Author: Mike

Time for the weekly OKCTG Weekly Power Poll even with snow on the ground in Deer Creek, Oklahoma…. I trudge ahead undaunted in pursuit of NBA blogging excellence. Pauli sits nearby staring down the wild turkeys feeding just a few feet off our back patio, yet knowing she’s part of something special as the teams on this week’s poll roll off my fingers. I’m tired of seeing the same repetitive bullshit from the  Oklahoma City Thunder and they drop in this week’s poll. Houston and Memphis leave my poll altogether. Reggie Jackson, Andre Drummond, and the Detroit Pistons welcome to the poll for your first ever visit to the holy grail of NBA hoops. So–here we go.

1   Golden State Warriors

2   San Antonio Spurs

3   Cleveland Cavaliers

4   Chicago Bulls

5   Los Angeles Clippers

6   Oklahoma City Thunder

7   Miami Heat

8   Atlanta Hawks

9   Toronto Raptors

10  Indiana Pacers

11  Dallas Mavericks

12  Detroit Pistons

OKC Thunder 117 — LA Lakers 113

So there I was… in my sports room with the sixty inch flat screen.. On the couch with my wonderful black lab Pauli poised by my side. Fireplace toasty. Blanket in place. Two books on my lap that I figured would keep me awake since I was about to watch an NBA game which had the dumpster fire LA Lakers as one of the teams involved. The sound turned down on the Fox broadcast so I wouldn’t have to listen to any homering nonsense from either Brian Davis, Michael Cage or Antonio Davis. It couldn’t get anymore Norman Rockwell. But wouldn’t you know it…here I am at 5:00am just now writing the recap because of what transpired in the fourth quarter

The axiom in the NBA or any sports endeavor is just win. Find a way to win, regardless of the opponent or how bad you were up to the game defining plays of a contest. So–I have to give the OKC Thunder that much because I’m a fair, objective minded guy at the end of the day.

OKC’s Thunder survived themselves and a Lou Williams 23 point fourth period to claim an extremely hard fought 117-113 win over the now 8-30 Lakers in Staples on Friday night.

Seventeen of Williams fourth quarter points came in the first eight minutes of the period. On the night, Williams scored a career high 44 points which included some brilliant shot making and a 15-15 night from the free throw line.

Yet, in the Laker world of Kobe Bryant, who went 8-20 on the night–it was Kobe who took the last shot instead over Kevin Durant. The shot came up short and OKC survived because for the most part because Billy Donovan went small coming down the stretch, spaced the floor, and got Russell Westbrook to the rim on pretty much every possession when the game hung in the balance against these defenseless dumpster fire Lakers.

Sorry, Lou Williams, I only give No. 1 Stars to a guy from the winning team because winning matters. Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game with a 36 point, 12 rebound, 7 assist night.

Four other Thunder players scored in double figures. Durant went for 24, Adams 10, Kanter 15, and rookie wunderkind Cam Payne 11.

OKC’s bench scored 33 points on a night when Waiters was awful and Morrow was quiet. Thus, the incredible saga of Dion Waiters in Oklahoma City continues. One game removed from being my No. 1 Star he was arguably the worse player on the floor for OKC tonight. In Dion’s defense–Serge Ibaka was almost as bad.

When the players you have pegged as your No. 3 and No. 4 scoring options for the season play fifty-one minutes combined and score a combined 9 points against the worst defensive team in the Western Conference that’s an ominous red flag which is hard to ignore if you want to realisticly evaluate OKC as a viable contender come April, May, and June.

So the final take is this…OKC improves to 26-11 with a hard fought road win over the worst team in the Western Conference due to Russell Westbrook putting the team on his back in the fourth period.

OKC will drop in my weekly Power Poll to either No. 5 or No. 6 because you can’t aspire to be a serious contender if you don’t have dependable third and fourth options every night.

OKC in Portland on Sunday evening.

Mike Jackson

 

I think I’ve already clearly stated my view on Thunder games played against the dumpster fire LA Lakers and Philadelphia 76’ers this basketball season. They’re both horrible basketball teams in tank mode trying to be the one who gets the draft rights for Ben Simmons from LSU in the draft this coming summer.

These are not viable basketball games. Instead.. they’re more like the Harlem Globetrotters playing the New Jersey Generals, only the Generals would never get Ben Simmons in the end no matter how many times they lose.

I will only half watch tonight while finishing a book called Black and White by Richard Williams–the father of tennis stars Serena and Venus Williams.

Hence–no viable preview is needed for this game. If the Thunder somehow lose this game—the Thunder season is officially over, assuming of course—Durant is playing tonight.

If  you need a couple of thousand words to build you up for this epic confrontation in LA tonight…I’d give Alex Roig over at Daily Thunder or Erik Horne or Anthony Slater a read. All seem like fair and decent young writers.

Instead—I’m going with this short Phil Jackson interview on Michael, Kobe, and Shaq.

 

OKC Thunder 112 —  Memphis Grizzlies 94

Despite being ruled out for OKC’s game against Memphis, Kevin Durant returned to the Thunder lineup against the Grizzlies. Durant struggled in the first half going 2-10, but got going in the second half to finish with a 26 point, 17 rebound night in leading the Thunder to an easy home rout of Memphis and a season series 2-1 win over the disjointed Grizzlies.

Even with Durant struggling early, it didn’t matter because Mike Conley was out with an Achilles injury and Memphis was horrible in both halves. It was an ugly, ugly game if you’re a Memphis fan. Add to the fact, Conley’s usual guard partner Courtney Lee left the game in the third period with a hip injury after going scoreless in twenty-one minutes to that point. So what we’re saying here is that a team which struggles nightly to score points got nothing from two of their better offensive players.

OKC led 56-36 and the game was essentially over at halftime even before Durant rebounded with his strong second half performance. As I wrote, Memphis was bad without Mike Conley, but even worse when you throw in Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph combined for twenty points on a combined 7-24 night from the field.

The only conceivable bright spot for Memphis was Super Thunder Slayer Mario Chalmer leading the Grizz in scoring with 23 points. Sounds like a great name for a new video game.

OKC’s bench was excellent in this game, especially Dion Waiters and Anthony Morrow. This may have been Waiters’ best game of the season as far as all around play. Billy Donovan has been pleading for this type of performance from Waiters during his recent shooting slump and tonight the coach got what he wanted from the player.

In thirty one minutes, Waiters scored 15 points on a 6-9 shooting night, and added three assists for good measure. Dion Waiters is my No. 1 Star of the Game. This is what the Thunder need from Waiters consistently. This type of contribution.

Anthony Morrow was solid and would be my No. 2 Star. In eighteen minutes of play, Morrow scored 14 points on 3-4 shooting.

Cam Payne added 8 points and 3 assists. Enes Kanter chipped in 9 points in twenty-two minutes. OKC needs more from Enes Kanter though– considering his new contract pays him roughly $213,000 per game. If you’re going to pay a guy $17.5 million, then you need to get a bang for your buck.

Overall, OKC’s bench contributed with a fifty point night. Give the bench an A- for almost excellent minus Kanter’s so-so night.

Great no look, back door pass from Steven Adams to Andre Roberson. Ironic, the Play of the Game was provided by the two most offensively challenged players on the floor from either team.

Not much else to take from this game other than Russell Westbrook looked calmer with his running mate Kevin Durant back on the floor. The whole team looked better, calmer, more poised, and in sync—but that’s the way any basketball team should look when their best player is back on the floor with them instead of sitting with a sore toe.

Memphis looks lost and better hope Mike Conley isn’t sitting out too many more games.

OKC’s Thunder improves to 25-11, but the storyline has changed a bit with the LA Clippers winning again and now on a seven game winning streak. Clippers remain only two games behind OKC in the battle for the No. 3 seed.

OKC’s needs to be winning games if they prefer playing San Antonio over Golden State in the second round. Something to look at in standings for Thunder fans because the Warriors and Spurs have separated and are in pursuit of other regular season milestones which don’t include the Thunder.

Mike Jackson

Kevin Durant is out again tonight with a sprained toe. This will be Durant’s eighth game missed this season due to injury. Combining last season and this season to date–Durant has missed 62 out of a possible 117 games due to injury. Tonight will be game missed number sixty-three.

OKC better figure out in a hurry how to play a higher level of basketball without Kevin Durant in the lineup. In games this season to date without Durant the Thunder are 3-4 with the losses coming at the hands of the Celtics, Grizzlies, Knicks, and Kings.

Add to the fact the LA Clippers have now won six in a row and are suddenly only two behind OKC in the loss column for the No. 3 seed in the West. All the sudden OKC’s leisurely stroll thru January has a different feel about it if the Thunder lose tonight at home against the Grizzlies and Durant misses more than just tonight.

Memphis comes in at 19-17 and 8-11 on the road coming in tonight as a five and half point road underdog. The two teams have split so far this season with the Grizz beating the Thunder without Durant by a 122-114 count. With Durant–OKC blew out Memphis on the road in one of their more impressive performances of the season.

Memphis to date has been a disappointment to the point they’ve experimented with Zach Randolph coming off the bench while Matt Barnes is in the starting lineup. Grizzlies are 5-5 in their last ten games, yet in the now suddenly soft Western Conference—are the No. 6 seed.

OKC was brutal against the Kings on Sunday evening in absorbing a 116-104 home loss. The Thunder allowed a 68 point first half  and the defense was an issue throughout the game.

Russell Westbrook struggled with a very tough shooting night and tried to force too much without Durant on the court with him. Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter were basically no shows going a combined 2-12 from the field. Without Durant, OKC has a very slim margin to win with that lack of  production from what should be OKC’s two biggest bench scorers.

Bright spots in the loss were Anthony Morrow, Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, Cameron Payne, and Kyle Singler. Same will be needed tonight from these guys, but with Kanter and Waiters making positive contributions.

 

 

Sacramento Kings 116 — OKC Thunder 104

With Kevin Durant’s big right toe healthy you’d have thought this would be another Thunder win over the usually self-destructive Sacramento Kings. But instead, with Durant and his big right toe sidelined on this Big Monday Night, it became a night of basketball history of sorts when the Kings beat the Thunder 116-104 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Before tonight, the Sacramento Kings were 0-14 in games played in Oklahoma City. Make that 1-14 now as these Kings won their first ever against this franchise since the move from Seattle.

Speaking of Seattle, former Sonics coach George Karl notched the 1,156th win in his NBA coaching career which now places him in sole possession of fifth place on the all-time list. Good for him.

The third piece of history occurred in Lawrence, Kansas where Kansas and OU played a No. 1 versus No. 2 epic triple overtime game which in all candor put the Thunder game on the back shelf as far as basketball passion and drama.

Let’s be clear, without Kevin Durant—the OKC Thunder are not a top twelve team in the NBA and are perhaps at best a periphery playoff team which would be similar to Utah only with Russell Westbrook. Without Durant this team doesn’t know what to do–and that includes Russell Westbrook at times as well.

They look around. They don’t play defense. They hesitate taking open shots. But most of  all —they just look lost.

OKC started out fine in this game with Anthony Morrow subbing for Durant. In fact–OKC led 31-14 at one point before the bench unit came onto the floor. So much for the feel good glow about OKC’s bench play of late. OKC’s bench was in a word horrific on this night being outscored 51-25 in the game.

In thirty-five minutes of combined play — this OKC bench duo went 2-12 from the field and scored eight points total. If this were Jeopardy on television—the correct question would be …Who are Dion Waiters and Enes Kanter?

There’s no way you can sugarcoat it–both Kanter and Waiters were wretched topped with a touch of abysmal which is exactly what OKC couldn’t live with on a night without Kevin Durant and all ten of his toes.

Sadly—both Serge Ibaka and Anthony Morrow had season high scoring nights with 25 and 20 respectively….which in essence went wasted.

Steven Adams was pretty good scoring 15 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. I liked the way Adams played actually and don’t have anything snarky to say about his hair.

Cam Payne went scoreless the first half, but came back in the fourth period to score all 11 points of his points as Donovan tried a lineup using both Westbrook and Payne, but to no avail as Russell Westbrook kept shooting when he shouldn’t have on a 6-23 shooting night. It was one of those nights where you just wished Westbrook would stop shooting threes altogether as he went 2-9 from beyond the arc.

Five different Kings scored in double figures…. Demarcus Cousins, Rajon Rondo, Rudy Gay, Marco Bellinelli, and Darren Collison.

DeMarcus Cousins is my No. 1 Star with 33 points and 19 rebounds.

With the win–the Kings improve to 14-20, and notch their fifth win of the season against a Western Conference team.

OKC’s win streak ends at four and the Thunder drop to 24-11. Good thing for OKC The UnderGround Power Poll came out yesterday.

In closing, on a night when it appeared OKC would coast and continue heading in the right direction under Billy Donovan–this Thunder team collectively took two steps backward and saw what they are without Kevin Durant.

Memphis Grizzlies in Oklahoma City on Wednesday. Vegas spread on hold pending a health update on a big right toe.

Mike Jackson