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…)
Thunder 115, Suns 104
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday’s win over Phoenix.
- Sixteen minutes. That’s all the Thunder played tonight. Sixteen minutes of good basketball. The first 32 were crummy.
- This game was the epitome of the Thunder’s inconsistency. We’re watching a team that’s good enough to sleepwalk through the first 32 minutes of a game before showing up and getting serious. But everyone associated with this team knows that formula won’t work when it matters most, i.e. in the playoffs. That’s why Thunder coach Scott Brooks and players like Nick Collison and Royal Ivey and Kendrick Perkins are preaching consistency now.
- Ivey: “We got to be more consistent. In the first half, we weren’t that good in defending. We can’t just turn it off and on all the time. We got to come in thinking the first five minutes are very essential in the first quarter and the third quarter.”
- Ivey rescued the Thunder from what would have been a horrible home loss. When the Thunder went small midway through the third period and Brooks inserted Ivey with five minutes to go in the third, it completely changed the face of the game. Ivey’s defensive intensity was contagious and it sparked the turnaround. Said Brooks: “It’s amazing. He has 17 minutes, doesn’t score, doesn’t get an assist, doesn’t get a rebound but he had a big impact on the basketball game just with his toughness.”
- I called Ivey’s final numbers the best, worst stat line imaginable. And the great thing about Ivey is he doesn’t care. “It’s not about stats with me,” Ivey said. “Straight energy. I can affect the game without scoring. The shots didn’t go down. But I’m not worried about when my shots go down. When my shots go down, it’s extra. I’m worried about wins and losses and winning. If I can contribute in that kind of way, I’m happy.”
- What Ivey has done over the past three weeks has been amazing. The guy played a total of 27 minutes in the first 28 games of the season but has stepped right in and supplied stout defense and timely shots when called upon. “When you see a guy like that working, you have no choice but to do the same,” said Russell Westbrook. “If you’re not then everybody’s look at you like you’re crazy.”
- You know Ivey had to be pretty special to overshadow the night Westbrook, Kevin Durant, James Harden and Serge Ibaka had. Russ, KD and Harden each had at least 30 points, and Ibaka was two points shy of a 20-point, 20-rebound game. Those are video game numbers. It’s every bit as impressive as the Nuggets game in which KD scored 51, Westbrook scored 40 and Ibaka had a triple-double with blocks. My mission on Thursday is to find out when the last time a team had three 30-point scorers and a 20-20 guy.
- Brooks wasn’t impressed with his quartet’s numbers. “You have to play both ends of the floor, and I don’t think that they played the defense that they needed to in the first half,” Brooks said. “It’s great that they played well. That’s their job is to play well. But their job is also to play defense in both halves.” (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…)
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.
Thunder 92, Sixers 88
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday’s win at Philadelphia.
- This was a tough, tough win by the Thunder. And you figured it would have to be. The Sixers are an extremely good defensive team that likes to slow the game down, grind it out and make teams work for everything. And we all know the Thunder is not great in those types of contests. That’s what makes this such a nice win. This is the style of play we’ll see come playoff time. And for the Thunder to get out of here with a win to go along with some experience against this style was huge.
- Once the Thunder clawed back from an eight-point deficit in the fourth quarter and pulled to 85-all with 3:20 remaining, you sort of knew things were going to go the Thunder’s way from there. OKC has just been too good at closing out games, even on the road. And even though the Sixers are a tough-minded bunch, the Thunder is the more experienced team. Sure enough, the Sixers were the team that struggled with the mistakes when it mattered most and the Thunder was the team that executed late, largely by benefiting from Philly’s miscues.
- Before the Thunder tied it up with 3 1/2 minutes left, it was anybody’s guess as to how this one would end. And with the game in doubt, the Sixers’ game-night operations staff had to prepare for all scenarios. It ended up being a funny little sideshow to a pretty scintillating game. I tweeted about it, and someone urged me to include it in the Nuggets so here it goes…I tweeted two pictures in succession: this with 5 1/2 minutes left and this with 2 1/2 minutes remaining.
- The way the Thunder was able to pull this one out was with defense and rebounding. And it was one heck of an effort. Everyone chipped in, and the stops just kept coming. In the final two minutes, when it was tied at 85-all, Russell Westbrook kept a ball alive following a Kevin Durant miss. Then Serge Ibaka secured an offensive rebound and got fouled after another KD miss. That’s when OKC went up by two (its first lead since 55-53 with 8:59 left in the third). Then Kendrick Perkins cleaned the defensive glass and was fouled and made one of two foul shots. Ibaka intercepted a Lou Williams pass to Elton Brand. Durant and James Harden trapped Williams and forced another turnover. Perk closed out on Jodie Meeks and came up with a huge rejection on his 3-point try. And then Russell Westbrook just did what Russell Westbrook does…
- There was not a bigger, more important, more fitting play than the final rebound Westbrook grabbed. He flew in from out of nowhere and snatched a missed free throw attempt by Durant out of the air in the middle of the lane. I guess nobody has ever told Westbrook he’s a guard, he’s only 6-3 and he doesn’t belong in the paint with the big boys. The guy is not only a phenomenal athlete, but he’s also a fearless player. That board, coupled with Westbrook’s ensuing two free throw makes, iced the game.
- Said Westbrook of his final board: “People tend to relax on free throws, especially in a game like that. I just went to go get it and whoever was right there wasn’t ready.”
- Said KD of Westbrook: “Russ had the biggest rebound of the game after my missed free throw.”
- Said Thunder coach Scott Brooks of Westbrook: “The kid is an amazing athlete. He is dynamic. That last offensive rebound was huge. It was a big one. I don’t know where he came from. He just jumps over bigs and finds a way to snatch it out of the air.”
- Said Sixers coach Doug Collins of Westbrook: “That guy is a little Pit Bull. You have to play all 24 seconds of the clock with him, and I didn’t think we did that. I thought we were lax at the end of clocks, and you can’t do that with him.”
- Westbrook finished with a game- and seas0n-high 13 rebounds, including a game- and seas0n-high seven on the offensive end. Russ’ career high is 15 rebounds, set on Dec. 1, 2010 against New Jersey. (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…)
Thunder 100, Lakers 85
Nuggets from my notebook from Thursday’s win over the Lakers.
- Tons of credit goes to Serge Ibaka, Kendrick Perkins and Nazr Mohammed for the job they did on Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. That Lakers duo has been a perennial pest to the Thunder, but the way the bigs bodied them up and made them take tough shots set the tone and helped keep them relatively quiet.
- Led by Ibaka (game-high 13 boards) and Perk (nine boards), the Thunder out-rebounded the league’s best rebounding team 44-41 and held the Lakers to just eight offensive rebounds. Extremely big key to tonight’s win.
- Thanks to a solid defensive rebounding effort by the Thunder, as well as just 12 OKC turnovers, the Lakers attempted only one more shot than the Thunder. This thing had the potential to get ugly if the Thunder allowed L.A. to play volleyball at the rim. But that didn’t happen largely because of the big boys.
- Said Thunder coach Scott Brooks: “Our bigs, you know, you’re so proud of them every night. They come and give you everything they have. They defend, they rebound, they set screens. They are the unsung heroes of our team.”
- No Nick Collison tonight. He missed his third straight game with a quad contusion. I don’t know for sure, but I assume he’ll be ready to go Tuesday at Philadelphia. The fact that the Thunder controlled the middle without the help of Collison was impressive in itself.
- Ibaka did some serious work boxing out Gasol at the free throw line. Ibaka didn’t seem to care one bit about actually getting the rebound. His sole mission was to keep Gasol from getting it by any means necessary. Gasol didn’t want none of that.
- The Lakers are far from an offensive juggernaut right now. But you’ve got to be impressed that OKC held L.A. to 38 percent shooting.
- A big part of that poor field goal percentage was Kobe Bryant was held to 24 points on 24 shots. Who needs Thabo Sefolosha? (Kidding). Daequan Cook, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and even Kevin Durant did a great job of tag-teaming on Kobe and using their length to force him into some tough, tough looks and prevent him from getting anything but contested shots.
- Harden actually played through a wrist injury. Apparently it happened in Wednesday’s game against Boston. He had his left wrist heavily tapped and had some sort of contraption on it while he was on the bench. He finished with 16 points, four rebounds, three assists, two blocked shots, a steal and five turnovers. Gritty effort by Harden.
- Harden doesn’t seem to like Kobe. Every single time they meet there is jawing and pushing. Tonight, they had to be separated late in the game. It looked like Harden took exception to something Kobe said. Harden wouldn’t let it go. He just kept getting in Kobe’s face. Neither guy looked like he really wanted to fight. Kobe was even smiling and laughing while talking to Harden and KD at the other end while the refs reviewed a shot by Derek Fisher.
- While the antics by Harden did have a slight stench of a guy just trying to make a name for himself, it did show some of what this Thunder team has become about. Oklahoma City is a confident group of young guys that is on its way to taking over the league, and they don’t care one bit who they have to run through to do it. Rarely will Thunder players put that mentality on display like Harden did in the final minute and a half. But rest assured it’s in them. Said Brooks: “I don’t coach the perfect players or the perfect team, and they’re not coached by the perfect coach. But one thing we don’t do is we don’t back down.” (more…)
Thunder 119, Celtics 104
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday’s win over Boston.
- Welcome back, Daequan Cook. You were sorely missed. Cook made 5-of-11 shots tonight went 3-of-8 from deep to match his season high of 17 points. His first 3-ball that dropped was only his second in the past five games. And when he splashed in his second with 3:14 remaining in the opening period, the crowd erupted, partly because it pulled the Thunder within one after a sluggish start led to a 10-point deficit, and partly because seemingly everyone in the building knew Cook had been struggling and that bomb was a sign that he was back.
- Cook doesn’t like passing up shots. If he touches it, there’s a 92.4 percent chance it’s going up.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks said he wasn’t worried about Cook, who was just 4-for-34 from deep in his previous six games. “He really hasn’t shot the ball well, and I wasn’t concerned with it. Obviously, I would like for him to make some shots. But with Daequan, I’m happy he does this, last year I looked at him as a guy that can give us a 3-point threat. But this year I look at him as he can defend, he can rebound and he can make plays for us. He’s not just a 3-point shooter.”
- Led by Cook, the Thunder made nine of 19 3-pointers tonight and used the long ball to get back in it when the Celtics took that early 10-point lead. In the last couple of games, the Thunder took a ton of 3s but didn’t make enough to warrant that many hoists. Tonight was a great night from behind the arc.
- Celtics guard Avery Bradley started the game for the suspended Rajon Rondo. And Bradley began the game by pressing up on Russell Westbrook and trying to play aggressive defense. As soon as I saw that, and Westbrook’s initial attack on offense, I thought ‘Uh oh. Here we go.’ It looked like Westbrook was about to turn the game into a personal battle. And on a couple a possessions he did. But Russ stayed under control and turned in a solid, solid performance with 31 points, five rebounds, six assists and just two turnovers.
- This was the third straight game Westbrook has scored at least 30 points. It’s kind of hard to believe, but that’s the first time he’s done that.
- Controversy alert. Westbrook took two more shots than Kevin Durant.
- In the last two games, KD and Russ have gotten to the line at the rate we grew accustom to seeing them get there last year. Westbrook has attempted 24 foul shots in his last three games. Durant has attempted 28.
- James Harden returned from a one-game absence and scored 17 points with seven assists and four rebounds. Only two of his points came in the second half, though.
- With the win, the Thunder is now tied with Miami for the league’s best record at 26-7. Pay no attention to whatever you hear Thunder players and coaches say. The record is important and it matters to them. If OKC finishes with the best record in the league, it will get home court advantage throughout the playoffs. If you ask me, if the championship is a battle between any combination of Miami, Chicago and OKC, the determining factor in which team hoists the trophy this year will be home court advantage.
- Most encouraging thing tonight: two first-half turnovers, both coming in the second quarter.
- Second most encouraging thing tonight: three offensive rebounds for the Celtics. A lot of that had to do with Boston’s 18 turnovers preventing them from getting up shots and a 48.6 percent shooting clip from the field that didn’t lend itself to many second chance opportunities. Still, when you’re one of the worst defensive rebounding teams in the league, you take it how you can get it.
- Least encouraging thing tonight: another big lead was blown. The Thunder allowed the Celtics to erase a 27-point, deficit midway through the third quarter and pull within six in the final 3 1/2 minutes. That’s now two straight games we’ve seen that. Said Royal Ivey: “We got complacent. They were in attack mode because they were down and they were needing a win. We were playing on our heels. But we closed it out and we got the win and that’s all that’s important.”
- Complacent is the operative word. The Thunder is simply taking its foot off the gas and letting teams back in it. Someday, that’s going to bite at a bad time. Gotta clean that up now.
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