Oklahoma City Thunder 108- Dallas Mavericks 70
With no Chandler Parsons and with JJ Barea nursing an injured groin these Dallas Mavericks just don’t have enough firepower. Thunder radio play by play man Matt Pinto pointed this out sagaciously in his pre-game when he noted that in the history of the Western Conference this Dallas team is the only sixth seed to have a negative point differential for the season. Anotherwords, this is team without that much talent on its roster.
Rick Carlisle is a very good coach, but he better take my advice and turn this series into a brawl if he wants to win a game or two. This is just physics. Slower, less athletic players tend to have problems running with their polar opposites. So, if Carlisle wants to make this any kind of a series he better muck this up in a hurry and quit playing right into the hands of Sam Presti’s greyhounds.
Just an awful basketball game to watch. Almost as bad as the OU-Villanova game. Hard to believe a team with Dirk and Wes Matthews could only score 33 points in the first half. But there it was with OKC leading 59-33 at the half. If Dallas hadn’t scored a couple of late buckets in the last thirty second they would have scored in the sixties. Are you kidding me? This is an OKC defense the past two seasons which had made every journeyman wing player in the league go off for career nights. But not on this night.
I just read Tramel and he’s all jacked about the defense. Here’s what I would say…wait till they play someone good. This isn’t a good Dallas team. Dirk is ancient. Barea is hurt. Parsons is out. Deron Williams’ better days were at the University of Illinois and with Jerry Sloan at the Utah Jazz. Just put the brakes on and make sure this ‘new’ Thunder defense is for real.
But I will say this…OKC did actually look like they were trying on the defensive end. But when the other team doesn’t have a viable point guard to penetrate, doesn’t have an elite low post offensive weapon, and is missing one of its better options in Chandler Parsons…you know what you can do defensively—you can swarm Dirk with either Ibaka or Collison, and you can play the three point line uber aggressively.
Sam Presti put this team together with freakish length being the mantra. Durant, Westbrook, Ibaka, Adams, and Roberson all with freakish length. I bet Marco Rubio would never question the size of any of their hands. Just saying. But all long and they run like greyhounds. When these guys actually try on the defensive end they’re interesting to watch.
Defense wins championships in the NBA, the NFL, and the NHL. That isn’t a maybe statement, it’s a fact. Ask Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers if you need factoid verification. It’s all about space and time and denying these precious commodities to the other team. This is for Tramel, who I like by the way, play defense every game like a group of hungry Dobermans with fangs and you give yourself a chance every night.
Offensively, OKC was average. But you can be average offensively when you play defense like you actually care. So-on this night in Game 1 in Oklahoma City the Thunder played with a caring on the defensive end against a Dallas team which performed a minor miracle in attaining the sixth seed in the first place.
This was such a monumental mismatch we started nominating best ever music youtubes at my son’s watch party and turned the sound down on the game. This was the winner and if Carlisle doesn’t tackle Westbrook in Game 2 it’ll be more of looking up music videos on Monday night.
This isn’t a music video, but it was very popular at the watch party as well. Note to Sam Presti, just because you play in a faith based market doesn’t mean you can win a championship without doing the tough work. It took Draymond Green and his teammates about a minute to deal with Patrick Beverly after he jacked with Steph Curry. Stars, defense, and mental toughness win NBA championships.