Month: March 2018

Every game from this point forward for the Thunder is critical. There’s no room for error because the team never for whatever reason met its own expectations. This was supposed to be that stretch of the season when this Super Team of sorts got its act together.

Only problem is Steven Adams is sitting now with a contused thigh. Paul George couldn’t continue in the second half in Atlanta because of a hard fall and some sort of groin injury. Andre Roberson’s season was over way back in Detroit on January 27th.

Yet on Tuesday night in Atlanta with three starters missing the Thunder responded with a hard fought 119-107 win over a horrible Atlanta Hawks team which is an embarrassment to the minimum standards of talent any NBA team should have on its roster.

But having written this, the storyline was once again Russell Westbrook put his owner, his GM, his teammates, and OKC on his back and got his team out of Dodge with a win his team absolutely had to leave town with given the going ons in the Western Conference.

Westbrook was Westbrook in notching his 21st triple double of the season and 100th of his career. Westbrook is in rarified air as one of the top four triple doublers of all time after this historic night in Atlanta. I think Jason Kidd is next on the list if I read it right.

Carmelo and Jerami Grant both had strong nights on a night with those three starters either already done or not available on this night. It’s a good thing the Thunder aren’t in the NHL or NFL or I fear Westbrook, Felton, and Collison would be the only Thunder still standing. Take that as you may.

The Thunder with their fourth win in a row improve to a season best 41-29 and a current landing as the No. 4 seed in the West.

The easy stretch of games is over. Twelve games remain for the Thunder with only the season finale against Memphis versus a team not currently eligible for the playoffs.

This is clearly the toughest stretch of schedule this Thunder team has faced this season.

I have no idea what the status is for either Adams or Paul George. I’m to the point I don’t care anymore. This season started on October 19th and it’s been five months of continual frustration. Yet, here the Thunder sit at least in the discussion for the possibility of a top six seed in the West.

I’ll keep watching and blogging because if for no other reason Russell Westbrook has kept my interest even though the team as a whole has been an underachiever to date.

The LA Clippers in town on Friday night beginning a stretch of eleven very tough games in a twenty-five day span. Five home games, six road games. Six wins would get the Thunder to 47-35 where is exactly where they finished last season as the No. 6 seed in the West.

I feel fairly certain this isn’t where Sam Presti wanted to be on March 14th, but such is life in the NBA.

For the fourth straight game, Corey Brewer scored in double figures and gave some life to what previously was a moribund Thunder squad. On Monday night inside the Peake, Brewer played just under thirty-three minutes, scored 16 points, and threw his body around like a skinny version of Andre Roberson in a 106-101 win for the Thunder.

For those not keeping track the Thunder are now 3-2 in the Corey Brewer Era in Oklahoma City.

Actually, I applaud Billy Donovan for giving Brewer these kind of minutes and coming to terms with the limitations of Alex Abrines and Josh Huestis. Yet, in this game, Abrines did hit two impactful threes in six minutes of play and had a positive effect on the outcome of the game. This is exactly what Abrines should be…a pinch hitter of sorts with limited exposure as far as minutes. Good for Billy Donovan. I can be content the rest of the Thunder basketball season.

Russell Westbrook tripled doubled for the 20th time this season. Paul George and Carmelo Anthony went a combined 14-32 from the field and made some shots unlike they did in the San Antonio game. George and Anthony went a combined 9-16 from beyond the arc and as a team the Thunder went 16-36.

Steven Adams played, but was ineffective as Dave Joerger played a sagging defense to make the Thunder shoot from beyond the arc. So, really, it was a game where Adams wasn’t needed all that much.

OKC improves to 40-29 and for the first time this season is eleven games above the .500 mark. The Thunder sit as the No. 4 seed in the West as they prepare to play the Hawks in Atlanta tonight.

You might want to take a look at the standings this morning as the San Antonio Spurs are in the No. 10 hole. No Kawhi Leonard will kind of do that to you. Even Pop isn’t immune from the First Rule of Coaching…Player Makes the Coach.

Very clear what the Thunder need to do tonight in Atlanta against a bad Hawks team, that being, bear down and get to twelve games over the .500 mark.

Hope Corey Brewer has some life left in legs because this Thunder team very much needs what he can bring to the arena every night in what we’re seeing as a skinny version of Andre Roberson who can actually shoot the ball a bit.

There was so much going on with sports yesterday, I really didn’t even feel the desire to write a recap on my Thunder journal. Tiger Woods made a run thru the 72nd hole in a golf tournament, there was the NCAA Tournament Selection Show, a couple of good hockey games, plus I watched Minnesota beat Golden State.

OKC beat the Spurs on Saturday night by a count of 104-94 in a game they very much had to win.

Russell Westbrook triple doubled for the 19th time this season. Paul George and Carmelo Anthony struggled mightily shooting the ball going a combined 5-24. The Thunder bench was magnificent scoring a season high fifty points. Nick Collison had a beautiful stretch in the second half which brought a lump to all our throats and Steven Adams suffered some sort of ankle or leg injury which caused him to leave the game early in the second half and never return.

Some word is expected later today on exactly what Steven Adams suffered injury wise. Suffice it to say I’m a little nervous about the prospect of Adams missing time coming down the stretch at the most critical juncture of the season.

If he can’t go the Thunder would have to go with some combination of Pat Patterson, Jerami Grant, Nick Collison and maybe even some Dakari Johnson minutes. Steven Adams being injured is not a good thing at any time, let alone now as the Thunder at 39-29 are fighting for their playoff lives.

In all honesty, it’s somewhat hard for me to think about tonight’s game in OKC against the Sacramento Kings.

The Thunder are in the No. 6 slot, but that changes daily. Don’t forget about the Utah Jazz in that they’re finally healthy and on a roll. Watch for the Jazz as this thing closes coming down to the final few days.

I watched a bit of the Pacers as they beat the Celtics yesterday. The Pacers are actually challenging LeBron for third place in the East. Oladipo is an All-Star and Sabonis now has the added muscle of an NBA vet and less the look of a rookie from Gonzaga. It’s hard to think what if the Thunder hadn’t traded them away this summer in Sam Presti’s quest to resign Russell Westbrook.

Either way, the Thunder with or without Stevens Adams need a win tonight to stay afloat in the NBA’s West.

So here we are with fifteen games left in a season which really to date has never gotten off the ‘runway’ so to speak. I think back to the summer and those images of Paul George and Carmelo Anthony arriving at the Oklahoma City airport as if they were conquering gods of some sort. I looked at those white people lining those fences in the Oklahoma summer heat and thought to myself are you people fucking crazy. I bet 80% of those people were of the Trump deplorable genre. Isn’t it amazing. Dave Chappelle knows though, that dude knows.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Paul George is a helluva player, but bringing Carmelo on board never did anything for me, but by the same token I didn’t see Kanter or McDermott as players who would have taken the Thunder any higher than sixth place. So it’s not like their departures hurt going down the road.

As I look at the standings this morning the Indiana Pacers are making a run for fourth place in the East while the Oklahoma City Thunder are in essence a worse team than last year’s rookie scale contract laden team. If the Thunder lose tonight they’re even in the loss column with the Clippers, the Nuggets, and the Utah Jazz. Such is the reality on March 10th for the Thunder and the Pacers.

To date—the Pacers have won the trade and it will be a complete slam dunk if Paul George leaves this summer as nothing more than a one year rental on a team which grossly underachieved. On the flip side, Sam Presti traded away two very promising young players in Oladipo and Sabonis for…. this season. This run at a championship which would show Russell Westbrook he could compete for championships in Oklahoma City without Kevin Durant.

This season, fifteen games left and to date it has been a complete and utter failure. Portland beat Golden State last night and you would think any chance of the Thunder winning the Northwest Division or the No. 3 seed is gone. Depending on the ankles of Anthony Davis the No. 4 seed is a murky goal at best.

But here’s the thing if this Thunder team could just pull their head out of their ass maybe the West isn’t a Golden State cakewalk if Steph Curry’s ankle doesn’t hold up or maybe the post season demons once again haunt Chris Paul. Maybe. You never know. That’s why you play the games.

So is tonight a must game against the Spurs?

You would think so because OKC has three teams behind them in the standings which are even with them in the loss column. Plus, OKC needs this tiebreaker with the Spurs. You would think OKC must win this home game against a Spurs team without Kawhi Leonard.

You would think.

In essence… tonight in Oklahoma City is a playoff basketball with the Thunder hosting the Spurs on the ABC Game of the Week. Back when ABC scheduled this game they probably figured they had a marquee game on their hands. But in reality it’s a game pitting two teams clinging at the bottom of the Western Conference qualifiers for a chance to finish at No. 6 in the West and avoid the Warriors and the Rockets in the first round.

Who would have thought last summer this would be what all those white Trump supporters at the OKC airport would be standing out in the heat for?

I’ll say this though, as I look at the video I don’t see one Deplorable white face pressed thru that chain link fence filled with anger. Not at all. Just some white people with the hope Paul George could be Kevin Durant again in Oklahoma City.

You know how I love this video. I just can’t get enough of it. You dumb motherfuckers.

Corey Brewer got the starting assignment filling the Andre Roberson role and it was a fit as the Thunder rolled the league worst Suns by a count of 115-87 on Thursday night inside the Peake.

Granted, these Suns are tanking and lottery bound, but to date in this season of underachievement you take the win and pray it’s a sign from the basketball gods that these guys actually care about their season.

On this night with no further margin for error in a season which hasn’t gone the right direction for a team with goals of being mentioned in the same breath as Golden State and Houston… there was an escape from that reality against these hapless Suns.

Corey Brewer got the start and played 28 minutes. In those minutes he scored 17 points, had 4 rebounds, a steal and an assist, and was +26. He moved without the ball, he slashed, he ran the break in transition, and he played some defense. But most of all he gave his team some much needed energy. It was like watching Andre Roberson minus some pounds and really bad free throw attempts.

So there’s that hope at least as the Thunder improve to 9-9 without Andre.

There’s really no need to mention the game further because the Suns are that bad. And I don’t write this to be snarky because I want to use the rest of my recap to talk about something else.

Namely, the 2011 Dallas Mavericks.

Just out of curiosity I googled the Dallas Mavs 2011 regular season record after 66 games. Guess what, the Mavs were 36-30 and the 7th seed at exactly the same point in the season as the Thunder were this morning. A mere six games over .500 and apparently going nowhere with Dirk, Jason Kidd, and Shawn Marion.

Then a funny thing happened. The Mavs entered the playoffs as the 6th seed in the West and of all things went on to beat LeBron’s first Super Team in Miami for the world championship playing flawless playoff basketball riding the shoulders of Dirk all the way to the promised land.

So there is some sort of precedent for this in this era of Super Teams and the overall devolved culture of the NBA. This is doable.

But for it to be doable Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony have to pull their collectives heads out of their asses and play every game remaining on the slate as if there’s no tomorrow. Because there is no tomorrow for this Thunder team if they continue to underachieve and go down in history as a joke of sorts. A bad joke at that.

The math is still doable to be a No. 4 seed. But as Dirk and Company showed in 2011 the math is even doable as the No. 6 seed.

It’s unfair to put all of this on Billy Donovan. It’s not fair of me to do that because this isn’t a coach driven league. It’s a star driven league.

I’m tired of writing about this team to a certain extent. They bore me. They did a shitload of talking and didn’t back it up.

They have fifteen games to back it up or shut the fuck up or to some extent validate Kevin Durant and his mother. I know, that was probably too much, but I’m tired of this shit. This doesn’t happen in hockey.

If superstars drive this league, then this would be the time in Oklahoma City for three future Hall of Famers who between them still don’t have a ring to have an internal conversation if you know what I mean. Or else just sign up for the next Team LeBron and suck his dick for a ring.

I think you know what I mean.

It’s on them from this point forward. Either step up or shut up.

The Thunder host the Spurs on Saturday night in the ABC Game of the Week.

There is basically no tomorrow for this Thunder team.

I’m guessing Billy Donovan by the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement isn’t allowed to say what I just wrote. So I just wrote it for him.

Fair enough?

Shawn Marion is one of my favorite non-star NBA players of all-time. I love this video.

For the second straight time the OKC Thunder aren’t even close to making my Power Poll. The Thunder are 37-29 which is exactly what the Thunder were last season 66 games into their season. Trading two promising young players in Oladipo and Sabonis for what appears to be a one year rental of Paul George in reality has had little impact on the Thunder’s overall ranking in the NBA. Last season the Thunder finished 47-35 and in reality for this Thunder team to finish at 47-35 they would have to finish 10-6 coming down the stretch against what I think is a tough schedule minus three of these next four games. In case you haven’t counted–the Thunder are 8-9 since Andre Roberson went down in Detroit.

The thing Roberson provided was a player on the defensive side of the ball along with Adams who would actually work. The three stars don’t do this each possession. They coast. It must be in their contracts that they coast defensively when it fits their needs. Simply look at the contenders in this league from a defensive standpoint and you don’t see stars coasting on the defensive side of the ball. Golden State, Houston, Cleveland, Toronto, and Boston don’t coast. To Kevin Durant and James Harden’s credit they’ve become better defensive players while Russell Westbrook who was clearly the best defender of the three coming out of college loafs on the defensive end. He can do it when he wants to do…but knowing when that will happen is somewhat a guess.

If I were to go all the way to sixteen on my Power Poll…I’d probably have OKC at somewhere around No. 14. An entertaining team at times, but not one to take seriously because of their character flaw as a basketball team. They lost their best work dog in Roberson. Period. Heck, Westbrook and Carmelo are more into their clothes than playing defense. I mean…can you really blame Billy Donovan for all of this? Billy… see if you can get the North Carolina Tar Heel job would be my advice. You’re too nice of a man for this bullshit.

A bright spot for me is that the Sixers should be an interesting team to watch in the East heading into the playoffs, plus the Boston Bruins picked up Rick Nash at the trade deadline and are currently the No. 2 seed in the NHL’s Eastern Conference. So…I’m blessed in those regards.

My Power Poll

1 Golden State Warriors
2 Houston Rockets
3 Cleveland Cavaliers
4 Toronto Raptors
5 Boston Celtics
6 Portland Trail Blazers
7 New Orleans Pelicans (if A.D. stays healthy)
8 Philadelphia 76’ers

Unless you’re either Brian Davis or Michael Cage this wasn’t much of a surprise. Houston’s streaking Rockets came to town and basically did what they wanted to with relative ease with a national TNT audience witnessing the mismatch.

The final read 122-112, but it never felt that close to me. I honestly had trouble paying attention at times.

But know this, Chris Paul knows he is in a much better place then ever before in his pro career as this season heads towards the playoffs while Paul George and Carmelo Anthony aren’t feeling any of that.

The Rockets with mad offensive scientist Mike D’Antoni pushing the buttons looks like it could have the right stuff to challenge the Warriors in the West. Conversely, the Thunder wouldn’t make it out of the Midwest Regional on my NCAA bracket sheet even five days before Selection Sunday.

There’s some stark realities here if you’re a Thunder fan, namely even though Thunder ownership dropped a huge wad of cash putting this team together, there’s not one singular thread of evidence this team in any way has gotten better from Game 1 thru tonight.

I would challenge the Thunder Usual Homer Suspects to address that subject with me, but they can’t because even they know the answer.

In case you haven’t looked at OKC’s final eleven games of the season here it is for you in closing order…. at Toronto, at Boston, Miami, Portland, at San Antonio, Denver, at New Orleans, Golden State, at Houston, at Miami, and Memphis.

I wouldn’t worry about seeding any longer. I’d worry about making the Big Dance.

So, if you think the Thunder are struggling now you better fasten down the hatch and get ready for some serious looking in the mirror moments. Clay Bennett, Sam Presti, Billy Donovan, and Russell Westbrook are going to have some serious thinking to deal with in their own minds.

I’ve been very clear about this for quite some time, I don’t think Billy Donovan is the right coach for this team. I think Billy Donovan would be an excellent coach for a team in the SEC or ACC, but the NBA’s Northwest Division–not so much. At times this team looks like they might be on the verge of quitting on Donovan, but then they think about it and realize that might require too much effort on their part.

Again, this model with Donovan at OKC would have been okay if Durant had stayed with Westbrook with all the rookie scale players around them to be coached like college players, but that all changed this season with the departure of the kids and the arrival of NBA grownup multi millionaires.

If a coach can’t motivate his players, he’s pretty much useless in any sport at any level. Period. Don’t worry I’m not going to repeat the 1st or 2nd Rule of Coaching on here tonight.

But I will write the 3rd Rule of Coaching, that being, Rule #3, ‘Every coach is hired to at some point be fired.’

Even really nice guys.

There’s an old legal saying, a lawyer who has himself as a client has a fool for a client. As I watch all of this shit it just blows me away. It blows me away in that these people within the Trump orbit remind of characters from the Quintin Tarantino movie Reservoir Dogs. It’s a never ending gallery of rogue grifters.

Sam Nunberg will testify because otherwise his ass will sit in jail for at least eighteen months. I have no idea what he was doing yesterday other than venting.

If he has to show his emails he will be forever shamed because he was one of the wise guys in Trump’s orbit from 2011-2015 when candidate Trump was the father of Birtherism and instrumental with other racists elements of the Trump candidacy like ‘building the wall’ and the Muslim ban. I’m sure these emails won’t be flattering.

If nothing else comes of this these emails will show the public what the inner thinking of the Trump people like Nunberg and Roger Stone was in those years between 2011-2015. Remember, Robert Mueller in essence is trying his case on Donald Trump to the American people. The American people are the jury box so to speak.

Trump inner circle cabinet meeting from 2011-2015. Who could make up this shit?

I didn’t for the first time in my adult life watch the Oscars last night. Not that my love of great storytelling and film making has diminished, but more to the point I don’t want to watch three hours of political activism take center stage over the movies and the art of storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, no one more than me thinks Donald Trump is a douchebag, but enough already, the Oscar show should be a ninety minute show which features great films, great performances, and outside the box writing.

These were my six favorite films of the year in order of preference:

1 Lady Bird
2 Molly’s Game
3 Get Out
4 The Shape of Water
5 Darkest Hour
6 The Post

Lady Bird got my nod for Best Picture. It was a sleeper movie made for $10 million dollars which grossed over $50 million. It scored points with me on every nuance of the story being told about this young college bound woman from Sacramento who has this contentious relationship with her mother. I thought the writing was great. The performances were Oscar worthy and the in the end these characters have you loving both of them for the right reasons as the movie winds to its tearup-good gulp conclusion.

My best actor Oscar goes to Gary Oldham in Darkest Hour. You see this movie and you feel as if you’re in a room with Winston Churchill for two hours. Slam dunk easy for me on this one.

My best actress Oscar goes to Saorise Ronan from Lady Bird. She was superb. She had me from the opening scene to the very last scene of the movie when she was calling her mother from college with her grownup moment speech. Her coming of age moment so to speak as a young woman. Bravo. More of this and less of the bullshit from the Oscar show.

My best supporting actor Oscar goes to Idris Elba from Molly’s Game. Elba plays the high powered defense lawyer who takes on the pro bono legal defense of Molly Bloom. Again, this character had me every moment he was on the screen in what I thought was a better film than some of the films which touched more on our current state of political affairs than on compelling storytelling.

My best supporting actress Oscar goes to Laurie Metcalf who plays the mother of Lady Bird. She nailed it. I know in this day and age these kind of roles probably don’t play as big as politically correct figures, but she was great.

My best director Oscar goes to Jordan Peele from Get Out. Who would have known there would be a horror story remake of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? This is one of those movies I’ll need to see again from the opening scene to that final scene in that this movie artfully through sublimation touches on race relationships in this country. This is a horror movie which leaves you feeling creepy at times, but like I said, I’ll watch it again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. To me, this was a much better movie than last year’s best picture winning Moon Light.

So those are my awards. If you want to go see six good movies then I’d say go for it. If you want to argue about the Era of Caligula then there’s always MSNBC and Fox. Go see a movie would be my advice. Give yourself a break.

Perhaps, the last minute and a half of this game tells us all we need to know. The Thunder hung around and closed to within 102-98 with more than a puncher’s chance of winning their most important game of the season. But then in a matter of seconds the Thunder did what they do best and became their own worst enemy while finding a way to lose to the Trailblazers by a 108-100 count.

There were three straight Thunder turnovers during this lapse, but the one which really hurt was Jerami Grant’s off target pocket pass. This was followed by Paul George taking a horrific foul on Damian Lillard who wasn’t even in shooting range and was having a tough 5-18 shooting night. Thing is though, Lillard shoots 90% from the line and made both free throws–and in those two back to back plays the Thunder allowed a four point swing and in essence the game was over.

Portland now moves into third place in the West, while the still underachieving Thunder drop back to seventh place with the Houston Rockets on deck with Chris Paul playing this time against the Thunder on Tuesday night.

Brian Davis had the gall to mention Andre Roberson’s absence in the last minute of this game and I couldn’t even curse at the flat screen. It was that lame. Andre Roberson’s absence was no big deal in this game as Lillard didn’t hurt OKC, neither really did Shabazz Napier, and truth be known CJ McCollum only went 2-8 from beyond the arc. As a whole the Blazers shot 44% from the field and went 11-33 shooting threes. These are both winning numbers from OKC’s standpoint if you’re game planning on how to beat the Blazers, but you have to be smart offensively and the Thunder were not a smart offensive team, not even close.

I hate to keep banging this drum, but I wonder what Billy Donovan says to his team at times. Carmelo Anthony didn’t play in this game needing rest in the season’s most important game, but Pat Patterson did a good job and scored 12 points. I actually like Patterson starting by the way in that he’s a better defender than Carmelo. Why Carmelo isn’t the sixth man on this team paired with Raymond Felton is beyond me. But it is what it is. I wonder if Billy Donovan has even ever broached this subject with Anthony or if he’s allowed that latitude by Sam Presti. Are NBA coaches allowed to do this sort of thing?

I just don’t get it with Billy Donovan and Sam Presti. I don’t. In reality I see no coaching upgrade from Scott Brooks to Billy Donovan. If anything what I’ve seen is a regression in the team in that say what you want it was very seldom if ever you questioned the Thunder’s heart with Scott Brooks. Now, you might have cursed hero ball and shot selection when Durant and Westbrook forgot about their teammates, but you very seldom questioned the effort.

But tell me what the Thunder are now? On a night when Steven Adams only got nine shot attempts, Russell Westbrook was going 12-31 on a night when you knew his tank was going to be running low after the game in Phoenix. Hero ball solo?

Are you kidding me? Does this Thunder team watch film? Do they discuss the game the afternoon before the game? This just boggles my mind in that you have all these paid coaches and it appears at times there’s no thought whatsoever put into what the Thunder are doing out there.

For instance in this game… I would have asked Ray Felton if he could go thirty minutes. I would have done the same with Josh Huestis. I’m not going to use Alex Abrines as a punching bag even though he didn’t make a shot with only one attempt in fourteen minutes. So tell me this, why the fuck as a coach would you allow Alex Abrines fourteen minutes with only one shot attempt? That makes no sense whatsoever. None. That’s like asking a power play specialist in hockey to not shoot the puck. Pure stupidity.

And then you decide to play Corey Brewer who hasn’t even practiced with the team to play twelve very forgettable minutes. I mean, he hit the side of the backboard on his first shot, didn’t score a point, and was -14 in twelve minutes.

Here’s a novel thought…maybe Carmelo Anthony could have played those twelve minutes.

I just don’t get it.

But, oh, BTW…Mikey Boynton did something yesterday which no other Big 12 coach had ever done before during the Bill Self era at Kansas, namely his team swept the Kansas Jayhawks for a 2-0 season sweep. Good for Mikey Boynton. Isn’t it amazing what can happen when a team buys into their coach?

Speaking of series sweeps, former OU forward Terry Stotts is 3-0 versus OKC’s Super Team so far this season and in third place in the West.

Again, full credit to Clay Bennett for staying silent as an owner thru this. I could never do what he’s done this season for sure. I could never sit in those courtside seats in that I would have already been removed by security several times for screaming at my own team.

James Harden, Chris Paul, the singing Trevor Ariza..and the league’s best record Rockets in town on Tuesday night.

Good luck with that, Thunder.