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Billy Donovan is now 8-3 in post season in his NBA rookie coaching season against the likes of Rick Carlisle and Gregg Popovich. NBA Coach of the Year Steve Kerr looms on the horizon as his next coaching matchup.

Donovan has done a good job. He got Serge Ibaka off the floor in Games 4 & 5 and went with the Adams/Kanter combo. Not sure Scott Brooks would have pulled that trigger, but it was the right thing to do. Donovan has apparently settled in on Randy Foye versus rookie Cam Payne as his post season backup point guard as Foye has made a big three in each of the last three games of the Spurs series.

I like what Donovan has done with Dion Waiters as well with him manning some point responsibilities. After the Game 1 blowout loss, you’d have to say Donovan won the battle between the coaches. His team’s defense buckled down, Westbrook responded with three solid games after the Game 3 debaucle, and the Thunder’s bench made some tangible contributions.

Anotherwords, Donovan didn’t seem in awe of Gregg Popovich.

The matchup with Golden State should be fascinating from a coaching standpoint. Various intriguing matchups. Golden State’s small ball combos versus the Thunder’s bruising rebounding lineup. But OKC can go small as well if it needs to. Should be a great series.

Oklahoma City Thunder 113 – San Antonio Spurs 99

Thunder wins series 4-2

It would have been a crime for the Thunder not to win this series after the Game 5 win at San Antonio. It felt like an emotional bridge was crossed in that game for both teams with the Thunder growing up a little and the Spurs finally starting to show their age.

The Thunder put the self-doubt, the demons, and the Spurs away in Game 6 with a closeout 113-99 win to advance to the Western Conference Finals against the Golden State Warriors.

This marks the fourth time in the last six seasons the Thunder have advanced to the Western Conference Finals. This marks the first time since 2012 the Thunder will begin the Western Conference Finals with a healthy ball club.

Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook as usual led the Thunder to victory as they combined for 65 points in Game 6. Durant scored what has to be the quietest 37 points I’ve ever seen on a 12-24 night. For good measure he pulled in 9 rebounds as well. Durant didn’t have what would be described as a blockbuster series, yet in Game 4 and Game 6 he scored 41 and 37 points respectively as the Thunder won the last three games of this series and four of the last five after being humiliated in Game 1.

Westbrook was Westbrook as usual scoring 28 points and dishing out 12 assists. Consider this–if the Thunder hadn’t melted down at the end of the Game 3 home loss–it’s conceivable they would have rolled an inside straight against the Spurs winning four games in a row and ending the series in five games. Think about that as you start weighing the Thunder’s chances against the Golden State Warriors.

Steven Adams is my series MVP despite the heroics of Durant and Westbrook. To me, the series changed in Game 2 and Steven Adams was a huge part of that game and the others which followed. He was a beast and his competitiveness, toughness, and will to win was contagious.

Bill Simmons will have to come up with something other than the Harden trade from this point forward. Harden may indeed be a top ten player in the league, but Steven Adams gives this team something they’ve never had before in a center who can defend, rebound, and finish on the pick and roll with Russell Westbrook.

Andre Roberson scored 14 points in this game going 3-5 from behind the arc. Go figure.  You have to believe at this point the basketball gods are firmly in favor of the Thunder this postseason with Roberson hitting three threes in a game. Don’t discount destiny, karma, and good luck–the Thunder are finally getting some coming their way after a season of grief and despair of things going wrong beyond the pale of losing some basketball games in the fourth quarter.

OKC’s bench was quiet in this game, but the Thunder starting five scored a combined 102 points so it wasn’t a huge detriment as the Thunder led 55-31 at the half in this one.

Actually, what transpired tonight could have happened in 2013 if Patrick Beverly hadn’t taken out Russell Westbrook’s knee, or in 2014 when Serge Ibaka got hurt before the Western Conference Finals, or last season before Kevin Durant missed 55 games due to a Jones’ fracture.

But for historians, the bridge was crossed tonight–the Spurs look old even with Kawhi Leonard playing for them.

One bridge crossed. Another awaits named the Golden State Warriors of 73 regular season wins and in defense of their NBA championship.

This is the series everybody has been waiting to see, wanting to see, and hoping to see.

Throw out the regular season. It means nothing at this point. This is a new season for the Thunder. The season they’ve been waiting for almost to the point of four years.

Consider this in closing, Billy Donovan is no longer a rookie NBA coach. He’s now 8-3 against the likes of Rick Carlisle and Gregg Popovich in post season. Granted, players always make the coach, but Donovan has shown he can roll and change on the fly.

These Western Conference Finals hold the possibility of being epic. We can only  hope the play matches the expectations when all is said and done.

Mike Jackson

 

 

Footnote: Billy Donovan is 7-3 in post season play to date against Gregg Popovich and Rick Carlisle. He seems to be adjusting fairly well on the fly.

Oklahoma City Thunder 95  — San Antonio Spurs 91

Thunder lead series 3-2, Game 6 Thursday night at the Chesapeake Energy Arena

So I guess Russell Westbrook drove the car. I’m a fan before I’m a rogue Thunder blogger and right now I’m a very happy fan. Best moment as a Thunder fan since Game 6 in 2012 to win the Western Conference Championship. Now the Thunder need to close the deal on Thursday night.

It was just beautiful watching them compete. They never surrendered despite things going the wrong way there for a while. But when Billy Donovan finally got his five best players on the floor together there to close the game–it was beautiful.

I would think Sam Presti is a very happy camper right now. Three of his moves were validated tonight…. drafting Steven Adams as one of the key pieces in the Harden trade, paying Enes Kanter, and sticking with Dion Waiters.

Actually, in all candor, Kevin was the shakiest of the five Thunder players there at the end. He’s still the alpha hoss, but he has to know what just transpired.

You saw the game. You lived it just like I did with my father and brother. I don’t really feel like writing a conventional recap like an internet nerd at this moment. We have enough of those in droves already.

This was about life, hard work, sticking with it, and getting it done. Kawhi Leonard is still a hoss, but it was Westbrook, Durant, Adams, Kanter, and Waiters doing the blue collar work. Working through failure to see the light. This was a moment.

That’s a carload of young basketball talent Sam Presti has configured for Kevin Durant. My advice to Kevin Durant would be if you need Pop to be a surrogate guru figure, then text him from time to time. Sam Presti has put a nice team around you which just won Game 5 for you on the road in the biggest of settings.

That’s it for me tonight. I’m taking my old ass out on the back porch to smoke the victory cigar and drink several glasses of wine.

Winning is fun.

LET’S GO THUNDER!

I’ve seen every game the Thunder have played in their eight seasons in Oklahoma City. A ton of big games in post season with important ramifications, but none like tonight. This is just Game 5 of the Conference Semi-Finals, yet it feels like the entire future of the franchise could depend on the outcome of tonight.

So much talk about Durant potentially leaving to become a Spur at the conclusion of this season. And, btw, as Kevin Durant’s internet uncle my advice to him would be if you’ve decided you have to leave then San Antonio would be the smart choice. The coach, the culture, the championship opportunities with Kawhi and LaMarcus, plus maybe even a surrogate father relationship with Gregg Popovich. It’s a serious lure and I would completely understand.

But there’s also this, Kevin Durant is a student of the game. A historian. Part of me thinks he would truly love to be one of those special players who stays in one place his entire NBA career. Like Bill Russell, Magic, Bird, Kobe, Dirk, Wade, and Tim Duncan–just to name several.

Kevin Durant is the Oklahoma City Thunder franchise and tonight is the most important game in the history of the franchise. Sam Presti has tonight and Game 6 to make his selling point for why Kevin Durant should stay in Oklahoma City.

This is Sam Presti’s creation and much of it is very good. In fact, you could even make the conclusion the Harden trade wasn’t all that bad given what Steven Adams has become as a player. Enes Kanter has shown he’s not that horrible defensively. And even the most ardent Dion Waiters haters on Daily Thunder would have to admit he has his moments.

But tonight, Sam Presti’s creation is solely in the hands of one Russell Westbrook his point guard from UCLA who no one ever dreamed would become the player he has to date.

No one who watched Westbrook at UCLA would have ever dreamed he could do some of the things he has done. Sam Presti, Scott Brooks, and the entire Thunder organization gave the car keys to the Thunder to Westbrook and in this series he holds what could be the literal future of the organization.

Russell Westbrook now needs to show he can drive the car against the likes of San Antonio, Golden State, and Cleveland. Regular season triple doubles against the Kings, Bucks, and Suns are fun, but can Russell Westbrook drive the Thunder car against the Spurs, Warriors, and LeBron when it’s for the O’Brien Trophy?

Can Russell Westbrook calibrate his game to the point where he makes sure Durant, Ibaka, Adams, Kanter, and Waiters get their touches and orchestrate the game like a post season championship point guard? Can he gear his throttle back and slow the game down in  the final four minutes? Can he make sure the best offensive option in the game today in Kevin Durant gets his quality touches? Can he remember not to forget Adams, Kanter, Ibaka, and Waiters when it matters?

Can Russell Westbrook do what all great point guards do and make sure OKC gets quality possessions coming down the stretch?

If the answers to all these questions turns out to be yes then there’s no reason for Kevin Durant to become a Spur because the brand argument is bogus. Durant and Westbrook already own two of the brightest brands in the NBA playing for the Thunder. Besides, Kevin Durant said money isn’t that big of a deal, right?

So tonight in San Antonio at the AT&T Center we’ll be witnessing a game which could change the face of the league ultimately.

A game which will decide the fate of the Oklahoma City Thunder and a city which has embraced Kevin Durant as one of their own.

Russell Westbrook’s decision making in Game 3 was in a word…..bad. He elected to shoot the ball 31 times going 10-31 in the process. He missed more shots than Kevin Durant attempted the entire game. Durant went 10-18. Steven Adams got one shot after his breakout performance in Game 2.  Westbrook had two horrible unforced live ball turnovers in the final four minutes as OKC allowed a four point home lead to turn into a Game 3 home loss.

To Westbrook’s credit, he did take responsibility in the postgame interview. But the question remains….did he learn anything from this which we’ll see in the final three games of this series?