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…)
Russell Westbrook A Game-Time Decision
ATLANTA — Russell Westbrook hasn’t been ruled out of tonight’s game against Atlanta.
But it’s no guarantee he’ll play, either.
Westbrook will be a game-time decision, coach Scott Brooks said, when the Thunder faces the Hawks at 6 p.m. central inside Philips Arena.
The Thunder’s All-Star point guard sustained a sprained left ankle with 5:46 remaining in the team’s 105-102 win at Orlando on Thursday. He remained in the game but was in obvious discomfort as he exited Amway Center with a bad limp. It looked so bad that it would be shocking if Westbrook didn’t miss a game.
But when Brooks on Saturday morning listed Westbrook as a game-time decision, it came as a surprise that he hadn’t already been ruled out. It sounded better, too.
“A lot better,” Brooks said. “We’ll see how he feels before the game. He’s improved a lot over the last day. He went through a little bit in shootaround today. We’ll see how he feels tonight.”
Westbrook was seen sitting on the sideline with several other teammates by the time media members were permitted into the team’s shootaround on the Hawks’ practice court. Westbrook walked out of the gym with his teammates, wearing sandals and showing much less of a limp, albeit still walking gingerly.
When asked how Westbrook’s mobility was, Brooks said it was “fine.”
“What he did today is not enough to make a decision,” Brooks said.
Westbrook has never missed a game since being drafted fourth overall in 2008. His streak of 282 games played is the third longest streak among active players. Los Angeles Lakers guard Derek Fisher ranks first among active players with 531 consecutive games played. Charlotte forward Boris Diaw is second with 383 straight games played.
Westbrook wasn’t made available to the media Saturday morning, but he said following the win at Orlando that he wouldn’t jeopardize his long term health just to keep his streak alive.
“I’m much more focused on my career,” he said. “I think missing a game instead of missing (more time) in the long run won’t hurt you. So we’ll just see how it feels and hopefully I’ll be able to play.”
Westbrook this season is averaging 23.6 points and 5.0 rebounds in 35.3 minutes, all career-highs. He’s also averaging 5.6 assists and 1.8 steals.
It’s unclear who would start in place of Westbrook in the event he is unable to play. Rookie guard Reggie Jackson has served as the primary backup to Westbrook but has been erratic. Veteran guard Royal Ivey has been steady in a more limited role and could be an option as well.
James Harden, the team’s sixth man, seemingly wouldn’t start at point guard. But Harden has terrific playmaking ability, and he acknowledged that he could be used as a more of a lead guard in situational lineups throughout the game.
“I’ll have a lot more playmaking duties,” Harden said. “Not just scoring the ball, but also getting my teammates better shots and easier shots. We’ll see. Hopefully he plays, though.”
-DM-
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 101, Hornets 93
Nuggets from my notebook from Monday’s win over New Orleans.
- James Harden missed this one with an ankle sprain. He rolled it in Sunday’s game. Nick Collison also was out because of a quad contusion. Without them, and considering it was the second night of a back-to-back that just happened to follow the game of the year, not even Thunder coach Scott Brooks had any idea of what would happen tonight.
- What happened was the Thunder came out and handled business the way it should have regardless of the injuries. OKC jumped on New Orleans early and never let up. The defensive effort was strong from the start and the Thunder played nice team ball offensively to make things easier.
- The Thunder outscored the Hornets 31-18 in the first period and dished out seven assists on 14 field goals. Eight players scored for the Thunder in the first 12 minutes. OKC also limited New Orleans to 5-for-20 shooting in the period and forced the Hornets into six turnovers.
- Said New Orleans coach Monty Williams: “That team just took it to us from the jump.”
- A lot of people lately have been down on Kendrick Perkins. But he was pretty darn good tonight. And I’m not even talking about his season-high tying 13 rebounds or his season-high six blocked shots. His defense on Chris Kaman is what was most outstanding. Go back and watch how well he crowded Kaman and made his looks difficult, especially early. It’s one of the things Perk is best at and something many don’t seem to appreciate. Kaman went 4-for-17 tonight. One of his field goals came against Cole Aldrich and another came on a tip-in. Kaman hit two shots on Perk, and both were pat-him -on-the-butt type contests that you just have to live with.
- Perk clearly came into tonight with an attitude. He left the locker room Sunday night appearing to be in a bit of a bad mood. It could have been anything so I don’t want to assume what the issue was. But obviously he didn’t play well against the Nuggets. So I think Perk made it a point to come out more determined tonight. I wasn’t the only one to notice. Said Kevin Durant: “You could tell he was a little upset with himself. If that was over last night, I don’t know. But he came out and played with that energy, rebounding the ball like a mad man, finishing under the basket and doing some good things for us. That’s what we need from Perk every night.”
- Because he was so fired up, Perk picked up a tech less than three minutes into the game. He got it for arguing a call with an official. And, again, you could tell his emotions were high because of how he got it. He was just trying to play tough defense and he didn’t want the ref bailing out Kaman. And even though he knows he has to slow down on the techs, Perk couldn’t hold his tongue. Unofficially, it was Perk’s 10th tech of the season. To my knowledge, there hasn’t been a ruling on whether the one he got at Houston will be rescinded. If so, he’ll have nine. If not, he’s three shy of an automatic one-game suspension.
- Quietly, Perk has been fantastic in three of his last four games. He shut down Al Jefferson (relatively). He shut down Luis Scola (relatively). And tonight, shut down Kaman. In those three games, Jefferson, Scola and Kaman combined to score 42 points on 18-for-52 shooting. For you math geniuses, that translates to a three-game average of 14 points on 34.6 percent shooting.
- Russell Westbrook was great tonight. Again. He played under control for the most part and didn’t force things. There were a few bad passes but not nearly enough to make a big deal about, because he routinely made the extra pass as well and didn’t hurt the offense by jacking shots or settling. I was probably most impressed with Westbrook’s defensive effort. He was as locked in as I’ve seen him guarding the ball, especially in the high ball screen. He was aggressive, but he also trusted the system and cut out a lot of the gambling.
- Only a combined 62 points for KD and Russ tonight? Slackers.
- Speaking of, Serge Ibaka finished one point and seven boards shy of a second triple-double in as many nights (sarcasm). On a serious note, I thought he was great again, too. He finished with 13 rebounds to match Perk for game-high honors, and he was great cleaning up around the basket and protecting the paint. If he was a split second faster on about two or three goaltending calls, he would have had five or six blocks tonight, too.
(more…)
Thunder 110, Warriors 87
Nuggets from my notebook from Friday’s win over Golden State.
- Let’s start with what everyone wants to know. Russell Westbrook is fine. He had to leave the game late in the third quarter after rolling his right ankle. He did not return. But he walked briskly out of the locker room, and his foot appeared to be just fine. I have absolutely no doubt that he’ll play Sunday.
- Kendrick Perkins missed his first game of the season because of a sore knee. Apparently, he banged knees with someone late in the Houston game. I don’t remember it. But he’s day-to-day. Thunder coach Scott Brooks said he’ll see how he feels tomorrow.
- Thabo Sefolosha is out a month.
- As if that wasn’t enough carnage, Lazar Hayward got poked in the eye and wasn’t doing so well after the game.
- The injury bug has finally hit. While only Eric Maynor’s is really severe, the Thunder, like other teams have done this season, will now have to maintain and find a way to get it done while banged up. That’s what this season has been about, and now it’s the Thunder’s reality.
- Another slow start. I blame this one on the makeshift starting lineup the Thunder had to trot out because of the injuries. OKC looked lethargic and played extremely carelessly for much of the first 12 minutes until the Warriors went up 24-20 at the end of the quarter.
- The Thunder had six first-quarter turnovers, five coming in a three-minute span on five out of seven possessions. They came about every way imaginable: two bad passes, a 3-second violation, a traveling violation and an illegal screen.
- After the raggedy start, the Thunder outscored the Warriors 90-63 in the final three quarters.
- This was the first time in three tries that OKC held Golden State under 100 points. The Warriors shot just 34.8 percent for the game and scored just 39 points on 30 percent shooting in the second half.
- Most impressively, the Thunder didn’t get sucked into the run-and-gun style of play that characterized the two games in Oakland. That’s a big part of the Thunder’s desired identity, to play any style but to really set the tone and make teams succumb to how it plays.
- A lot of good things in this one. A whole lot. Assists stood out. Thunder had 24 of them tonight, one shy of tying its season high. And get this. Eleven of the 12 active players had at least one helper. Said James Harden: “That’s beautiful basketball.”
- All 12 active players scored, too.
- The bench scored 55 points tonight. That’s got to be a season-high, right?
- I thought Kevin Durant looked out of it early. He was missing shots, sort of loafing on defense and didn’t seem that aggressive on either end. I thought it might have something to do with perhaps being emotional over parting ways with his agent. But in true superstar fashion, the guy nearly nets a triple-double with 23 points, 10 rebounds and six assists. The five turnovers were troubling, though, as some were just silly plays.
- With Perk out, Nazr Mohammed got the start and Cole Aldrich got the reserve minutes. And Cole didn’t do anything to quell everyone’s desire to see him. He wasn’t great. But he just knows how to be active and make his presence felt in ways Perk and Naz don’t seem to do. The thing that shocks me is how much more athletic Aldrich makes the center position look compared to Perk and Naz. Unfortunately, that says more about Perk and Naz than Cole.
- Loved Nick Collison’s energy and effort tonight. Then again, when do I not?
Rockets 96, Thunder 95
Nuggets from my notebook from Wednesday night’s loss at Houston.
- The Thunder played about as bad of a first quarter as it could possibly play. It was sloppy. It was raggedy. It was, well, ugly. OKC couldn’t make a shot, couldn’t stop the Rockets and couldn’t stop turning it over. By the end of the period, the Thunder trailed 29-13, setting a season low for points in the opening period, and made just 6-of-24 shots while allowing Houston to hit 11 of 22.
- Russell Westbrook was the only Thunder player with a pulse in the first quarter. When the Thunder trailed 26-10, Westbrook had eight of those points. Kevin Durant had the other two.
- Some will criticize the Thunder for late-game execution after this one. Count me out. The Thunder got some pretty good shots on goal if I may borrow a soccer reference. They just didn’t go in. As I wrote for Thursday’s paper, there are some who will use this game as evidence that a “jump-shooting team” always will struggle in close games. I didn’t think that was the case.
- The Thunder was 0-for-9 in the final 2 minutes, 10 seconds. The last attempt was a desperation launch by Westbrook. So excluding that, only three of the final eight misses were 3-pointers. Of the other five, one was from 16 feet, one was from 15 feet, one was a 10-foot runner, one was a blocked layup and one was a missed tip-in. That’s not what I would call settling.
- And by the way, the Thunder came into tonight’s game 5-1 in games decided by four points or less.
- Thunder coach Scott Brooks said he was satisfied with the late execution. “Down the stretch, we missed some shots that were good looks. We normally would make a few of those. We had good rhythm in that fourth quarter, and then we just couldn’t make a basket. But they were good looks. The execution was good.”
- I found it sort of funny how Brooks altered his choice of words a minute later after more reflection of what exactly his players got down the stretch. “At the end of games, those are great looks. Not good looks. Those are great looks,” Brooks said. “Our guys are going to make those shots more times than not.”
- I could not agree more with Westbrook on this close loss. “It happens like that sometimes. It wasn’t a bad loss. We fought. It wasn’t like we gave up or anything.”
- My only gripe about the late-game execution is that it’s all Durant and Westbrook. It’s like the Thunder forgets there’s this guy named James Harden who happens to be the team’s best playmaker. Harden had one shot in the final 2 minutes, 10 seconds, a missed 3. He was 4-for-4 in the quarter’s first 9 minutes, 50 seconds.
- Harden was turnover prone tonight, as was pretty much everybody in this one. But Harden had three of his five giveaways in the final quarter.
- The Thunder had 22 turnovers as a team, and the Rockets scored 26 points off them. Durant had four turnovers, and Westbrook had six. It’s absolutely amazing how bad this team is at taking care of the ball. The Thunder already ranked last in the league in turnovers coming into tonight. OKC only stretched bumped its average to 17.1 per game after tonight.
- Brooks put it best: “I don’t know how we do it. We’re in every game and we give up the ball too many times.”
