OKC lost a very tough 113-109 game to the Houston Rockets this afternoon. The Thunder now trail the series 3-1 and their season could conceivably end on Tuesday in Houston. There’s a great deal to write about, the game, Billy Donovan’s decisions, the bench Sam Presti has on this roster, and Barry Tramel’s trolling of Russell Westbrook. BTW, on that one, I thought Russell handled it perfectly. Anyway, this is one of those times where I need 24 hours to compose myself, mostly on the decisions of Billy Donovan. I need to cool off and make sure what I write is fair. But right now–I’m still seething. I just don’t want to seethe excessively. I’ll just do the pressers for now and hope sleep brings me some tranquility.
Tramel seeking love from Russell back in 2013. I’m sure none of this had anything to do with what we saw today.
It made me think of this from last year. I just hope this doesn’t mean Russell will be joining the Warriors on July 4th.
I agree completely with Billy Donovan on this. At the end of the first half on Friday night, Houston had taken 18 free throws to 7 for the Thunder. Complete bullshit and I said as much to the two black dudes wearing the Harden jerseys. The calls were complete bullshit for the most part. In this league, a defender is not even allowed to perspire within two feet of Harden without getting a whistle. I know Westbrook gets to the line quite a bit, but the zebras thing with Harden has gotten totally out of control.
This is a big part of how Houston plays and what they do. I’m hopeful the zebras clean this up today and we see more basketball and less of Harden’s ass parked on the free throw line.
For the second straight game, the winning team scored a 115 points. For the third straight game in this series, the winning team scored 115 points or more, and for the first time in this series the Oklahoma City Thunder scored 115 points and it was just enough as a James Harden three came up a little short on the game’s last possession.
I stress ‘115 points’ in my first paragraph because that’s the number of points this Houston team averages per game. And on this night, it was the Thunder standing at the 115 threshold. Including the first two Rocket wins in this series, Houston had won five straight versus the Thunder and crossed the 115 marker four of the five games. It’s what they do, who they are, or more importantly what Mike D’Antoni’s teams were in Phoenix when he coached the Suns to two Western Conference Finals.
As an opponent, you have to score with these guys because no matter what you do they’re going find their offensive spurts somewhere in those 48 minutes of frenetic shooting or with James Harden’s ass parked at the free throw line. There’s a specific reason to what D’Antoni teams do–it’s not complex. But you have to score with them. Defensively, they’re nothing special. Kind of like those teams Billy Tubbs had at OU with the exception of the ’88 team–which was special defensively.
Billy Donovan did better this game, but he can still do even better in mixing and matching though, especially at the end of the third quarter. He was wise in keeping Sabonis, Singler, and Semaj near the Thunder bench area for the duration of this basketball game. What Donovan needs is a combination of decent defense and the chance to score somewhere around 115 points. I know most Oklahomans don’t buy into climate change, but this is a math and science thing. It’s more about the math. D’Antoni knows this and he relishes in it. He did it with Steve Nash, he’s doing it with James Harden. If ever a player and a coach were a match it’s Harden and D’Antoni.
Much like in Game 2, it appeared Donovan’s end of third period lineup would cost the Thunder another double digit lead. It almost did, but Doug McDermott nailed a corner three and Enes Kanter made a two to keep the working margin at six points. I was seething in the stands before those two made buckets. Literally seething.
Unlike in the fourth period of Game 2, when Westbrook returned to the floor, he stayed within himself remembering he had teammates on the floor with him. As a team, OKC stepped up in this game and the Thunder’s two late biggest baskets were made by Jerami Grant and Steven Adams as the Thunder had just enough offense in them to hold off Harden and his Rockets.
Westbrook triple doubled at 32 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. It was evidence again of why he should be the league’s MVP winner for the regular season.
But on this night at home, he got some offensive help from some of his teammates. Taj Gibson scored 20 points on 10-13 shooting. Oladipo chipped in 12 points on a 5-8 shooting night. Andre Roberson had his third straight double digit scoring game of the series with 12 and is averaging 14 points a game in the series. Abrines hit two threes and had eight points. McDermott had two threes including the big one while Westbrook was sitting. Norris Cole had a three and five points. Adams and Jerami Grant did their usual blue collar things and hits those huge late buckets. As a team, the Thunder were 9-19 shooting threes. It was a collection of things from the league MVP and his blue collar teammates who on this night brought their lunchpails with them to the arena.
And at the end of the day, that’s exactly what this Oklahoma City team is…Westbrook and his blue collar mates. On those nights when his teammates can give him some support, they’re a nice little team. On those other nights, not so much.
But on this special night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, the good team showed up and their home fans were appreciative of the effort.
But again….115 is the in house working number. Does this bunch have enough in them offensively to get near the 115 marker to win three of the next four games in this series is the question? Mike D’Antoni thinks not.
It was a great night for me. I went to the game with my brother and his wife. I wanted to make sure Russell Westbrook knows how much this fan has appreciated the season. I was the official leader of the MVP chants in Section 101. It was a gas.
I sat near two black guys from Houston who were both wearing Harden jerseys. Big physical guys who both looked like Mr. T. I told them I still loved Harden, but that I hope he loses this series. One of them flipped me his complimentary Thunder T-shirt and said, “That’s cool, you take this. I don’t wear Thunder shit.” We talked briefly after the game and there was this understanding. We both were good. It was that kind of night.
Game 4 in Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon on the ABC matinee game.
Harden is still loved in OKC. Some of the fans around me heard what I said about my Harden shirt and pretty much said the same thing. Harden will always be loved here, the douchebag in Oakland, not so much. Anyway, great interview by Harden.
When you get to the playoffs, usually a coach shortens his rotation to eight or nine players, but yet in a pivotal Game 2–Billy Donovan had twelve players seeing action in a game in which OKC’s bench was worse than brutal.
OKC is stretching it big time to go with nine players, twelve is bordering on coaching malpractice. That stretch at the end of the third period never should have happened. If your bench is so pathetic you can’t go two minutes or so without giving up a 9-0 run, then call a timeout to give Westbrook a rest, do it twice if you have to, but you cannot under any circumstances just spot a team a nine point spurt ending the third period.
This isn’t the North Edmond Mother’s Youth Soccer League. That’s for meaningless end of regular season games. In post season, you go with your best eight or nine players and double or in some cases triple shift them to create mismatch advantages, which btw is exactly what Mike D’Antoni is doing so far in this series against Billy Donovan. Like a ruthless Little League coach waiting with baited breath to see either Kanter, Singler, Christon, or Sabonis touch the floor, D’Antoni waits with baited breath for Westbrook and his better teammates to leave the floor.
This is not complex. This doesn’t require being a metrics savant. Go with your best eight or nine and live with it. If Russell Westbrook has to play 46 minutes then that’s the way this rolls. But enough of the North Edmond Everyone Plays bullshit. OKC’s season is literally on the line tonight.
The nine I’d go with are Westbrook, Roberson, Grant, Oladipo, Adams, Gibson, McDermott, Abrines, and Collison (depending on foul trouble). I’m tired of watching Bambi basketball. I feel certain Russell Westbrook and his agent probably share the same sentiment.
Give your team a chance. Go with your best players, if that’s not good enough, then live with the results and either go fishing or hit the golf courses. But this bullshit with this team playing twelve players in the post season is beyond absurd.
For thirty-three minutes, Billy Donovan had something going with his young Thunder as they led the Houston Rockets by 12 points and appeared positioned to even this series at one game apiece. But then Russell Westbrook took a seat and witnessed the same thing he’s seen many times this season, namely a lead evaporate while he rested. During those three minutes, the Thunder promptly allowed their lead to dwindle to three points and this basketball game was never the same even when Westbrook re-entered the game while playing every minute of the fourth period.
OKC led 68-62 at the half by playing some beautiful basketball. The ball moved and the Thunder had sixteen assists. In the second half, the Thunder scored 43 points, and the ball didn’t move at all in that fateful fourth period as the Thunder had but four assists the entire half. Russell Westbrook did triple double with 51 points, 10 rebounds, and 13 assists, but he didn’t make a basket in clutch time and all told he took 43 shots.
It was awful, ugly basketball as Westbrook became frustrated and took one hurried bad shot after another. On the other side of the floor, Eric Gordon scored 11 points in the fourth period and teamed with Lou Williams to give James Harden some potent offensive support. And that primarily is the difference in this series, James Harden has some teammates who can spell him, Russell Westbrook doesn’t.
For the second straight game, Victor Oladipo wasn’t there for Russell Westbrook as he went 4-14 from the field. Combined, Oladipo is 5-26 from the field in this series so far. I know it was a stretch to hope Oladipo could be Westbrook’s Scottie Pippen, but right now I think most Thunder fans and Westbrook would settle for Derek Fisher, even the thirty-seven year old version.
For the second straight game, Andre Roberson was the Thunder’s second leading scorer as he garnered this honor with 12 points. If that doesn’t send up a red flag then I guess nothing would.
But unlike Game 1 in this series, the Thunder did compete hard. Billy Donovan did in essence bench Enes Kanter and basically go small which did work for those first thirty-three minutes until Westbrook kind of lost his mind as he watched the Thunder lead go poof while he sat.
You could see it in Westbrook’s eyes on the bench during those three minutes of play. The disgust in his eyes was evident as the lead so hard worked for went away with relative ease in those three fateful minutes. I’m not making an excuse for Westbrook’s play in the fourth, but I’m not condemning it either. In essence, it is exactly what this Thunder team has been all season long in various settings, but especially on the road against good teams.
It’s said role players generally play better at home, hopefully for OKC’s chances of making this an interesting series, this Thunder team needs some guys to make some shots at home on Friday night and inject some shooting confidence into their collective games.
So here we are with the Rockets leading the series 2-0 going to Oklahoma City for Game 3 on Friday night. I can’t imagine anyone would be shocked the Thunder find themselves in this position because if you’ve been paying attention this is what the season has primarily been—the Season of Westbrook in Oklahoma City. I don’t write that sentence with any snarkiness attached, but it’s what this season has been and will be till it’s conclusion.
Victor Oladipo, start making some shots, Russell Westbrook needs some help.
I pretty much agree with everything Steven A said and wrote as much in my recap. It was an abysmal performance, and in reality could help Westbrook’s MVP chances in that this team won 47 games only because of Westbrook. It was a pitiful performance.
My biggest fear of this Thunder team came to fruition as Oladipo, Adams, and Kanter didn’t step up and play up to their capabilities in Game 1. Ostensibly–they’re OKC’s second, third, and fourth best players and the truth of the matter is Pat Beverly by himself did more for the Rockets than the core of OKC’s team did as a whole combined.
Roberson was easily my Thunder Player of the Game, but I thought when Beverly took that massive hit from Adams on the screen the game changed. Beverly popped up, waved at the Thunder bench, and then helped his team go on a 19-8 spurt which put the game away for Houston. I thought Capela was excellent as well and the best big on the floor for either team. I think a great deal of OKC fans greatly underestimated both Capela and Nene coming into this series. I love Beverly. He’s annoying as hell, but he brings his lunchpail every night. He would have been a great hockey player.
Not much you can really say other than Houston out played, out shot, out hustled, and out coached the Thunder in Game 1. I thought Kanter’s presence defensively stood out as well, as in he couldn’t defend anyone in particular.
I really don’t want to write this, but this is okcthunderground.com and this is in part why I have the blog. Namely, I absolutely hate it when homer writers/bloggers or whatevers can’t write the truth.
Trust me, the truth hurts in a very bad way having to write this, but here goes.
OKC’s Thunder lost by a count of 118-87 tonight in the first game of the first round of the Western Conference Playoffs. OKC was beaten 59-33 in the second half after trailing 59-54 at the half. I’m not even going to look at the boxscore, it was that bad. Other than Andre Roberson, who was superb, and perhaps Jerami Grant, who was solid, I thought every other Thunder player was atrocious–including Russell Westbrook. And I thought Billy Donovan graded out at a D- for bench management in this game.
This isn’t the regular season where you get to play a litany of bad basketball teams during a season of 82 games. As a team, you better come to the arena with your lunchpail, your f–king heart, and some semblance of a plan. OKC as a team, brought none of the three to the Toyota Center on Sunday evening.
Note to Billy Donovan, if Steven Adams, Taj Gibson, and Enes Kanter are collectively going to play some of the softest basketball in Thunder history—there’s no reason whatsoever for them to be on the floor together at any point in a game in this series. None. OKC was outrebounded by 15 boards in this game and outscored 31-4 on second chance points. Little Patrick Beverly by himself showed more heart than OKC’s bigs just by himself on this abysmal night in Oklahoma City Thunder history. I was embarrassed for the Thunder players. Literally…embarrassed by the effort.
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize Houston plays some very unconventional lineups when they go small with three point guards together at times during the course of the game. Trading twos for threes isn’t going to work. I cannot fathom how OKC as a team or coaching staff came with the plan they came with tonight in Houston. Just so we’re clear, Golden State scored 121 points against the Trailblazers today, Houston scored 118 points tonight. This is who they are, what they do. Trying to play big boy ball against these two teams defies the premise of math.
So…maybe the thought might be to go small with Jerami Grant getting big minutes to go in tandem with Andre Roberson, maybe trying some lineups with Doug McDermott here and there, hoping Russell Westbrook doesn’t turn it over nine times, and praying Victor Oladipo doesn’t go 1-12 shooting the ball.
It was just awful is what it was, but one game only counts as one of four, but it just feels so much worse because OKC didn’t look prepared and didn’t play with much heart in the first game of post season when you expect guys to bring something extra to the arena with them.
Game 2 in Houston on Wednesday night. I would hope there’s going to be a ton of film being watched tonight and tomorrow–and some major adjustments made by the Thunder staff.