder also swept its back-to-back-to-back, won five games in six days and is on a seven-game winning streak.
Is Charles Barkley Coming To OKC?
Could Hall of Fame NBA forward Charles Barkley finally be on the verge of keeping his word and coming to Oklahoma City?
That’s what the former five-time All-Star and league MVP said Monday night at halftime of the Thunder-Lakers game on TNT.
Barkley, now an analyst for the network, responded to a column that appeared in The Oklahoman on Jan. 13 that called him out for never visiting the city as he said he once said he would. Barkley originally said in 2006 during All-Star Weekend in Houston that he would make a trip to Oklahoma after calling the state “a vast wasteland” and “no place for black people.”
TNT host Ernie Johnson began the halftime show by asking Barkley about the column, which was written by Jenni Carlson, and whether Barkley would keep his word.
“Has it been five years?” Barkley asked. “Well, you know what? Jenni, you are a hundred percent correct. Now that you’ve got my good friend Scott Brooks there, and the great Maurice Cheeks, who I played with in Philly, I’ve got to come to Oklahoma City?”
When Johnson asked when he’s going to come, Barkley did not respond.
-DM-
