This is why I have a blog called okcthunderground.com. This is why because… I’m fairly certain guys like Royce Young and Erik Horne aren’t going to do the right thing and tell the truth because they’re young and they need their jobs. I haven’t read what either wrote, but I did watch the presser with Billy Donovan and heard some of the questions from the two ‘aforementioned writers’. So…again, I have no idea what they ultimately wrote. Maybe they’ll surprise me.
But here’s what I’m going write.
There are two storylines from what happened last night in OKC’s heartbreaking 97-95 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. The first storyline is that game officials totally blew the call on the baseline and OKC would have either won the game in regulation or gone on to live at least another five minutes in overtime.
Fair enough?
The second storyline is that Brian Davis ‘kind of’ got it right when he said, “It never should have come to that.”
But what Brian Davis didn’t say is that Billy Donovan was guilty of coaching malpractice by starting Alex Abrines in place of the scratched Paul George.
This game was in essence decided in the first period when the Bucks ripped and rolled to a 38-18 lead after twelve minutes of play.
Consider what I write. The Milwaukee Bucks are a team of freak athleticism and length. They really are. And given that fact and the knowledge Alex Abrines can’t defend my eighty-two year old mother…. this maybe was a time maybe the head coach needed to think outside the box a bit. Keep in mind, Alex Abrines was a putrid negative 19 against the Raptors on Wednesday in a little over six minutes of play. He rightfully never saw the floor again in that game.
But knowing this, Billy Donovan went right ahead and started Alex Abrines against the high flying Bucks. And he not only started Abrines, but he went with Abrines for 9:24 of playing time all told. Nine and a half minutes Billy Donovan allowed Alex Abrines to do absolutely nothing. Oh, but he did do something. He took one shot which didn’t even graze the rim and outdid himself from Wednesday night with a -24 in nine minutes of play. Here’s what this means–in fifteen minutes of play in these last two games…Alex Abrines is 0-1 from the field and -43.
And, you see, that’s the real storyline here. Billy Donovan derailed his own basketball team. Sure, four missed critical free throws and a lane violation didn’t help-but Billy Donovan had three other options other than Abrines.
He could have started Josh Huestis. He could have started Jerami Grant. He could have even started Ray Felton and gone really, really small from the get-go to answer the guard tandem of Bledsoe and Middleton, but Billy Donovan and/or Sam Presti went with Alex Abrines. And if you think I’m stretching it here…you’ll notice like on Wednesday night–Abrines never once again saw the floor in the second half because every jacket on that Thunder bench knew they had messed up.
As far as the rest of the game? I thought OKC fought hard and showed some grit from fighting back from that deficit. They never quit and they played their asses off and on this night deserved much, much better not only from Leon Wood, but more importantly—from Billy Donovan.
He let his team down. I mean, okay you started him, but to allow 9:24 of this to transpire all told is unforgiveable from an NBA coach who’s got a contending team. Simply unforgiveable.
I like Billy Donovan. Like I wrote before, he seems like a wonderful human being, just maybe one who should be coaching in the SEC instead of the NBA.
Not many college coaches have successfully made the transition to the NBA game. Larry Brown did. It appears Brad Stevens will. But Lon Kruger didn’t. John Calipari didn’t. Fred Hoiberg hasn’t and neither has Billy Donovan considering in his two and half seasons so far he’s had the luxury of coaching Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook, Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka, Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, and Victor Oladipo. If you weren’t counting, that’s seven all-star caliber players if you cut Serge some slack.
Tough to have to write this recap like this, but in all candor that’s the way I see this….the Thunder have an elite NBA roster with a college coach who’s comfort zone probably is tilted more towards coaching college kids than multi-millionaires with agents.
Thunder host the Dallas Mavs on Sunday night. The Mavs have one of the worst teams in the league with one of the best coaches in the league in Rick Carlisle. We saw how that went the first time these two teams met in late November as Dallas rolled the Thunder.
Thunder Game Day music is going to be a bitch on Sunday. A real bitch.