Thunder Unravel in Fourth Period to Lose Game 2, 115-111

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.

Patrick Beverly–My Outstanding Player of the Game

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.

Thunder Stink in Series Opening Loss at Houston, 118-87

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.

Thunder – Rockets Series to Begin on Sunday Evening in Houston

If you would have told me before this season started the Thunder would go 47-35, Westbrook would average a triple double, break Oscar’s record, and Westbrook would be a major contender for the MVP… I would have taken it. And here’s the thing, even if OKC loses this first round series to Houston this season can still be deemed a major success, but with a caveat attached. I want to see some other OKC players step up in this series and show me there’s hope this roster has a chance to garner more from a team standpoint next season.

It would be unfair of me to say Victor Oladipo and Steven Adams were disappointments this season, but in all candor, I’m ready to see more from each of these two players in this series and beyond. I want to see Oladipo become Westbrook’s consistent twenty point backcourt scoring partner. I’d like to see the Steven Adams of last year’s San Antonio series. The energy, the toughness, the overall team catalyst. I thought Adams was the guy last season who was OKC’s MVP in the Spurs series… a sighting of that Steven Adams is a must if OKC is going to be seriously competitive in this series. These two guys genuinely need to step up their games as we begin the real season in the NBA.

To a lesser degree, same thing with Andre Roberson. He was wonderful last season against the Spurs cutting to the basket and getting out in transition. OKC needs this Andre Roberson if they want to compete with a Rocket’s team which averages a 115 points a game.

Next on my list is Billy Donovan. He needs to bring his AAA bench management game in this series. This isn’t a great matchup for the Thunder in that they struggle making threes at times and here they are in the first round playing a Houston team which goes on regular orgy-fests making trifectas. It can’t just be Westbrook trying to score with the Rockets. It has to be a team thing. Oladipo, Adams, Roberson, Kanter, Gibson, Abrines, McDermott, Sabonis, Christon, and Grant. But Billy Donovan as a coach can’t have bad spells where his mix and match lineups go dud for a couple of minutes while the Rockets are raining threes.

OKC has to make threes in this series–it’s just simple math. Think back to last season’s series with the Warriors and those last three agonizing losses. Look at those three box scores. Even if you’re a Trump supporter with math and science not being your thing, this math isn’t that complex, this isn’t like grappling with the nuance of climate change—OKC can’t give up a substantial negative differential from three point land every game in this series. Some guys not named Westbrook have to make some threes. Some guys not named Westbrook need to score the ball…period.

Do I think OKC is going to win this series? I would probably say not because the consistency from other players absent Westbrook just hasn’t been present this basketball season against the top three teams in the West. OKC went 0-4 versus the Warriors. They went a combined 2-9 against the Warriors, Spurs, and Rockets and did not win a road game against any of the three teams. It’s just very hard for me to ignore all of this even though I adore the Thunder. But one thing which gives me a sliver of hope is that this is not a great Houston team from a defensive standpoint. These guys are not the Warriors defensively.

So if I were forced to make a pick…I’d say the Rockets in either five or six games.

But as a Thunder fan looking ahead to next season, what I really want to see in this series are some young guys competing and growing up as a team. I don’t want to see Westbrook playing 1 on 5 basketball for 48 minutes.

I’m ready to see the OKC Thunder future starting tomorrow night in Houston.

Who Is This Person…Donald Trump?

Writers all over the world are trying to peel the layers back and expose the real Donald Trump. It’s not that complex. He’s not that deep. This is a massive overthink. He never in his wildest dreams thought some of you angry white people would elect him. Who would have thought 82% of white evangicals would vote for Caligula Lite? You Trump people left this person with no other option other than to pretend to be POTUS. This is who he is and who he will be at the end of the day. So my advice would be to drink heavily and somehow get through all of this without going completely fucking crazy while George is running the world.

Getting Deeper Inside the Trump Doctrine

It’s been a big week for Donald Trump. After getting virtually nothing done in his presidency to date, he made a wise political decision allowing his generals to start dropping bombs at various locales. First, he closed down a Syrian airfield for almost twenty-four hours, then followed that with the Mother of All Bombs somewhere near the Afghanistan – Pakistan border. Now, of course, the whole world watches as Trump and the fat kid from North Korea exchange twitter blows. If ever there was an illustration of how far American culture has dropped since the Cuban Missile Crisis this would be that learning moment.

The other day, Joe Scarborough actually compared Trump to Reagan and FDR. I have to say, after almost passing out from laughter, again the thought struck me how dumb America has become. Donald Trump is not FDR, TR, Lincoln, Reagan or even James Polk. He’s George Constanza. The only difference is Trump’s father left him millions allowing Trump to make enough money to lease a new trophy wife every fifteen years or so and put his name on some buildings. And maybe the hair. George is bald, Trump wears the dead rat on his head. Otherwise– these guys are twins. Identical. From Queens and everything.

I make my case… President George Costanza.