Thunder Takes Down Denver, Advances To Round Two
Notes and observations from Wednesday’s series-clinching 100-97 Game 5 win over the Denver Nuggets.
- The Thunder won the series 4-1 against Denver to advance to the Western Conference Semifinals…I just thought I’d write that because it still seems sort of surreal. And it sounds pretty sweet.
- How fortunate is this city? Five years ago, nobody outside of Oklahoma City thought NBA basketball belonged in Oklahoma City. Yet here we are, getting ready for the second round of the NBA Playoffs. It all seems like a fairy tale when you really think about it.
- I can’t settle on which team I’d rather see next or which team would be best for the Thunder in the next round. Both the Spurs and the Grizzlies have their strengths and weaknesses. But you have to think playing the Grizzlies would be best for OKC. Against the Grizzlies, the Thunder would have the two best players in the series and home court advantage. But once you think about that wing tandem of Tony Allen and Shane Battier, and that low-post duo of Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph, Memphis might not sound so good.
- Maybe this game will put to rest any and all talk of who the real Batman is on this team. I doubt it will, but it should. Kevin Durant was deadly tonight. He had 41 points on 14 of 27 shooting. He scored 16 in the fourth quarter. He had 14 of those 16 in the final 3 1/2 minutes. Said Denver guard J.R. Smith: “I think he’s hands down the best player in the league when he plays like that.”
- In a word, this performance by KD was scary. Scary because he’s still only 22. Scary because he made it look easy. Scary because you could see it coming and still no one could do anything about it. Scary because it made you think what’s next? What are we going to see when Durant gets stronger? When his body fills out? When he gets stronger with the ball? When he can get to his spot whenever he wants? When he can take over on a nightly basis like he did tonight? This was a scary good performance by KD because he’s only scratched the surface of his dominance and already he’s able to make you leave absolutely amazed.
- Durant averaged 32.4 points on 47.1 percent shooting in this series. And those kinds of numbers, that kind of production, is exactly what he needed. With every great performance, whether it comes in a closeout game in Oklahoma City or a World Championship in Turkey, Durant is becoming more confident. More sure of himself. More understanding of his ability to dominant any and every defender that steps in front of him. For all the talk about how an Allen/Battier tag team might bottle him up, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Durant absolutely abuse both of them.
Mavs 103, Thunder 93
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s loss to Dallas.
- There’s a reason Dirk Nowitzki last week called Jason Terry Dallas’ “closer.” We saw why tonight. But it should not have come as a surprise. Terry has made a career of canning clutch shots. He had 11 fourth-quarter points tonight and stole this win when comrade Nowitzki was back in the locker room nursing a knee injury.
- Terry was 5-for-8 in the fourth quarter. The Thunder was 4-for-18. That’s borderline embarrassing.
- As I wrote for Tuesday’s paper, it was a fan seated courtside that got Terry going. This guy, who’s a regular, gave Terry an earful all night. And he lit a fire under Terry. Next time, the guy probably should keep his mouth shut.
- Terry had some great quotes after this one.
- “Once we kept it close I knew that, in this hostile environment, we’d have the upper hand because we are a veteran team and we’ve been in this position numerous times.”
- “It just shows you how deep of a team we are and the veteran leadership that we have. We come in at halftime and Dirk says, ‘What’s the score?’ We said, ‘It’s tied up.’ He said, “Oh, you guys got ‘em. No problem. I’ll take the night off.’
- “Dallas is No. 1, and OKC is a close second as far as the best fans in the NBA. It’s unbelievable. They’re here early. They stay late. They’re cheering. They’re just unbelievable. And it’s great to know that in a small market like this you have die-hard fans. They’re some of the best.”
- “They’re still a great team. That’s a good young team there. They’re missing one or two veterans and that’s about it. But, hey, Oklahoma City, they’re tough.”
The $20,000 Halfcourt Heave
Robert Yanders set up his launch much like the 93 hopefuls before him.
Turning to the crowd. Raising his arms. Pleading for encouragement.
This contestant, however, would really give the crowd something to cheer.
Yanders on Sunday night became the first fan in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s history to sink a halfcourt shot for $20,000. His heave came midway through the second period of the Thunder’s blowout win against Cleveland. And it produced pure pandemonium inside the Oklahoma City Arena.
Yanders raced from halfcourt toward the scorer’s table, eyes wide, mouth open, arms raised looking for someone to celebrate with. Russell Westbrook, arms also raised by then, looked willing to initiate an embrace. Kevin Durant, too. But Yanders zipped right and finally found a familiar face. He jumped into the arms of Thunder house emcee Joel Decker while 18,000 roared in appreciation.
“It happened so fast,” Yanders said of the shot. “I remember being asked (in the tunnel) what kind of shot will you shoot, a two-hand shot or a one-handed shot? I just said I’m going to shoot it as if I really wanted it to go in. And that’s what I did, man. And it went it.”
Yanders, 31, of Springfield, Mo. sat in Section 107 and was randomly selected for the contest. He said he originally didn’t want to do it when asked. But after a little encouragement from his wife, Jennifer, he decided to give it a try.
“I was kind of embarrassed at first,” said Yanders, who still couldn’t control his hands from shaking while trying to sign the Thunder’s necessary paperwork minutes after the shot. “My wife was like, ‘Do it.’ So I did it and this is what happened. This is unbelievable. This is unbelievable.”
Yanders actually plays professional basketball overseas after competing at Missouri State. He’s played nine seasons overseas, all in Great Britain, and said he competed with Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng and Detroit Pistons guard Ben Gordon on the Great Britain National Team this past summer.
Yanders estimated that Sunday was the first time he’s attended an NBA game in about eight years. His tickets were a Christmas gift. They turned into a gift that will keep on giving.
“I get to go do a little shopping for the family,” said Yanders when asked how he’ll spend the money. “Get to enjoy Christmas with my wife a little bit more. Do a little bit more than normal. Just enjoy it. Spend it the best way possible. I’m not a man that needs much. I don’t want much. But it’s good to have it just in case.”
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Oh Great, More Of The Thunder Dummers
I received an e-mail this morning that I was hoping would never arrive.
It was a media advisory sent out by the Thunder to announce auditions for the Thunder Drummers.
For those who don’t know who the Thunder Drummers are, they are a small band of guys who are camped out in the upper deck in one of the end zones and fill the Ford Center with more unnecessary noise. But the Thunder takes things a step further, allowing this group of young men to come on down on occasion and do their thing at center court. It probably ranks somewhere among the top five worst ideas in NBA history.
That’s not taking away anything from the drummers. They’re not the problem. They actually had moments of quality music last season. It’s the idea that’s rotten. It’s as if the man who came up with this idea had never seen an NBA game. The Thunder Drummers descend from the nosebleeds at the most inopportune times. And nothing, I mean nothing, sucked the energy out of the building like a timeout with these guys on the court. There were games in which the timing couldn’t have been worse. Thunder down one. 34.5 seconds left. OKC ball. Let’s send out the Thunder Drummers. That’ll get everyone pumped. No, it actually does the exact opposite. It leads to folks sitting on their hands, wondering what they just experienced. Check out how fired up this crowd grew, at Game 6 of the Lakers-Thunder playoff series for crying out loud. And trust us when we say this was one of the drum teams best performances.
So it looks like we’ll be subject to another 41 games of these guys. Let’s just hope that the game night operations staff fills fourth-quarter timeouts from here out with T-shirt tosses or two-steps by Thunder Girls, you know, something that actually gets the crowd animated and maintains interest. The Thunder Drummers do not.
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