Month: December 2015

Milwaukee Bucks in Oklahoma City this evening to play the Thunder. This continues a very winnable string of games for OKC as the next five up are Milwaukee, Phoenix, @ Charlotte, Sacramento, and Memphis. It should be a stretch of games where OKC wins games and addresses their inconsistent defense and struggling bench lineups. Plus, it gives Billy Donovan the real option to decide if he’s serious about making the move from DJ Augustin to rookie Cam Payne at the backup point guard position or at least somehow integrating Payne into the regular rotation.

Milwaukee is not a good basketball team right now. The Bucks come in tonight at 12-20 and firmly in possession of the No. 13 seed in the East. Bucks are 3-14 on the road this season and 3-7 in their last ten games played. Add to the fact they’re on the second night of a road back to back after losing in Dallas 103-93.

Bucks  head coach Jason Kidd is out indefinitely after having hip surgery earlier this season. Assistant coach Joe Prunty is serving as the interim head coach.

Things just aren’t meshing in Milwaukee despite the optimism from last season with an interesting roster of promising young players. Greg Monroe was secured in the off season, plus Jabari Parker has returned from injury, but neither seem right or in mesh with one another within a fluid team flow. The Bucks have struggled with their interior defense and offensively they’re near the bottom of the NBA scoring at a 96.3 scoring clip per game.

Khris Middleton, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Michael Carter-Williams, Jerryd Bayless, OJ Mayo, John Henson, Johnny O’Bryant, Mason Plumlee and Grevis Vasquez round out the rotation.

OKC comes off a sluggish ten point home win over Denver on Sunday night where they failed to cover the 16 point Vegas spread. The Thunder are firmly entrenched as the No. 3 seed in the West kind of in their own little vaccum behind both the Warriors and Spurs, yet safely holding the third seed from the rest of the field in the West.

Thunder are 14-4 at home this season, yet a surprising 6-8 versus Eastern Conference teams to date this season. Vegas has OKC listed as a 13.5 home favorite tonight.

Durant and Westbrook are both having exceptional offensive seasons. This week it’s Russell Westbrook winning Western Conference Player of the Week honors.

OKC’s ball movement was good last game with 27 assists with Westbrook and Durant accounting for 22 combined.

Adams and Ibaka should both have solid nights against this Bucks  interior defense.

The slate of games this week provides OKC with a chance to win games, have some practices, get better defensively, plus get some better play from the bench. If OKC just starts with energy and focus they should be 22-10 heading into the New Years’ Eve game.

OKC Thunder 122 — Denver Nuggets 112

With the state of Oklahoma in the grips of Winter Storm Goliath, OKC’s Thunder shook off another lethargic start to finally subdue the short-handed, out-talented, yet resilient Nuggets by a score of 122-112.

No Wilson Chandler. No Danilo Gallinari. No Emmanuel Mudiay. Yet, Denver played tough and actually led 61-53 at the half as they shot close to sixty-percent in the first half.

OKC’s defense wasn’t good, but give some credit to Denver’s lineups with Kenneth Faried, Gary Harris, Will Barton, Jameer Nelson, and Randy Foye which in essence took Steven Adams out of being a factor for the second straight game.

Faried was outstanding with a 25 point, 11 rebound night plus some great energy on the offensive glass in the first half. Will Barton and Joffrey Lauvergne added 19 and 18 points respectively.

OKC in no way addressed any of their defensive issues, but did show enough interest against a limited Nuggets team playing on the second night of a road back to back to get a win.

Denver led as late as the 8:13 mark in fourth period before OKC finally took control of the game with an 11-2 run which was fueled by Enes Kanter’s seven points and a resounding dunk by Dion Waiters.

Offensively–it was OKC’s best shooting night of the season as the Thunder shot 57.8 % from the field and 53.3 % from behind the arc.

Five Thunder players scored in double figures. Westbrook with 30, Durant with 26, Kanter with 21, Ibaka with 19, and Roberson with 10 points.

Steven Adams for the most part didn’t fit in this game because of the odd lineup combinations used by Mike Malone. Andre Roberson was decent with 10 points, 5 rebounds and 2 steals in 27 minutes.

Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game with 30 points, 9 rebounds, and 12 assists.

As a team–OKC had 27 assists with 22 of them being credited to Westbrook and Durant. Ball movement wasn’t an issue in this game. The ball moved fairly well.

I thought Donovan did a god job of utilizing Waiters, rookie Cameron Payne, and Anthony Morrow. Each added something off the bench which helped OKC get the win.

Not sure if this is where Billy Donovan is going with the backup point guard minutes or if he just felt it was time to take a more serious look at Cam Payne. Either way, I thought Payne played well, but again it was at home against a bottom feeding team in the West who were without three of their more skilled players.

But still– a nice step forward for Cam Payne. I’d keep feeding him minutes at home against lesser teams and nurture his confidence. See what happens because unless these guys start playing defense they’re not winning anything anyway.

OKC improves to 21-9 and is in solid possession of the No. 3 seed in the West. Denver drops to 12-19 and hopefully drops to the No. 13 slot in the West per my bracket.

Milwaukee in Oklahoma City Tuesday, epic  Winter Storm Goliath headed northeast. Billy Donovan still searching for some defensive consistency from his star studded team.

Mike Jackson

 

 

 

Denver Nuggets in OKC tonight to play the Thunder. Not a game which elicits great emotion from this blogger. Oklahoma City is currently engulfed by Winter Storm Goliath with freezing rain, sleet,  and snow gripping the city. Add to the fact this is not a stellar Denver club under first year coach Mike Malone.

Denver enters tonight as a sixteen point road underdog and losers of four of their last five games. Add to the fact, Wilson Chandler was lost for the season due to hip surgery back in November and Danilo Gallinari is doubtful tonight. This is not an immensely talented team even with those two playing, let alone absent.

I have the Nuggets at No. 13 in the West on my preseason bracket sheet. At 12-18 and not really in possession of an offensive or defensive identity, a star player, or any real momentum in their rebuild under Malone. Nuggets are 7-9 on the road this season. Color me not overly positive on the prospects of this Denver club.

OKC comes into this game off of what I think is their second worst performance of the season — a nine point home loss to the Chicago Bulls who promptly lost to Dallas the next day. OKC’s 100-85 home loss to Boston still ranks as their worst overall performance in my season to date notebook.

Gradewise—I gave OKC a D for their performance on Christmas. Steven Adams was non-existent. Serge Ibaka was horrible. Andre Roberson  wasn’t solid. Dion Waiters was terrible. Morrow did hit some threes–which was encouraging. Kanter was borderline okay. DJ Augustin continued to struggle. Billy Donovan wasn’t what I would describe as innovative. But most disturbing to me was that Durant and Westbrook failed to lead by example on the defensive end of the floor kind of half-assing it for stretches of the game.

I love Durant and Westbrook, but if these two great offensive stars don’t start leading by example on the defensive end–the Thunder are going nowhere beyond the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs. I’m tired of bitching about it on here, but it is what it is. Defense wins championships. This is not rocket science stuff.

The youth male faction on Daily Thunder seem to think the insertion of rookie Cam Payne will solve all this, and you know what, as poorly as Augustin has played of late, maybe giving Payne some minutes tonight wouldn’t be a terrible thing.

OKC blew out Denver at home earlier this season and tonight should be the same if Durant and Westbrook come ready to play along with the three other starters.

Denver should have a rotation of Will Barton, Kenneth Faried, Emmanuel Mudiay, Gary Harris, Jameer Nelson, Randy Foye, Darrell Arthur, JJ Hickson, Jefferey Lauvergne, Kosta P, and Mike Miller.

Fifty-two games left in this regular season. Billy Donovan should clearly see what he has to do make this team better and at the least a reasonable threat to get to the Western Conference Finals. If not—then I don’t understand the buyout of Scott Brooks’ last season of his contract by the Thunder.

Pre game talking points in the Thunder locker room. Play harder, play smarter, play like you care.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we’re now past Christmas Day–I’m going to start ranking the top twelve teams in the NBA every Saturday. This won’t be like Stein over at ESPN ranking all thirty teams–which by the way is overkill and stupid since there’s usually only six teams a year or so with any chance whatsoever to win an NBA title.

Basketball is not Watson and Crick restructuring the double helix DNA molecule as some might want you to think. It’s really not all that complicated even with the nerds devising multiple formulas and endless takes on +/-. It’s still a simple game.

OKCThunderGround Power Poll per 12/26/15

1    Golden State Warriors

2    Cleveland Cavaliers

3    San Antonio Spurs

4    Oklahoma City Thunder

5    Atlanta Hawks

6    Miami Heat

7    Houston Rockets

8    Toronto Raptors

9    LA Clippers

10  Chicago Bulls

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11 Dallas Mavs

12 Memphis Grizzlies

 

 

 

 

Unlike Tim Duncan, I actually like Christmas Day NBA basketball. I think it gives players and fans alike an opportunity to make some mid-term observations about each conference and the league as a whole with fifty or so games remaining in the regular season.

These would be some of my observations after yesterday.

Golden State and Cleveland should both return to the NBA Finals because they each have an MVP in Steph and LeBron, each play solid team defense, and each have deep supporting casts. Sidenote observation: does coaching really even matter in the NBA with Luke Walton coaching the Warriors to a 28-1 start and David Blatt coaching the Cavs to an NBA Finals appearance last season?

I love Steph Curry, absolutely love Steph Curry, but Draymond Green is my favorite Warrior player and in my mind the Underground league MVP. Draymond Green gets it. He understands the game. Understands what it takes in teambuilding. If you traded Draymond Green for Serge Ibaka — the OKC Thunder would be a serious NBA title contender.

Cranky Tim Duncan says he doesn’t care for NBA Christmas basketball, and since he’s won five NBA championship rings– I’m okay with that. Spurs should be the second best team in the West because they have a nice roster and maybe the one coach in the league who makes a visable difference to his team night in and night out.

Don’t discount the quirky-goofy Houston Rockets just yet as a top four team in the West. I have them at No. 4 in my Daily Thunder Western Conference bracket and actually feel pretty good about the Rockets since the return of Terrence Jones. They should deal Ty Lawson, but otherwise, I’d keep an eye on the Rockets.

My Oklahoma City Thunder…what to think? Here’s what I think–I consider the Thunder an extremely entertaining team to watch with Durant and Westbrook, but I don’t view OKC as a serious title contender because for one thing Kevin Durant is 4-16 lifetime against a guy named Lebron James. Secondly—there’s no way I could see OKC winning four games against the Golden State Warriors in a two week span because Oklahoma City refuses to buy into the proven axiom defense wins championships, plus OKC has a penchant for making dumb plays at just the wrong time.

Moral of the story in Oklahoma City—teams which don’t play defense every night and don’t play smart don’t win championships.

Otherwise–as a fan of the NBA in general beyond OKC, I would be very excited about seeing either a Golden State-Cleveland or San Antonio-Cleveland NBA Finals.

Mike Jackson

Chicago Bulls 105 — OKC Thunder 96

I could pretend to be a Fox-Thunder employee and write some bullshit about how Chicago rode Jimmy Butler’s earlier week comments to a season changing win in OKC earlier today. Or, I could write the truth and state it appeared OKC just wasn’t ready to play in a nationally televised game on ABC with the entire basketball world watching.

I don’t have the Brian Davis-Nick Gallo Thunder homer pedigree so I think I’ll do it this way.

OKC never appeared ready to begin either the first or second halves today and to me that is inexcusable for a team and an organization which wants to fancy itself as a serious title contender.

Golden State and LeBron all have rings, yet they fought to the death in a great playoff like game after the Thunder’s no show. Same deal with San Antonio and the Rockets in the fourth game of Christmas Day with a great defensive  game which looked like a Western Conference Semi-Final round game.

But in Oklahoma City at the Chesapeake Energy Arena, a no show and not much overall passion and caring by the home team. It would be one thing if OKC were coming off a tough grind of a week, but they weren’t. OKC was coming off a week where they played the LA Lakers twice in three games. If anything, you would have thought OKC would have been jacked to play a real team, but they weren’t.

OKC’s starting unit was terrible to begin both halves. In the first half—OKC trailed 11-0 before Billy Donovan finally had no choice but to call a timeout. OKC stabilized and only trailed 54-52 at the half.

One would have thought OKC would come out of the gate to start the second half, but no go as Chicago went on an 8-0 run, then went on another run later in the third period to take an 86-68 lead into the fourth period.

OKC did ride a couple of Anthony Morrow threes in the fourth to draw within six at the 3:42 mark, but Chicago behind nice games by Pau Gasol, Jimmy Butler, and Derrick Rose regrouped and completed a two game sweep of the Thunder this season. Chicago is now 16-11 overall, yet a revealing 9-3 against Western Conference teams. So much for Western Conference dominance.

Pau Gasol is my No. 1 Star of the Game with a 21 point, 13 rebound game. If Oklahoma City had more museums, theatre, and opera it’s quite possible Gasol would a member of the Thunder. But I can’t blame this one on the OKC Chamber of Commerce.

Every member of OKC’s starting five had a negative plus/minus rating today. Steven Adams was absolutely no factor in this game whatsoever in going -24 in thirteen minutes of completely forgettable play.

Three Thunder players scored in double figures. Durant with 29 points, Westbrook with 26 points, and Enes Kanter with 14 points. This means the rest of the Thunder roster scored 27  points combined. Or, perhaps even more damning, the rest of the Thunder roster made only 11 field goals on the afternoon.

To me at least… I see the NBA in four separate tiers currently. Golden State by themselves at the top. Cleveland just a bit below at No. 2.  Then San Antonio just a  bit below Lebron at No. 3. And finally… OKC as a longshot at No. 4 because they still haven’t figured out defense wins championships — and championship teams don’t take nights off on that end especially in a nationally televised Christmas Day game on ABC.

Mike Jackson

 

 

 

 

First off, Merry Christmas and hoping you have a peaceful day of celebration with your families and loved ones.

Chicago Bulls in Oklahoma City this afternoon to play the Thunder in the second game of ABC’s five game set today. Cavs-Golden State and Houston San Antonio are two other games I plan on watching. Should be a great afternoon-early evening of family, hoops, and eating.

OKC is 20-9 for the season and firmly in control of the No. 3 seed in the West. Exactly where many thought they’d be at this point. Kevin Durant’s foot seems fine and he’s playing some of the best overall basketball of his career. Russell Westbrook has continued his play at a high level which supports the claim he’s one of the top seven players in the NBA as well. So there’s plenty to be grateful for if you’re a Thunder fan.

Serge Ibaka seems to be coming around, but more importantly Steven Adams and Andre Roberson are playing solid basketball. OKC’s starting five has clicked for the most part and the Thunder are 9-2 in the month of December with only close road losses at Miami and Cleveland marring their record for the month.

The downside is OKC’s bench. It’s been an inconsistent mess of late. You literally put your hands over your eyes when the starting five aren’t on the floor and pray for something good to happen. This is a bench which I thought would actually be decent at the start of the season with enough firepower to score 34-38 points on most nights.

But of late the bench unit of Collison, Waiters, Morrow, Kanter, and Augustin has been an overall liability. -10 in their first shift against the Lakers on Wednesday night was especially hard to watch. I’m not calling for any of these five to be traded yet, but rather they do the job they’re being paid to do and give OKC a functional bench unit. If these five can’t figure out–then I’d have no problem with Billy Donovan giving rookie Cam Payne and Mitch McGary the opportunity to inject some life in the OKC bench because it’s not like Kanter and Augustin give you much defensively.

Right now…Sam Presti’s moves to add Augustin, Singler, and Kanter are looking questionable especially when you factor in new contracts for Singler and Kanter. OKC’s bench has to pull it together. Period.

Interesting coaching matchup today with Fred Hoiberg vs. Billy Donovan. Two rookie NBA coaches making the transition from college to NBA ball. Just a year ago this would have been an Iowa State vs. Florida coaching matchup, but today they’re both on the national stage with good NBA  teams.

I’d give Donovan a B- letter grade so far, and give Hoiberg a C+. I didn’t like what Donovan did with Morrow and Singler early on. Plus, I think he has to be more creative with staggering Durant and Westbrook to open the fourth period–with the Cleveland game being a prime example of how not to do it.

As for Hoiberg—-his team comes in having lost three straight and are 4-6 in their last ten games. Not sure what I think about the Noah coming off the bench experiment. Jimmy Butler made some public comments earlier this week calling out himself, his teammates, and Fred Hoiberg for their effort to date. Kind of  odd considering everyone assumed Thibadeau was fired because he was too tough on his team.

Derrick Rose lit up Westbrook and OKC earlier this season in a Bulls victory in Chicago. Rose made every play down the stretch and Westbrook did not. I’m sure no one will need to remind Russell Westbrook of this. You would think Westbrook will be in top tier Westbrook mode today.

Good Christmas Day matchup. Ham, sweet potatoes, green beans, cheese grits, salad, rolls, and sweet tea—plus Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. All the ingredients for a great Christmas afternoon of family and hoops in Oklahoma City.