I’m better now. A good night’s sleep will do that for you. No seething. I picked Houston to win this series in either five or six games, five looks more likely right now, so it’s not like I’m sitting here shocked by where we are headed into Tuesday night in Houston.
The reason I picked Houston is because I think they have a better overall top eight players than OKC, because I believe Mike D’Antoni is a more ‘seasoned’ NBA coach than Bill Donovan, and of course Houston has home court advantage in the series. Plus, again back to the 115 number thing, I thought this would be almost as tough of a matchup for OKC as playing the Golden State Warriors because like the Warriors, the Rockets are a team of shooters who almost always at some point in a game go on a spurt or two.
The math at this point agrees with me, OKC is now a combined 2-10 versus the Rockets and Warriors this basketball season. These are the two worst matchups for the Thunder simply because of the manner in which Sam Presti has constructed this ball team. This is not a team constructed to beat either the Warriors or the Rockets. Against the rest of the league, OKC would pretty much have a chance, maybe even against LeBron, but not against these two teams.
But having written that, the last three games have all been nailbiters, and OKC could have won all three with perhaps a different approach to the backup point guard position and those minutes when Westbrook isn’t on the floor. In that regard, Tramel’s question was fair, but the person to ask that question of is either Billy Donovan or Sam Presti, not Steven Adams with Russell Westbrook sitting next to him.
I think it’s a very fair question, Tramel just asked the wrong witness so to speak. But if you watch the Donovan presser, Tramel asked it there and then so I agree with Westbrook in that Tramel was fishing for a response on the national stage. The response Westbrook gave confirmed how much Russell Westbrook has grown as a young man since he told Tramel he didn’t like him back in 2013. I’m sure the two Grumpy Old Men– Tramel and Traber– will ravage Westbrook on WWLS later today, but that’s their call and their show. Personally— I think they should be much more focused on Baker Mayfield’s antics, but it’s their show.
Billy Donovan has had a tough series bench management wise. This backup point guard issue has been there all season, not just this series. I assumed once we got to the playoffs the North Edmond Youth Soccer League coaching philosophy would take a backseat to big boy ball. I assumed Billy Donovan would roll with nine players and have either Westbrook or Oladipo manning the point guard minutes. It never crossed my mind he would actually flow with Semaj Christon for the first two games, but that’s exactly what he did and then he did it again with Norris Cole. There’s a reason Norris Cole was playing in China, know what I mean. And there’s a reason Semaj Christon has been in street clothes the past two games.
The Andre Roberson free throw shooting thing hurt me to watch because I like Roberson as a player other than the fact he can’t shoot free throws. He’s 2-17 in this series from the line. Even DeAndre Jordan doesn’t do that. But I’m not going to rip Roberson, he shouldn’t have been put in that situation. That’s why you have a coach…and coaches have to make tough calls in various settings based on what’s best for their teams. I was actually surprised D’Antoni didn’t do this in Games 2 & 3, but this was the pivotal game in the series and D’Antoni did exactly what he should have done…the best thing for his ball club.
I don’t want to rip on the Thunder for the simple reason they went 47-35 this basketball season. They represented this city with class and have given us as fans a reason to be excited about the team and the future if Westbrook decides to stay. But if Westbrook does stay, Sam Presti has some work to be done in tooling this team to be more competitive with Golden State and Houston. Billy Donovan needs to become more of a pro coach than a college coach. OKC has some things to address. But if Westbrook stays, the future is promising and interesting for sure.
But for now, it’s Game 5 in Houston on Tuesday night as the Thunder tries to avoid having their first season without Durant ended by James Harden and Company. It felt odd writing that sentence.