Thunder 108, Pacers 102
These Pacers are built to give a lot of teams trouble.
Indiana spreads the court with shooters, has tiny, jitterbug guards in the backcourt, long, athletic wing players waiting behind them on the bench and two unheralded but unyielding big men to balance things in the post.
And against that resourceful roster, you saw the benefits of the Thunder’s vast versatility.
When the Pacers played big, alternating 7-foot-2 center Roy Hibbert and 6-foot-11 forward Soloman Jones, the Thunder countered with Nenad Krstic, Byron Mullens and Serge Ibaka. When Indiana went small, using Troy Murphy at center, OKC trotted out Jeff Green at the 5-spot, flanking him with Kevin Durant at power forward, Thabo Sefolosha at small forward, James Harden at shooting guard and Russell Westbrook at point.
Most teams would wilt when faced with that type of quandary. The Thunder thrives on it.
Oklahoma City led by as many as 18 points and never trailed in the second half. The Pacers lost their last lead with 5:56 remaining in the second period.
Thunder coach Scott Brooks said after the game that what worries him whenever he matches a team’s small-ball style is the rebounding game. The Thunder out-rebounded Indiana 47-43, getting 29 boards from Westbrook, Sefolosha and Durant.
“Westbrook, you usually don’t have to talk about keeping a point guard off the boards,” said Indiana coach Jim O’Brien, “but he’s a helluva offensive rebounder.”
Brooks is hellbent on a nine-man rotation. But we’re starting to see the emerging effectiveness of employing exchangeable players. The Thunder can match up with any team, big or small, old or young, fast or slow. The building blocks are in place.
“They should be very pleased with the way their plan has matured,” O’Brien said. “They’ve done a great job of putting together young pieces, keeping them together, filling in really key guys like Krstic and Sefolosha to go with them.
“It’s a very exciting basketball team and they have clearly turned it around to where they’re a factor in the playoff race. And also, in the future if they continue to grow the way they’re growing, they’re going to be one heck of a basketball team, and at some point in time maybe even a contender.”
Thunder 117, Sixers 106
Russell Westbrook might have simply had an off night.
But it’s more likely that his 1-for-11 shooting struggles in Wednesday’s 117-106 win over Philadelphia go hand-in-hand with his career-high 15 assists. That’s how it goes when you’re learning the ropes, still figuring out how to set up your teammates while satisfying your own appetite for scoring.
Westbrook looked confident, cool even, as he ran the team against Philadelphia, standing toe-to-toe with his eventual one-and-done replacement at UCLA, Sixers rookie Jrue Holiday. But that look never appeared when it came time for Westbrook to put the ball in the basket. Looked as if Westbrook second-guessed his shot all night, save an early 3-point hoist with 8:30 remaining in the second quarter and 18 seconds remaining on the shot clock. It was as if Westbrook thought to himself, ‘Every shot attempt is a missed opportunity to prove I can pass.’ And his offense suffered as a result.
That’s what happens when a player as naturally gifted as Westbrook thinks too much, when a natural scorer spends too much time trying to be a set-up man. You Thunder fans out there who want Westbrook to be John Stockton (you know who you are) saw what it looked like when he tries to be. And it’s precisely why Thunder coach Scott Brooks isn’t asking him to be.
Westbrook played his 100th game Wednesday. Only 12 times has he recorded a double-double with points and assists. Of those 12 occasions, Westbrook recorded at least 15 points (his rookie scoring average) only six times.
But that’s not to say Westbrook won’t get better. Remember, he just turned 21 three weeks ago. But those figures stand as proof that Westbrook is far from finished, a long way away from mastering the art of balancing the roles of scorer and playmaker.
All signs say Westbrook is on the right track, though. Consider that, by comparison, last year’s Rookie of the Year, Chicago’s Derrick Rose, also had only four games with at least 15 points and 10 assists. And Westbrook’s 15 assists Wednesday against two turnovers is perhaps the biggest sign of his progression, a far cry from the 272 turnovers he led the league with last season.
“He’s really trying to do the right thing,” said Nick Collison. “There are a lot of plays when he could take a shot but he sees the (defender) rotate to him and he makes one more pass and (a teammate) has a wide-open, better shot. He’s making better decisions like that. He’s making better decisions in the open court. He’s really trying to figure it out and he’s coming along.”
Collison marveled at Westbrook’s development after remembering the second-year guard barely played as a freshman for the Bruins, then played off the ball as a sophomore.
“Then he comes into the NBA playing the point guard,” Collison said. “So his progression’s been great. I think he’s trying to figure it out, and he’ll get to the point when he knows when to be aggressive and when to run the team. That’s just part of his growth. But for now he’s done well.”
Thunder 104, Jazz 94
SALT LAKE CITY –When is it time to pull the vets and play the pups?
That’s the question I asked Scott Brooks following Tuesday’s 104-94 win over Utah at Energy Solutions Arena. It’s a subject that is gaining more and more steam as this season snakes along. The latest and arguably most surprising case for the youngsters came when the Thunder walked into Utah and whipped a veteran Jazz team, leading by as many as 19 points and, with the exception of the final minutes of the second and fourth quarters, played with poise, patience and pride.
With Nick Collison and Kevin Ollie out with knee ailments, the Thunder’s bench unit was comprised of two rookies and one sophomore. Veteran Etan Thomas, the only other reserve to see action, played just nine minutes. Serge Ibaka, James Harden and Kyle Weaver took over the heavy lifting, and they showed they are more than capable of handling the load.
Weaver, who was relegated to the D-League on Saturday and recalled from the Tulsa 66ers hours before tip-off only to provide emergency duty behind starting point guard Russell Westbrook, had played only 15 garbage-time minutes in the Thunder’s first 14 games. Fourteen of those minutes came in one contest. But on Tuesday night, Weaver matched his season total in minutes. And he provided more than just a steady hand. Weaver made plays, pestering Jazz point guards Deron Williams and Eric Maynor with his defense and seamlessly setting up the offense and swishing key shots. He finished with seven points on 2-for-3 shooting. He turned the ball over twice but had a career-high-tying three blocked shots to go with one assist.
Ibaka, meanwhile, continued to be a game-changer around the basket. One game after a career night — an 11-point, 13-rebound, five-block performance against the Lakers — Ibaka pulled down five rebounds and had one steal and one block in 21 minutes. He coolly filled in for Jeff Green when the Thunder’s starting power forward picked up two early fouls. He gobbled up a rebound following a Paul Millsap miss. He netted an 18-footer following a feed from Kevin Durant. He pulled down another board after Mehmet Okur’s missed jumper, giving him two points and two rebounds in just four minutes. Ibaka later spelled a foul-plagued Nenad Krstic and did much of the same. But most impressive was the 20-year-old’s confidence. When the Jazz came alive in the fourth quarter and used a 4-0 spurt to cut the Thunder’s 19-point lead to a tenuous 15 with eight minutes remaining, Ibaka smoothly sank an 18-footer. Thabo Sefolosha then nailed two free throws to push the lead back to 19.
And all James Harden did was bounce back from a woeful performance he turned in two nights earlier that could have rocked the rookie’s confidence. After a 2-for-15 shooting night (0-for-10 from 3) against the Lakers, Harden netted four of five shots and one of two 3-pointers for his 10 points during his 19 minutes. His second-quarter production showed his moxie. He poured in all of his points during a 3 minute, 14 second span that started with the Jazz leading by a point and ended with his 3-pointer that gave OKC a 39-36 lead with 6:54 remaining in the half. The Thunder trailed only twice the rest of the way, both times by just a point.
“Sam Presti, our general manager, has done a great job of finding guys who are competitive,” Brooks said after the game. “You can have talented guys, but if they’re not competitive what good are they? Our guys are competitive. They get better. They get better in practice. It’s a fun group to coach because they compete against each other in practice. Sam has done a good job of putting a good group together.”
So why not play the kids?
“One of the things that Sam and I talk about every day, we have a team that has to earn minutes,” Brooks said.
Translation: the days of PT liberally being handed out ended with Russell Westbrook last season. No longer is the Thunder in the phase of speeding players’ development by awarding extended minutes without merit. Ibaka and Harden are clear cases. Neither figure to unseat Thomas/Collison or Sefolosha so long as those veterans are more consistent and better defensively, no matter how lofty the rookies’ ceilings.
But that doesn’t mean the position battles won’t intensify as the season marches on.
“Guys are competing for minutes and it puts pressure on our guys to come with it every day in practice,” Brooks said. “And it pays off. I think the way guys work in practice pays off and it gives them opportunities to show what they do. And our starters have to be ready because we have guys that can play.”
While the pups wait their turn, the fans will be waiting with bated breath.
Thunder 83, Clippers 79
While you were cozily tucked in late Wednesday, perhaps uninterested in staying up past midnight to watch the Thunder take on the Blake Griffin-less Los Angeles Clippers, Kevin Durant was busy delivering his breakthrough performance in Game No. 8 of what many consider the season that will be his coming out party.
Durant dominated the Clippers in every respect before the final buzzer sounded on the Thunder’s 83-79 win, undoubtedly assembling his best and most complete outing of his two-plus years.
On this night, Durant arrived, his coronation unfortunately coming courtesy of L.A.’s forgotten team, which had only a generously-announced 14,248 spectators sprinkled throughout Staples Center as witnesses.
Statistically, Durant has had more impressive showings. His line Wednesday — 30 points, 10 rebounds and four assists — won’t wow you because it’s what we’ve come to expect of Durant. On numbers alone, this wasn’t even Durant’s best night in Staples Center. He poured in career-highs of 46 points and 15 rebounds against the Clippers last January, getting to the foul line 26 times and swishing 24 freebies. Both the attempts and the makes from the stripe stand as franchise records.
But this game wasn’t about numbers. It was about winning, which the Thunder failed to do against a short-handed Clippers team last winter despite Durant’s career night. It was about the mega-talented Durant, maybe for the first time, coming to the realization that he is capable of doing whatever he needs to do on the court to lead his teammates to victory.
Durant hunkered down on defense, playing the passing lanes and pestering his man to come up with steals and deflections. Durant played point forward offensively, controlling the ball and the pace of the Thunder’s offense throughout much of his 36 minutes, 22 seconds. He created for himself and others, refusing to settle but rather weaving his way into the lane for easy baskets or showing off an improved mid-range game with pull-up jumpers. Durant’s first 3-point attempt didn’t come until the opening seconds of the second quarter.
And this time, on a play that illustrated everything he did right offensively, Durant netted the big shot.
The Thunder took a 78-71 lead with 5:43 left to play but scored just one point over the next five minutes as the Clippers crept back to tie the score at 79-all. Thunder coach Scott Brooks then ran an isolation for Durant on the left wing. With Al Thornton defending closely, Durant drove left with two dribbles before reaching the baseline. He stopped and hit a step-back jumper over Thornton with 38.9 seconds remaining.
“That’s what I do,” Durant said. “That’s what I’m here for is to make big plays, miss or make.”
It wasn’t the make that stood out. It was the decision-making.
Equally impressive, although it will be overshadowed, was the play in which Durant didn’t take the shot. It came on a sequence that saw the Thunder aiming to milk the final 27.3 seconds off the game clock with the shot clock showing a 4.3-second differential. With all eyes on Durant as he stood near halfcourt, much like he did against the Lakers before settling for a 28-footer, Durant jabbed right took one dribble left and passed to a wide open Jeff Green after Marcus Camby helped. Green swung it to Kevin Ollie in the left corner. Ollie missed a 3-point attempt but retrieved the rebound and iced the game with a pair of free throws with 1.8 seconds remaining.
“We’ve definitely made some strides,” said Nick Collison. “I think we’re just starting to learn how to play. What I like is we have a lot of guys just concerned with winning and making winning plays.”
Durant did both Wednesday and assumed his rightful place at the front of the line on a night that you might have viewed simply as Game No. 8 of his third season.
Etan Thomas Has A Lot On His Mind
On Sunday, Mike Baldwin wrote about how Thunder center Etan Thomas is, ‘More than just an athlete.”
A day later, Thomas’ first blog for HoopsHype.com was published and the entry, “My 12 questions,” touches on everything from the NBA’s age limit, to its dress code, to negativity in the media, to the H1N1 vaccine.
Thomas also tackles issues regarding Rush Limbaugh, George Bush, Donald Sterling and what he views as questionable language used throughout the NBA that has overtones of slavery.
“Why does the NBA, an almost 80 percent African-American league, constantly (use) terms that reference slavery? Why are the CEO’s of the teams called owners? why do they use the term “property” of a certain team when referring to a player’s employment? Why is the term trading block utilized? Why all the references to slavery, and why hasn’t anyone up until this point objected to this?”
Thomas, perhaps more than any other current NBA player, has been praised for being an athlete who is unafraid to speak his mind. I’m not sure if his HoopsHype.com blog will be a recurring column. But, love his opinions or hate them, he’ll certainly find some avenue for being heard.
-DM-
Thunder 102, Orlando 74
The stat of the night?
Three Thunder players with at least five assists.
Russell Westbrook had a game-high 10. Kevin Durant and James Harden had five apiece.
Ball movement was the name of the game Sunday against Orlando and the key to the Thunder’s 102-74 victory inside the Ford Center. Oklahoma City had 27 assists on 40 made baskets and 14 assists on their first 17 made field goals.
This, just three games after the Thunder recorded only six assists in a nine-point loss to Portland.
“We played as good as we could possibly play,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks. “We did a good job of playing 48 minutes of team basketball. It was probably our best ball-moving game.”
Through spacing the floor and sharing the basketball, the team’s most critical offensive principles, the Thunder got high-percentage looks and broke out of an early season scoring slump.
Sunday’s point total tied the Thunder’s season-high, set on opening night against Sacramento. The Thunder’s 57.1 percent shooting from the field and 56.3 percent shooting from the 3-point line were season-highs. So were the 27 total assists.
“We were making our shots, but we were making our shots because we were passing the basketball,” Brooks said. “We had 27 assists. That’s great basketball. We had some bad offensive basketball when we had six assists the other night and 15 a couple of games later. We have to move the ball. We have to keep everybody involved. Five guys need to feel a part of it because that’s what it’s going to take on both ends of the floor.”
At halftime, Brooks showed his team film of the exceptional ball movement. Through the first 24 minutes the Thunder had 15 assists on 21 made baskets. OKC had just four turnovers. It led to a 53-44 advantage at the break.
“It’s a lot easier,” said Harden about the offense when the ball moves. “It’s a lot of us who can score, who can put the ball in the basket and make plays for other people. Everyone did it tonight.”
Blazers 83, Thunder 74
This is what it looks like when you’re a team filled with jump shooters. When there isn’t a low-post scoring option in sight and the shots that usually go down do everything but drop through the net.
You knew the problem would rear its ugly head at some point. You just didn’t expect it to be game three. Especially not after the Thunder’s performances in games one and two.
The Thunder shot 34.3 percent in its 83-74 loss to Portland on Sunday night. Oklahoma City missed 11 of 14 3-pointers and couldn’t even hit the freebies, going 23 of 32 from the line.
The shooting woes led to just six assists.
“Offensively, it was probably as bad as we could possibly play,” said Thunder coach Scott Brooks.
Kevin Durant was 3-for-21 and is now 21-for-64 through three games. That’s 32.8 percent.
Sunday’s shot selection was particularly alarming. Alarming because Durant continued to settle for jumpers. Good looks, no doubt, but not as good as layups. Alarming because this, his third season, is the one he was supposed to come back with an even more refined game. But he looked like strictly a jump shooter Sunday. There were occasions when he manufactured points and attempted to take it to the rack. His 14 free throw attempts were a good indicator that it wasn’t all long-range heaves.
But he could have done better, should have done better.
“Great players have their off shooting nights, and I guess tonight was his,” said Jeff Green. “He will bounce back next game and have a terrific game.”
Thunder 91, Pistons 83
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. — Last year, the Thunder took two steps back in games like this.
On the road. Bait for a team’s home opener. After a blowout home win.
It used to be the perfect storm. Friday night it was a piece of cake.
For a moment, though, it appeared as though not much had changed. The Thunder scored just 38 first-half points on 39.5 percent shooting. A talented Pistons squad that’s loaded with offensive weapons wasn’t having much trouble putting the ball in the basket in the first 24 minutes. And what we thought was a new and improved Russell Westbrook was regressing by the second, reverting to playing faster and turning over the ball at an alarming rate.
Even when the Thunder took a 10-point lead on two occasions in the fourth quarter, the outcome seemed in doubt. You might have reached ‘Here-we-go-again’ mode when the Pistons clawed within four with 4:27 remaining after surging to an 8-0 run.
But then it happened. The Thunder showed us this year would be different. Westbrook turned the tide when he hustled back instead of hanging his head after Ben Wallace blocked his layup. The Thunder’s point guard returned the rejection on Ben Gordon and helped the Thunder salvage it’s four-point lead. He made two free throws to push the lead to six. After Gordon netted one of two free throws, Westbrook found Nenad Krstic under the rim to bump the lead to seven.
And when Gordon split two more free throws, fundamental ball movement found Thabo Sefolosha in the corner for a 3-pointer that gave the Thunder a 84-75 lead with 2:03 remaining. The crowd filed up the Palace’s steps. The Pistons never got closer than five.
“This was one of our better wins since I’ve been here in terms of holding a team off and being able to get stops when we needed to in the fourth quarter,” said Nick Collison. “We never gave up that bad spurt where a team made a run on us. That’s something we struggled with in the past…It’s good to see in a tough game on the road that guys are still trying to do the right thing. A less experienced team like we were last year, those are the times guys kind of break away from the game plan and don’t make good decisions. But tonight, everybody played well.”
And the Thunder is 2-0.
Etan Thomas In The Gym
It’s been a long and hard road back to basketball for Etan Thomas, who underwent open heart surgery two years and two weeks ago. He missed the entire 2007-08 season following the operation. His 6-foot-10 inch, 260-pound frame lost 35 pounds during the recovery process. He struggled to put one foot in front of the other more than 10 times without exhaustion setting in while rehabbing.
People thought Thomas would never play another NBA game.
But Thomas, the former Tulsa Booker T. Washington standout, was determined to get back on the court. Doubters served as one of his driving forces. The acclaimed author and poet penned a song about misleading reports surrounding his heart condition. And he hit the gym. Hard. He made it back for the 2008-09 season but played in only 26 games after tearing his MCL in a game in mid-January. He spent this summer trying to come back from the latest setback, and cameras were around to capture footage of what his workouts were like.
-DM-
Kings 104, Thunder 89
Don’t think this game didn’t matter. Not for a second.
If for some reason you’re still under the impression that Thursday night’s 104-89 loss to the starless Kings was simply a throw-away game, the last of this exhibition season, carefully chew on Kevin Durant’s words.
“It always means something when we step on this floor,” he said. “We’re a young team. We want to get better every time we step on the floor. Tonight was a tough one. We took some steps back.”
Steps.
Plural.
This was the third straight loss by at least 15 points. The third straight time a team has drained at least 10 3-pointers. The third straight game the wanna-be-defensive-minded Thunder allowed 104 points or more. The third straight game in which the opponent has shot better than 50 percent from the field.
In no way is it time to panic. It’s certainly way too early for that. But while the outcome doesn’t matter in these tune-ups, the performances and the trends certainly serve as warning signs.
After seven preseason games, the Thunder has demonstrated an inability to put together 48 minutes of quality basketball. It’s the same flaw that plagued this bunch last season. Some of this preseason’s blunders can be attributed to odd lineups and funky rotations, to subs closing out games and philosophy taking precedence over the outcome. But mostly, the Thunder showed the same imperfections during times its main unit was on the floor and times when the team tried to successfully close out a game with a win.
Have we forgotten Phoenix’s 26-9 fourth quarter on Oct. 12 that erased a 20-point lead before the Thunder prevailed by five in overtime? Lose that game and this exhibition season goes from 2-5 to 1-6, from decent to disappointing.
“It’s definitely a concern in our minds because we want to change it,” said Shaun Livingston. “That’s not how we want to come out and start the season. I know that we are going to come out better opening night. We know we are better than that.”
