Thunder 114, Clippers 91
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday’s win over the Clippers.
- The player of the game on this night goes to Russell Westbrook. His defense on Chris Paul set the tone from the start and shaped the complexion of the entire game. Westbrook was as locked in as we’ve ever seen him, giving second and third efforts on pick and rolls and refusing to get taken out of the play at any point throughout the night.
- Said Nick Collison of Westbrook’s D: “He was really focused and he was great for us. When he can control the point of the ball, we’re so much better defensively.”
- Westbrook said the Thunder’s embarrassing loss to the Clippers on Jan. 30 was his motivation for his inspired play. “We definitely (wanted) to come back after a loss last night and come back and get a little payback from what they did to us earlier in the season.”
- Not trying to be a Darnell downer by any means here. This was as good of a game as the Thunder has played in weeks. But this team needs to get to the point where it can come out with this type of effort without payback on the brain. We know the Thunder can get up for big-time players and big-time games. But what we have yet to see is OKC come out with that same focus consistently when game No. 48 of the season is just game No. 48. That’s an ultra important step in this team’s maturation.
- One last thing from me on Westbrook’s defense. Where is that effort every game? He showed tonight that he could, without a doubt, be the league’s best defensive point guard. But he’s been disappointing on that end pretty much all season, allowing opposing guards to have their way with him and, as a result, make things extremely tough on the entire team’s defense. I asked Westbrook how he can duplicate tonight’s effort on a nightly basis. “Easy,” he said. “Just come back and do it again.” Of course, I couldn’t let Westbrook get off that easy, because we all know that if it were that easy he would be doing it. And that certainly hasn’t been the case. (This is the part some of you might have caught on the post game broadcast. I didn’t know they were live.) “Oh, wait a minute, Darnell,” Westbrook said. “I’ve done it. (Tonight) was a good defensive game, but I wouldn’t say I haven’t done it all season. But I’m going to consistently try to do that.”
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks on Westbrook’s D: “From a statistic point of view, Russell looks like he had just a very average game. But I thought this was one of his best all-around games. He was guarding one of the premier point guards in the league, a guy that can manipulate the pick-and-roll game as well as anybody. And he did a very good job with that. He controlled the team and he controlled the game on both ends of the floor.”
- Westbrook was so good tonight that he caused Paul to temporarily lose his mind. Normally, it’s other guards getting under Westbrook’s skin and forcing the Thunder’s point guard into bad shots, bad turnovers and bad decisions. But, surprisingly, it was Westbrook who got the better of Paul. The final minute and a half of the second quarter said it all. In that span, Paul had two turnovers and took two terrible shots, missing both. He was a wreck, even flying around on defense in desperation mode. The best part was that Westbrook maintained his composure throughout the entire stretch and continued to make solid plays, winning plays even. Big time performance by Westbrook.
- The Clippers had just two dunks tonight. Only one was off a lob pass. That was a direct result of the Thunder’s defense, which started with Westbrook’s ball pressure. By comparison, the Clippers had eight dunks in that Jan. 30 debacle.
- Now, about Derek Fisher.
- (more…)
Jazz 97, Thunder 90
Nuggets from my notebook from Tuesday’s loss at Utah.
- This team’s inconsistency is a full blown problem. There’s no other way to put it. Don’t think for a second that the Thunder is good enough to turn it on 20 games from now and drown its deficiencies. Right now, the Thunder isn’t even playing like the final 20 games are enough to correct the problems.
- The frightening thing is we might not have even seen rock bottom yet. The current 10-game stretch that started tonight could expose the Thunder like we’ve never seen. This is by far the toughest portion of the schedule, and unless the Thunder gets its act together we could be in for several more stinkers.
- It’s hard to say which was the bigger problem tonight, offense or defense. Defensively, the Thunder barely could get a stop when it needed it most, and when it did a turnover or a bad shot was the result at the other end. That’s why the offense was, without a doubt, the ugliest facet of the Thunder’s game tonight. In the fourth quarter, it looked like the Thunder was out there without a plan. It was a bunch of one-on-one and very few sets to get something decent. It looked like the Thunder of three years ago.
- Much of the offensive problems were due to Kevin Durant being as bad as we’ve seen him. He went 0-for-7 in the fourth quarter and 3-for-15 in the final three quarters. “I just couldn’t make a shot,” Durant said.
- Durant also had six of the Thunder’s 20 turnovers and took the blame as the team’s leader for the Thunder’s giveaways. “I just got to be stronger with the ball,” Durant said.
- Something told me that nothing good could come from KD and Russell Westbrook combining to score 23 of the Thunder’s 25 first-quarter points. It’s been proven, time and time again, that the Thunder is at its best when everyone is involved offensively. Tonight, a pair of free throws by Serge Ibaka were the only other points for OKC in the first period. I’d say the first six minutes or so was really good offense. The last six minutes of the first quarter looked like ‘Let’s get it to our All-Stars and let them make a play.” In the end, the All-Stars didn’t have it, and it cost the Thunder the game.
- Westbrook deferred so much in the final three quarters that I think someone got in his ear. Or he was trying to prove a point. Or something. A few of his shots in the opening period weren’t the best, but he had his jumper working and had made five of six from the field. Then he takes five more shots the rest of the game? There’s something to that. I can guarantee you. Three of those final five shots were 3-pointers. And only three of those final five came in the final 24 minutes despite Westbrook playing 18 of those.
- It’s a shame that so many have questioned Westbrook shooting more than Durant, because now that he deferred and did what it seems people want him to do he was wrong, too. He can’t win. But, again, something fishy happened tonight.
- I asked Westbrook about his passivity and he immediately gave a devious laugh. “I was just trying to find the open man. That’s all,” Westbrook said. (more…)
Spurs 114, Thunder 105
Nuggets from my notebook from Friday night’s loss to San Antonio.
- Early in the third quarter this one had the look and feel of the road game at Orlando. The Thunder was dead in the water and should have been finished. But they kept chipping away and chipping away. Then all of a sudden it was a game. Only this time, there was no magic left in the tank.
- Spurs forward Danny Green, of all people, had the play of the game when he sealed the win on a stolen inbounds pass from James Harden to Russell Westbrook. It gave the Spurs a 111-105 lead and iced it.
- Tim Duncan’s play just before that was a close second for play of the night. Duncan answered a huge 3-pointer by Kevin Durant with a turnaround jumper and the foul. He missed the free throw, but the bucket put San Antonio ahead by four with a minute left. Big time answer. If the Spurs don’t get that, I’m not sure they win this game.
- Interesting that for two years Thunder coach Scott Brooks has insisted on having Thabo Sefolosha in the game late to inbound the ball. There was a time when many questioned that decision. But two games into Sefolosha’s return from a foot injury, Brooks opted for Harden to inbound it rather than inserting Sefolosha. And we saw it backfire. Harden made a lazy pass and it ended up being the ballgame.
- Royal Ivey was playing his tail off, but Brooks could have replaced Ivey with Sefolosha and gotten his best inbounder into the game.
- Brooks on the personnel decision for the inbound pass: “I thought of that. I believe that Thabo is one of the best at throwing the ball inbounds. That’s a tough thing to do and it showed tonight. That was a tough play. It was not a good pass by James. But it’s something that we have to get better at because with Thabo, there’s times when he’s not going to be able to throw it in.”
- Brooks said he’s trying to limit Sefolosha to about 14 minutes a night while he continues to get acclimated.
- Defensive rebounding. My goodness. What is it going to take for the Thunder to close out possessions? In the first quarter, the Thunder was out-rebounded 18-7. The Spurs had as many offensive rebounds as the Thunder had total. And San Antonio converted those into 10 second-chance points. For the game, the Spurs out-rebounded the Thunder 49-37 and grabbed 15 offensive boards.
- Those 15 offensive rebounds led to 24 second chance points.
- No Manu Ginobili in this one. The Spurs were resting him as he continues to recover from a hip injury. Word is he’ll play tomorrow at Dallas.
- Don’t look now, but the Spurs are just three games back of the Thunder for first place in the West. Good thing Spurs coach Gregg Popovich doesn’t care for home court advantage or seeding. He said before the game that it’s proven that his teams can win or lose from anywhere. Doubt we can say the same about the Thunder. OKC needs home court. (more…)
Thunder 103, Nuggets 90
Observations from the Thunder’s 103-90 victory Thursday night at Denver:
- Tuesday’s 104-103 setback to Houston unquestionably was the Thunder’s worst loss of the season. OKC blew an 11-point lead in the final 2½ minutes, and blew it at home. The manner in which the Thunder lost and the place it lost, it couldn’t have been much worse. That being said, not only was it imperative that OKC beat Denver on Thursday night, it was important how the Thunder looked doing it. OKC’s 103-90 victory indeed was impressive. Tuesday night’s loss is not forgotten, but at least it’s in the rearview window and could become a fleeting memory if OKC can sweep San Antonio and Portland in The Peake on Friday and Sunday night.
- Ignore Thabo Sefolosha’s stat line Thursday night (three points and one assist in 12 minutes, 27 seconds). His presence was undeniably huge. The Thunder had its identity back. Remember, OKC is 17-2 with Sefolosha in the starting lineup and 16-8 without him. “The chemistry is going to get back to what it was before,” Kevin Durant said.
- Daequan Cook isn’t going to say anything about preferring to not start, but he immediately seemed at ease coming off the bench and getting into the flow, scoring 11 points in 16 minutes.
- At 11:15 a.m., Denver coach George Karl spoke of how much better his team would match up defensively with Danilo Gallinari and Nene’ Hilario back in the lineup after missing the season’s previous meeting against OKC. Less than two hours later, Nene’ had been dealt to the Washington Wizards before the NBA trade deadline. Why would Karl bring up Nene’ if he knew he wouldn’t be playing? Maybe Karl didn’t think the trade would go through. Denver media expressed shock at the trade.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks said he doesn’t believe a shortened season and limited practice time necessarily led to fewer trades. “There’s not a lot of practices, you can say that, but you can blend it in,” Brooks said. “NBA players and coaches, they figure it out and teach on the fly. … You have to deal with it and integrate it as quickly as possible. It’s tough, but there’s enough time to work it out.”
- The best thing about Nick Collison, and there are many things, is he’s a straight shooter. When the Thunder stinks, Collison will tell it to you straight. And when OKC excels, Collison will do the same. Keeping that in mind, here is what Collison thought of Russell Westbrook’s performance against Denver: “Russell deserves a lot of credit. He defended really well. He got over every screen. I thought he was great tonight. He set the tone. So much of it was at the point of the ball. If we can avoid having to help so much (defensively) and avoid breakdowns at the point of the ball, we’re a lot better, especially against a team like Denver. He’s still playing on a sore ankle and he showed a lot tonight. He was great, and (Nuggets point guard Ty) Lawson is tough, man. He’s one of the toughest to keep out of the lane. I was impressed with Russell.”
- Speaking of Westbrook, he is starting to suffer the consequences for constantly whining for fouls and flashing his six-shooters when making 3-pointers. Denver fans started booing Westbrook the first time he touched the ball. Those boos quickly turned to groans as Westbrook buried his first three jump shots, but he made just 4 of his final 14 attempts to finish 7 for 17. With 7½ minutes left in the game, Westbrook was booed loudly when he did a double-clutch reverse dunk well after a whistle had stopped play. One section in the stands started chanting “over-rated,” which quickly fizzled out. Fans even booed when Westbrook was shaken up after being fouled with 2:41 remaining. With 2:25 left in the contest, Westbrook had a breakaway, but laid in the ball and placed it on the floor, drawing more boos.
- I’ve never heard fans boo more than in Denver. They spend much more energy booing than they do cheering for the Nuggets.
- The Thunder had a lengthy film session prior to the Thursday morning’s shoot-around, during which the normally mild-mannered Brooks wasn’t particularly kind. “We watched a lot of film and saw how bad we were,” Collison said. “Defensively, we’ve been really bad. We were a different team tonight. So now the key for us is that needs to become a habit. It can’t be just because we got embarrassed. Hopefully guys will see how fun it is to play like that and hopefully we’ll keep it up.”
- Speaking of the mild-mannered Brooks, he was slapped for a technical foul with 1:45 left in the second quarter when Ibaka was whistled for his third foul. Brooks was right. It was an atrocious call. Two trips before that was a delayed foul called on James Harden after the Thunder had gotten the ball back and was headed the other direction. It was Brooks’ second technical of the season.
- Brooks understandably had been frustrated with his team’s lackluster play as of late. He was particularly dejected after Tuesday night’s loss. “Didn’t get much sleep that night,” Brooks admitted during Thursday morning’s shoot-around.
- Man, there’s a lot of ice being used inside the OKC locker room. Lots of aches and pains. These truly are the dog days of the season.
- Thunder rookie Reggie Jackson never became a fan of the Denver Nuggets after moving to Colorado Springs in the sixth grade – he liked the Chicago Bulls and Portland TrailBlazers – but he performed extremely well in his home state, finishing with five points, a career-high five rebounds and four assists. “Reggie played phenomenal basketball tonight,” Durant said.
- The biggest individual stat difference from the first meeting between OKC and Denver to the second meeting obviously involved Durant, Westbrook and Ibaka. Durant scored 51, Westbrook scored 40 and Ibaka had a triple-double in a 124-118 victory in OKC. Playfully asked if he had the same plan for Thursday, Brooks said during the morning shoot-around: “That was a good game plan. It worked last game. It’s going to be tough to pull that one out again. That was a spectacular game. One of those games no one deserved to lose.”
- The biggest team stat difference from the first meeting to the second meeting was the Nuggets scored 20 fewer points in the paint thanks to the Thunder taking better care of the ball (13 turnovers; just five in the second half) and not allowing Denver to get easy baskets off OKC’s carelessness. The Nuggets also had 15 second-chance points, 10 fewer than the previous meeting.
- The sequence of the game came with 3:41 left in the third quarter: An Ibaka block into the waiting hands of Durant, who fed Westbrook, who fed Harden for an ally-oop to make the score 70-57. Breathtaking.
- The Thunder might have struggled a bit lately, but there has hardly been a significant demise in its stature. Despite being just 4-3 in its last seven starts, OKC still has the best record in Western Conference at 33-10 (second-best in the NBA to Chicago’s 36-9) and leads second-place San Antonio by four games heading into Friday night’s game at The Peake. The Thunder is 15-7 on the road (easily the best record in the West) and is 18-3 at home (second-best to the 18-2 Los Angeles Lakers).
Thunder 122, Bobcats 95
Nuggets from my notebook from Saturday’s win over Charlotte.
- This game was over after a three-minute stretch early in the second quarter. The Thunder used a 12-0 run to turn a three-point lead into a 15-point advantage. During that spurt, the Thunder got the Bobcats to miss five straight shots and turn it over twice. Kevin Durant and James Harden combined to score all 12 points during the run.
- The most impressive thing about what was essentially the game-clinching run was how the Thunder shared the ball. All five made field goals by Durant and Harden came on assists. Four different players — Harden, Reggie Jackson, Nick Collison, and Russell Westbrook — had an assist.
- The Thunder had a season-high 27 assists in this one. Eight Thunder players had at least one assists. Six Thunder players had at least two.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks on the ball movement: “You can’t say that we turned the corner because it’s just one game. But it’s a start. Hopefully we continue to move the basketball. The good teams in this league are consistent with that ball movement.”
- It’s trite, I know, but the key to the Thunder bouncing back tonight was effort and energy. If the Thunder played like it did tonight against Cleveland, that home winning streak would still be intact. Instead, the Thunder had to learn the hard way. Said Collison on the team watching the Cavs film Saturday morning: “We didn’t play hard enough to win. We didn’t play fast enough and we didn’t have enough energy. It was really pretty bad.”
- The Thunder is now 8-1 in games after a loss.
- Westbrook got off to a great start, getting high-percentage shots while just abusing D.J. Augustin. Westbrook scored on post-ups, in transition and on pull-ups and mid-range jumpers. Westbrook scored 13 of the Thunder’s first 15 points on 6-for-6 shooting, and he was under control and made good decisions throughout.
- Harden and Westbrook were the only ones doing anything for the Thunder on offense early on. They combined to score 29 of OKC’s first 35. Durant then joined the party.
- The Thunder’s 31-point lead tonight was one point shy of its largest of the year. But the field-goal percentage (63 percent) was a season-high.
- OKC’s 122 points were a regular season high and came two shy of the 124 scored in overtime on Feb. 19 against Denver.
- Despite the blowout, turnovers and defensive rebounding both were a problem again. The Thunder had 14 turnovers, which actually is a fantastic number for OKC. But eight of those came in the first half, and the Bobcats scored 20 points off of them. As for the rebounding, the Thunder gave up 15 offensive rebounds (partly because of a tone of missed shots by Charlotte). (more…)
Cavs 96, Thunder 90
Nuggets from my notebook from Friday’s loss to Cleveland.
- Too many offensive rebounds. Just way too many. The Thunder allowed the Cavs to scoop up 21 offensive rebounds. That’s one shy of an opponent season high. Had the Cavs converted more of those opportunities, this would have been a blowout. Even though they didn’t, those second chances are deflating for any defense and it told the story of this game.
- I should copy the first nugget and paste it here but replace offensive rebounds with turnovers. The Thunder gave it away 17 times tonight and they led to 18 Cavs points. There’s that deadly duo rearing its ugly head again.
- The Thunder’s lack of free throws was glaring. OKC got to the line just 17 times tonight. That’s like an average night for Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. That, more than anything, spoke to the team’s offensive passivity. The Thunder launched 24 3-pointers, four shy of a season high, and just never attacked the basket with the regular authority we’re used to.
- Serge Ibaka’s energy from start to finish was great. Or maybe I should say start to the third quarter, because he didn’t play a single second in the fourth. Thunder coach Scott Brooks basically explained it by calling it a coach’s decision. “The last game we had success playing Serge at the 5 and going small,” Brooks said. “But for the most part, for the year, we’ve had a lot of success with Perk at the 5. I chose that matchup. Did it work? Looking back on it, I don’t think it bothered us as much as it looks.”
- If you’re looking to nail Brooks to some nearby cross because he didn’t play Ibaka in the fourth, count me out. The Thunder still had plenty of chances without him. But I will say this. If any big on this team, I don’t care if it’s Ryan Reid, has 13 points, seven boards and six blocks going into the fourth, I’m sticking with him.
- Ibaka brought the crowd to its feet late in the first half when he blocked three straight shots, one by Antawn Jamison and two putback attempts by Alonzo Gee. It ignited the crowd at a time when the score was tied at 47-all. It looked like it would give the Thunder plenty of momentum going into halftime…and then Anthony Parker hit a buzzer-beater to take it all back and pull the Cavs within two at the break.
- Guard Royal Ivey: “We came out kind of flat. We ran through the motions. And we gave them confidence.”
- This loss snapped the Thunder’s 14-game home winning streak. The Thunder is now 17-2 at home. It’s hard to think of a crummier way for it to go down in flames. What am I saying? Saturday night would have been way crummier.
- As I wrote for Saturday’s paper, this game is the reason the Thunder’s veterans are preaching consistency. All that fourth quarter magic is bound to run out eventually. The Thunder had become too reliant on winning games in crunch time. Sometimes, that’s simply not going to work. That’s why the focus is on building good habits now and playing a sound all-around game for 48 minutes. (more…)
Thunder 95, Mavs 91
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s win over Dallas.
- Man, does Kendrick Perkins know how to have a bounce-back game or what?. He followed a subpar, foul-plagued performance at Atlanta on Saturday with an inspired, Player of the Game type night tonight. He grabbed a season-high 14 rebounds, including five on the offensive end, scored seven points, blocked a shot and provided two incredible defensive sequences in the final 30 seconds, switching onto Mavs guard Jason Terry and forcing him into two tough, contested shots that both missed and helped the Thunder secure this win.
- The last time Perk responded like this was after a terrible game against Denver in that overtime classic. He came back the next night and shut down New Orleans center Chris Kaman. You can question a lot about Perk this season. But his pride, it seems, will never be one of them.
- Perk’s pride actually mirrors that of his team’s. The Thunder moved to 7-1 in games after a loss this season, the second best winning percentage in the league behind only Chicago’s unblemished mark. Said Nick Collison: “We were embarrassed with how we played at Atlanta. Our effort wasn’t anywhere close to being good enough. So we wanted to make sure we came out with a lot of effort tonight.”
- The Thunder won for the 13th straight time at home, another type of toughness and form of pride. OKC is now 16-1 inside the Peake. Very, very impressive. And with a few cupcakes coming up, it’s a good time to build on that during this five-game home stand.
- Gotta love how the Thunder played through its offensive funk tonight. The Mavs are one of the best teams in defensive field-goal percentage and showed why in limiting the Thunder to 38.2 percent. Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and James Harden all struggled to make shots and, generally, when that happens Loud City turns into blowout city. But the Thunder kept battling. Kept getting stops. Kept manufacturing points. In the end, it was enough to pull out a win.
- Speaking of manufacturing points. The Thunder had 33 free throw attempts tonight. The Mavs had 10. Westbrook (12) alone took more than the entire Mavs team.
- For all the concerns about turnovers and defensive rebounding and halfcocurt offense and this team taking too many jump shots, the Thunder is quickly turning into the type of team that wins in the playoffs. Have you noticed the trend that’s taken place in the fourth quarter over the last month? In spite of the Thunder’s flaws, real or perceived, the team has gutted out wins in crunch time. The Thunder did it at Portland and at Golden State, at home against Denver and the Lakers, on the road at Philadelphia and Orlando and again tonight against the Mavs. That’s seven out of the last 15 games that the Thunder has pulled out playoff-style victories, which are marked by defense down the stretch. In those seven games, the Thunder held opponents to 37.4 percent shooting. That’s downright dominant. Combine that with the trio of Thunder players who are capable of creating offense and drawing fouls and it would appear that Oklahoma City does indeed play a brand of ball that is conducive to postseason success.
- One more note about the defense. In 12 games since Feb. 10, the Thunder has given up an average of just 22.9 points in the fourth quarter. That figure doesn’t put the Thunder among the elite, but it doesn’t put it far off either. Chicago leads the league in fourth quarter points allowed at 21.8. (more…)
Hawks 97, Thunder 90
Nuggets from my notebook from notebook from Saturday’s loss at Atlanta.
- Russell Westbrook is a warrior. There’s no other word to describe him. Less than 48 hours after spraining his left ankle, Westbrook was back on the court, keeping his consecutive games played streak alive and bumping it to 283. Westbrook left Amway Center on Thursday night with an extremely bad limp and it looked like there was no way he’d be able to play. But then Thunder coach Scott Brooks announced at Saturday morning’s shootaround that Westbrook would be a game-time decision. It sounded like a smoke screen. And then Brooks announced about 75 minutes before tip-off that Westbrook would play. And as I sit here typing this, I still can’t believe Westbrook didn’t have to sit this one out.
- Not only did Westbrook play. He came out and played his butt off from the start. With his left ankle heavily tapped underneath an ankle brace, Westbrook showed no signs of the ankle being a burden. The first thing he did was run into Kirk Hinrich to set a screen. Then he started scoring. And scoring…and scoring…and scoring. Westbrook had 10 points in the first quarter on 4-of-5 shooting. He hit a jumper out of a post up on Jeff Teague. He drilled two 3s. And he got Jannero Pargo to bite on an up-and-under move for a jumper.
- As if Westbrook’s performance wasn’t impressive enough, it became clear in the locker room after the game that he did what he did with a still swollen ankle. His left foot was clearly puffier than his right, but he kept it moving like it was no big deal. Seeing that was an example of some of the things these athletes go through that every day fans have no idea about.
- Of course, Westbrook wasn’t happy with his performance. But rather than just rely on using the loss as reason, he pointed to specifics. “I did all right,” Westbrook said. “I could have done a better job of defending and rebounding. I didn’t get an opportunity to get no rebounds today. Especially at my position, if I can get loose balls it can lead to fast breaks. The next game, I’m going to do a better job of that.”
- This was the first time this season that Westbrook didn’t pull down a rebound. It was the first time since a 17-point win over Charlotte that he failed to grab at least one board.
- Only thing I didn’t like about Westbrook’s game tonight was he got trigger happy from 3-point range. He took a career-high eight. He made his first two, which, with the benefit of hindsight, might have been a bad thing, because then he missed five of his last six. And many of those last six were terrible shots. Some of it might have had to do with not having his customary explosiveness. But eight is too many for Westbrook, especially when they don’t come in the flow of the offense.
- OK. There was no offensive flow tonight. Turnovers destroyed any hope of that. The Thunder finished with 21 and watched them lead to 22 Hawks points. Amazingly, OKC had four in the first 1 minute, 55 seconds and five in the first 3 minutes, 56 seconds. Eight players had at least one turnover. Seven had at least two.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks: “We got to fix it. We keep talking about it. We’re working on it. But we got to figure out that because it’s going to be hard to win night in and night out the way we turn it over.”
- More Brooks: “We are an attack team. We are an aggressive team. I understand that. But we still have to be solid with our decisions. It’s unacceptable having 20 turnovers in an NBA game.”
- The Thunder’s league-worst turnover rate is now at 16.83 per game. This was the 10th time this season that the Thunder had at least 20 turnovers.
- As I wrote for Sunday’s paper, the worst part of the turnovers was that they snowballed into selfishness. You could see players quickly losing trust in one another and taking it upon themselves. But that’s only a good way to get blown out. The ball movement became non-existent, and the Thunder finished with a season-low 11 assists as a result.
- Good news: Atlanta had just 11 offensive rebounds.
- Bad news: Zaza Pachulia had nine of them and got putbacks on several, scoring 10 points with 14 rebounds to help the Hawks rack up 16 second-chance points.
- Brooks: “We turned the ball over and we gave up too many offensive rebounds. They scored on just about every offensive rebound.” (more…)
Thunder 105, Magic 102
Nuggets from my notebook from Thursday’s win at Orlando.
- I’m not sure what happened here tonight. All I know is the Thunder was dead in the water, staring at an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit one second and then had the lead the next. This was one of the most amazing victories in Thunder history.
- What made it so amazing was that the Thunder had nothing going for three quarters. OKC couldn’t get a good shot, couldn’t get a stop and didn’t look like it had a plan on how to do either. Then, all of a sudden, the Thunder did both.
- In the fourth quarter, the Thunder made 10 of 15 field goals. The Thunder held Orlando to 8-for-25 shooting in the period. It was a complete 180.
- The Magic was destroying the Thunder in the pick-and-roll, and just basic ball screens, all night. Orlando would throw two and three ball screens on the Thunder on every possession if need be. And the Thunder had no answer for it…until Thunder coach Scott Brooks decided to go small.
- Brooks: “We went small. We were switching a lot of their actions, and I thought they gave us some energy; gave us some juice. And it did. As the game went on, we got stronger defensively. We got stronger with our intensity.”
- Offensively, the Thunder was headed for a long night. The halfcourt offense looked non-existent, and on TNT no less. Charles Barkley had to be getting ready to serve up a big bowl of ‘I told you so.’ I wouldn’t be surprised if he does anyway. That’s how bad it was…until Kevin Durant got hot.
- You could say Durant played like a dog through three quarters. He would probably say that. In fact, Durant sort of did. “I was so down on myself,” he said. “I was going downhill fast after the first quarter.” But when the horn sounded to start the final period, KD came alive and came through once again in the clutch. He scored 18 of his game-high 38 points in the final period and hit one big shot after another when the Thunder needed it most.
- Durant: “I always feel like I have to be aggressive in the fourth. I guess that is my time no matter how I am playing.”
- Durant’s biggest shot, and this is a hard one because in the final five minutes they were all big, was his one-legged ‘Dirk’ that he hit over Hedo Turkoglu as the shot clock expired. It doesn’t get more cold-blooded than that. Said Durant: “That was a prayer. God was on my side on that one.”
- What made Durant’s fourth even more impressive was that he stepped up another notch when Russell Westbrook couldn’t anymore. Westbrook had carried the Thunder early on, but he sprained his left ankle with 5:46 left to play. He fought through it but had lost his explosiveness. He’s listed as day-to-day, but he left the arena tonight with a pretty serious limp.
- Westbrook was so good before his got injured that he was the Thunder’s offense. The team just gave him the ball and let him make a play, mostly darting to the basket. It’s great to have a player who can take over like that, but the Thunder has got to do better. It was 1-on-5, and that will always be an uphill battle. It’s no fault of Westbrook, though. He was doing his best.
- After he rolled his ankle, Westbrook bounced right up and walked it off before making two free throws. He then dished out two huge assists to Durant. Can’t say enough about how he gutted it out tonight. He finished with 29 points and 10 assists and only two turnovers. (more…)
Five Things To Watch In The Second Half
If the Thunder can stay healthy and button up a few areas, there may be no cooling off Oklahoma City in the last half of the season.
The second half of the season is upon us.
With All-Star Weekend in the rearview mirror, the Thunder will now embark on its final 32 games of the regular season starting Wednesday at Philadelphia. Already sitting atop the Western Conference standings at 27-7, the Thunder has enjoyed some pretty smooth sailing thus far. Oklahoma City is on pace for 52 wins, which in a traditional 82-game season translates to 65 victories.
It’s scary to think this team can perform even better.
With that said, here are five things to watch as we prepare for what is shaping up to be a fantastic final half.
1) Injuries. Once upon a time, the Thunder was a team blessed with extremely good health. That period came to an end last year. This season, OKC quickly turned into the walking wounded. Already, the Thunder has seen eight players miss a combined 57 games to injury or illness. By comparison, in all of last season, seven players combined to miss just 53 games. Eric Maynor has been lost to a torn ACL. Thabo Sefolosha has the sorest foot in the history of mankind. Ryan Reid busted his nose. Lazar Hayward busted up his eye. And Nick Collison, James Harden and Kendrick Perkins have all missed at least one game because of nagging injuries. Thus far, the Thunder has withstood the storm. But can OKC continue to hold on? How the Thunder deals with the unavoidable injury bug from here out could determine how it finishes in this home stretch. Some even have said that the league-wide injury issue will determine this year’s champion.
2) Rebounding. It’s no secret that the Thunder has had trouble rebounding. Through the first half of the year, the Thunder ranked ahead of only Washington, Sacramento and Golden State in opponent offensive rebounding. That inability to consistently close out defensive possessions with a rebound has prevented the Thunder from truly capitalizing on its standout defense through the first shot. The rebounding problem also is largely to blame for opponents taking nearly seven more shots per game than the Thunder. It’s become problem 1-A for OKC, and it will now be the main area the team will look to clean up before the playoffs begin. If the Thunder can do it, we could see it transform into a dominant defensive team. (more…)
