Game 57: OKC Thunder @ Dallas Mavericks Preview

OKC Thunder on the road tonight to take on the Dallas Mavericks. Thunder enter at 40-16 and losers of two straight trying to avoid losing three straight for the second time this season. First time was back in November when OKC lost three straight to the Rockets, Bulls, and Raptors. Without looking it up, I can’t remember many times in the Durant-Westbrook era this has happened in the same season when both were healthy for most of the season.

Dallas (30-27) is a so-so team which I originally picked as the No. 8 seed in the West before the season started. Nothing Dallas has shown me to date makes me feel wrong abut this assessment especially considering the way Portland is climbing the standings of late.

One thing of note we need to start watching is the gap between OKC and the Clippers for the No. 3 seed in the West. It was earlier a given this wouldn’t be an issue with all the Blake Griffin distractions surrounding the Clips, but slowly and surely it’s not beyond the realm of possibility this could become a close race for third in the West given how tough OKC’s schedule is the remainder of the season.

Andre Roberson expected to be back in the starting lineup for the Thunder tonight.

OKC listed by Vegas as a 4.5 point road favorite tonight in Dallas.

Trump-Hillary Headed For Brawl In The Fall

It was quite a week in South Carolina for the GOP Reality Presidential Show. Trump chased off Jeb. Bubble Boy somewhat came back to life after the street fight beating he took from Chris Christie in New Hampshire. Ted Cruz was called a habitual liar by Donald Trump and then fired his campaign manager. And, my choice John Kasich, the only one even remotely qualified to hold the office, barely held off Ben Carson for fifth place.

It seems fairly clear to me Trump and Hillary are headed for a brawl this fall.

But what would a Trump presidency actually look like when we peel back the layers and take a penetrating look at the real candidate?

Or this…..

Or maybe this….

OKCThunderGround Power Poll

I haven’t done a Power Poll since before the All-Star Game break so it might be time for one. My top four remain the same, but OKC is dropping in stock as a viable title contender. Take the current top three and then there’s a space between the rest of the league as far as championship viability. No. 4 thru No. 12 present a great deal of parity from my view.

1      Golden State Warriors

2      San Antonio Spurs

3      Cleveland Cavaliers

 

4       Oklahoma City Thunder

5        Toronto Raptors

6        LA Clippers

7        Miami Heat

8        Boston Celtics

9        Atlanta Hawks

10      Indiana Pacers

11      Dallas Mavs

12      Portland Trailblazers

 

  • note  I might be premature in this, but I’ve dropped Memphis due to the Marc Gasol  season ending foot injury.

OKC’s Shooting Guard Problem

OKC has several roster construction problems which aren’t the fault of Billy Donovan, but more the fault of Sam Presti. The one which glares the most is OKC doesn’t have a starting guard who can compete on the same level as say…Klay Thompson,  JR Smith, or Danny Green–just to name the three counterparts in Golden State, Cleveland, and San Antonio.

This isn’t Billy Donovan’s fault, it’s what he inherited.

For some reason Sam Presti seems enamored with building a roster of ‘half players’ to surround Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. In otherwords, players who can’t play both ends of the floor with equal shares of basketball integrity.

Presti drafted Andre Roberson to be the next Bruce Bowen, Shawn Marion, or Shane Battier, but you know what—those three could actually shoot a basketball to some degree. Sam Presti of Josh Huestis fame drafted a shooting guard who can’t shoot and who isn’t an elite lockdown defender as some claim. He’s an okay defender with the freakish wing span of a seven footer, but not an elite defender. If he were elite then why has every journeyman guard in the league had their best career nights the past two seasons against the Thunder? Half player.

So–then Sam Presti took a chance on Dion Waiters even though LeBron James didn’t want Dion Waiters on his team. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Dion basher, he seems like a decent kid and he’s trying to do his best playing alongside Durant and Westbrook, but Presti gave up a first round pick and a nice bench piece in Lance Thomas to take a chance on fixing Waiters as a player and solve the OKC shooting guard dilemma. Vastly inconsistent player.

As far as Anthony Morrow goes, he’s been an elite three point specialist in his career, but not good enough defensively to consider for the starting shooting guard role. Half player.

Randy Foye at age thirty-two does absolutely nothing for me. Randy Foye at age twenty-seven would have peaked my interest. Old player.

Here’s what vexes me though about what Presti has done, he traded DJ Augustin away as his backup point guard when he could have actually moved Cam Payne into the hybrid guard position alongside Durant and Westbrook ala Harden. Of course you could only pull this off if Westbrook would actually try to play some defense, but’s it’s an intriguing possibility.

Maybe that’s a possible tweak OKC should explore somewhat as the season moves along. It doesn’t mean you banish Roberson or Waiters, but rather find the right combination of roles on a team with too many ‘half players’ on the roster.

It’s worth a try. But it only works if Durant and Westbrook don’t loaf defensively.

LeBron, Cavs Embarrass Thunder on ABC National Telecast

Cleveland Cavs 115 — OKC Thunder 92

Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavs basically played on the road today without Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert, and Mo Williams, but still easily beat the Thunder by a score of 115-92 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. It would not be a reach to say Oklahoma City was outclassed from start to finish.

Cleveland led 62-53 at the half, then 95-73 after three periods. If this were a prizefight a white towel would have seemed appropriate. LeBron, Kevin Love, JR Smith and Co. were better than anything the Thunder could answer.

This defeat goes down as the fourth worst home defeat (23 points) since Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City just prior to the inaugural 2008 season.

In my eyes, the previous worst Thunder home defeat came in that 2008 season when OKC was blown out by New Orleans in the game which got PJ Carlesimo fired and Scott Brooks elevated to interim head coach. But keep in mind, Durant, Westbrook, Green, and Ibaka were still youngsters just discovering their way during a 23-59 season.

Today was worse because Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka were all healthy and rested. No excuses. Oklahoma City was simply outclassed because they can’t defend at an elite level and their journey to find a dependable shooting guard remains an unsolved puzzle.

Dion Waiters will go down as the scapegoat and he was in fact horrific, but keep in mind Waiters, Morrow, and Randy Foye went a combined 4-21.

Add to the fact, Kyle Singler didn’t score a point while Enes Kanter was literally abused by Timothy Mosgov.

I’m sure this won’t lead Nick Gallo’s storyline, but basically all four players Sam Presti acquired by trade either last season or this season were all bad today versus the Cavs.

Durant, Westbrook, Adams, and even rookie Cam Payne  played okay, but there wasn’t enough from the rest of the team to beat a Cleveland club which was missing two of its top six players on the road.

You can sugarcoat it, you can blame it on Dion Waiters, you can blame it on multiple things, but what OKC showed today was they’re much closer to pretender status versus being regarded as a serious contender.

Mike Jackson

Game 56: Team LeBron @ OKC Thunder Preview

Team Lebron in Oklahoma City this afternoon for the ABC national telecast game. Pretty much agreed by most there are four teams with a chance to win the NBA championship with OKC and the Cavs being two of the four teams.

Cleveland won the first encounter this season by a 104-100 count in a very competitive game where Billy Donovan let his team down by not staggering Durant and Westbrook sitting to start the fourth period. It was disastrous for OKC as Cleveland predictably went on a spurt and the game changed. Donovan did the same thing Friday night in the home loss to Indiana. Not sure what part of this Billy Donovan is struggling to grasp.

Cleveland comes in with a new head coach in Tyronn Lue after the LeBron dismissal of David Blatt for obvious reasons. Namely, wtf reason is there to have Kevin Love on your team if you’re not going use him properly. Plus, he wants the Cavs to play a more up tempo style of play which should be conducive to the overall Cavs roster. So–all in all probably a wise move by LeBron to make the coaching change.

OKC comes in at 40-15 on the heels of a bitterly disappointing home loss to the Indiana Pacers. Same old bug-a-boos for the Thunder. Shaky perimeter defense and a lack of offensive execution coming down the stretch, plus not a great fourth period of coaching by Donovan. He didn’t stagger his subs starting the fourth, and I really feel like he burned OKC’s final timeout prematurely. Keep the timeout in your pocket and have it for your last timeout with 5.1 seconds left and a chance to send the game into overtime. I can’t believe he wasn’t even slightly taken to task for this by the apparently scared to death OKC local media.

Not a huge Bill Simmons fan, other than his Book of Basketball, but maybe he’s right in calling the OKC media the the Prestettes. I mean, c’mon, do we have anyone ever asking even a remotely tough question in the fear the Thunder may banish all and leave Thunder coverage exclusively to be handled by Nick Gallo. That’s why you need an underground and it’s why ‘some’ of what Jim Traber does is actually necessary.

Anyway, same old story for OKC today. Namely, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook could use some help. I hate beating this to death, but guys like Ibaka, Adams, Kanter, Waiters, Payne, Singler and Morrow can’t just go invisible. They have to competitively engage. They have to make an imprint on the game.

It will be interesting to see if Randy Foye sees any minutes in this game if Dion Waiters can’t contribute any offense whatsoever.

LeBron has held a very dominant edge over Durant and Westbrook so far into their respective careers. To me this is a fairly huge game for OKC just to show if OKC can really be counted as a serious championship contender going beyond just the fact Durant and Westbrook wear Thunder blue.

Can’t wait. Going to a chilli-footlong Thunder watch party with Sonic onion rings and everything. To date, OKC is a combined 1-2 against Golden State, San Antonio, and Cleveland. Next seven days should reveal a little more if OKC is a pretender or a contender.

 

 

Pacers, Monta Ellis Too Much For Thunder

Indiana Pacers 101 — Oklahoma City Thunder 98

The Indiana Pacers entered the fourth period down by nine on the road against OKC’s Thunder, but led by clutch threes from Myles Turner and Monta Ellis in the final minute—the Pacers stunned OKC 101-98 on Friday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Myles Turner nailed his first three of the season from the right corner to tie the game 95-95 with 55.4 left in the game. Kevin Durant missed a three. Monta Ellis made a tough three with Dion Waiters somewhat draped on him to make it 98-95 with 18.8 left.

Westbrook missed a layup. OKC fouled and George Hill split a pair of free throws to make it 99-95. Billy Donovan burned OKC’s last timeout, but Durant hit a tough three to make it 99-98 with 5.9 seconds remaining.

Paul George hit two free throws with 5.1 seconds left, but without a timeout —Westbrook could get nothing better than a desperation heave just inside the midcourt line.

Pacers 101 — Thunder 98. Ouch.

This is not the way OKC wanted to start the post All-Star Game run. The Pacers are a nice team, but not one an elite team like the Thunder should lose to at home on a night when Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 18 assists. Throw in Durant’s 31 points, 8 rebounds and Ibaka’s 12 point, 11 rebound night and it’s hard to imagine OKC losing at home to a Pacer team which has been offensively challenged for the most part. But this is exactly what the Thunder did.

Most compelling stat of the night for me—Waiters, Singler, Kanter, and Morrow went a combined 8-31 from the field. Dion Waiters didn’t score a point in doing his best Andre Roberson imitation as the Thunder’s starting shooting guard. Yet, off the top of my head, I can’t remember many nights when Roberson couldn’t even score one basket.

There it is. Same old thing. Oklahoma City’s Thunder still struggling with the starting shooting guard position.

Hard for me not to give Westbrook my No. 1 Star of the Game, but I can’t, his team puked on itself coming down the stretch and lost at home to a team they had no business losing to on this night. I think I’ll go Monta Ellis with his 27 points and clutch play for my choice tonight.

So frustrating. To see Durant and Westbrook play at this level and yet Sam Presti not able to find a dependable starting shooting guard for this team.

Very tough loss because OKC’s next four are at home against Cleveland, on the road against Dallas and New Orleans, then home against the Warriors. Of OKC’s last 28 games, 17 are on the road, and the Thunder have the toughest schedule remaining of any team in the league.

LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon in the national ABC game.

Mike Jackson