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James Harden in town tonight as his 25-23 Houston Rockets take on the Thunder. Hard to believe, but Harden’s Rockets have won five straight against the Thunder in the series. Granted, three of those came last season during the injury riddled season, but still surprising considering Houston hasn’t been anything special itself during its Harden era unless you count a Clipper collapse in last year’s second round as a change of culture in Houston.

Horrible start for Houston this season as some injuries and the acquisition of Ty Lawson contributed to the firing of head coach Kevin McHale. But slowly the Rockets have crawled upwards and now find themselves as the No. 7 seed in the West coming off a loss at the hands of Golden State. Another possible plus is the return of Josh Smith, who actually helped the Rockets last spring in their mini run to the Western Conference Finals.

Houston still relies heavily on the three and this can’t bode well for OKC tonight as they’ll be without Andre Roberson to guard Harden.  Cam Payne will miss as well because of the NBA’s concussion protocol procedure. With Payne out that means DJ Augustin will have to play minutes and Houston probably isn’t a good matchup for this to occur.

So who will guard Harden seems to be the challenge OKC as a team will have to answer tonight. With Roberson out it would seem likely Kyle Singler’s minutes will increase substantially tonight and beyond.

With Roberson out—the challenge for OKC from a defensive standpoint will be substantial as OKC faces Houston, Washington, Orlando, and Golden State in the next four games. Steph Curry has already predicted a Warriors’ win over OKC on Feb. 6th just to be clear of how confident the Warriors feel about themselves currently.

One would think Billy Donovan might try Westbrook, Waiters and maybe even Singler against Harden at times tonight depending on foul troubles. Harden getting to the line is always a key if he’s getting there with regularity.

Should be a scoring fest at Chesapeake Energy Arena tonight with the winner scoring at least in the 120’s or so.

Durant, Westbrook, and Co. will have to score in runs, and Westbrook in no way can allow himself to get goaded by Patrick Beverly in this one tonight.

For the offensive minded this one should be right up your alley.

Since the Harden trade, OKC has tried to fill Harden’s role of sixth man and Russell Westbrook’s co-pilot in late game sets with Kevin Martin, Jeremy Lamb, Reggie Jackson, and currently Dion Waiters.

Kevin Martin was okay as a one year rental. Jeremy Lamb had confidence swings and never got untracked. Reggie Jackson was actually pretty good, but like Harden wanted a starring role on his own team , and Dion Waiters has struggled with game to game consistency. It’s not hard to envision Cam Payne being pretty good in this role down the road though. I could very well see Payne expanding his game next season and being a pretty good fit with Durant and Westbrook to close games and man the second unit as well.

People sometimes forget just how impactful James Harden was in the Thunder’s run to the NBA Finals in 2012. The Harden-Collison two man game was beautiful to watch. Two smart players.

 

The very last thing I want to do on an esoteric rogue Thunder blog is become political in a presidential election year. But sometimes the flow of natural events leaves a rogue blogger with no alternative. In honor of Mr. Trump for passing on tonight’s GOP debate after being bullied too hard by Fox’s own Megyn Kelly.

This may have been the moment the Trump presidential seed was germinated. Just a hunch.

Late January and the dog days of a marathon 82 game schedule are starting to set in with both players and followers of the game. OKC has played 48 games, 34 left in the regular season. Hard to get up for every game since there’s basically no suspense left in this regular season. Golden State will finish first in the West. Cleveland will finish first in the East. San Antonio will most likely finish second in the West, while second place in the East is up for grabs. So—there’s your league wise suspense–who’ll finish second in the East.

OKC seems destined for a third place seed which means they wouldn’t have home court advantage beyond the first round. OKC is 35-13, which is about the pace everyone thought they’d play, but no one envisioned how much better Golden State would be this season in pursuit of a repeat. Therein lies the league storyline…how much better Golden State is with the same players.

That being written—I’m going to pull back bitching about OKC’s defense for a couple of days, (probably one) and take a look back at the wonderful days of  James Harden being OKC’s sixth man and point guard co-pilot.

Harden is back in town tomorrow night and is for the part still loved. Some bitch about him not taking the deal Presti offered, but it was a career no brainer for Harden. Who knows, maybe Durant and Harden will be reunited at some point again in their NBA careers.

OKC Thunder 126  — Minnesota Timberwolves 123

With OKC’s Thunder playing its third road game in four nights and short Andre Roberson and Cam Payne, OKC found itself in a dogfight against the talented, yet still young T Wolves. But Kevin Durant once again closed the deal for OKC with two huge shots in the game’s final two minutes to secure a hard fought 126-123 road win at Minnesota on Wednesday night.

It was an entertaining game with lots of offensive highlights and not much defense, but in the end it was Durant making the big shots and getting OKC to 35-13 doing what he does best…closing.

Durant and his running mate Russell Westbrook played 87 combined minutes last night in New York, 74 combined minutes tonight, and basically put the Thunder on their backs to get these two road wins.

Durant went 27 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 assists. Westbrook went 24 points, 8 rebounds, and 15 assists, yet I think I might go with Enes Kanter as my No. 1 Star of the Game.

It was a much needed game for Kanter for was brutal last night against the Knicks. None of that residue carried over against the Wolves as Kanter had his first double, double since Christmas with a 23 point, 10 rebound game in 23 minutes.

Cam Payne had concussion like symptoms and did not play the second half. But OKC got some quality minutes from Anthony Morrow, Dion Waiters, Nick Collison, Kyle Singler, and DJ Augustin subbing for Payne.

Minnesota shot 55.6% from the field and had 31 assists. OKC shot 52.7% from the field with 23 assists. Like I wrote earlier, it was not a game dominated by stellar defense.

The T Wolves were led in scoring by Zach LaVine who went for something like 35 points on a 14-17 shooting night. Wiggins and Towns chipped in 20 and 19 respectively.

But for Minnesota it was the same story as the young Wolves tightened up during Winning Time and watched as Kevin Durant steered his team home. OKC is now 32-9 in games Kevin Durant has played this season. But I say this—those three young dudes are going to be great players if they’re nurtured properly.

A tough four game road trip for OKC with Winter Storm Jonas, plus injuries to Steven Adams, Andre Roberson, and Cam Payne to be dealt with, yet at the end of the trip OKC heads home with a 3-1 mark and a sigh of relief.

James Harden and his Houston Rockets in town Friday night at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. I still love Harden. Can’t wait.

Mike Jackson

 

OKC in Minnesota tonight to cap a four game road trip against the 14-32 Timberwolves. Despite having the third worst record in the league–all is not hopeless as they possess some elite young talent in Andrew Wiggins, Karl Anthony-Towns, and Zach LaVine. A group who makes it somewhat easy to think back to the early days of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden when the Thunder were trying figure out how to win regular season games in a 23-59 inaugural season.

Same thing with this Minnesota team as they’re still in the process of learning how to win games. Wolves have some additional talented players in Shabazz Muhummad, Gorgui Dieng, Nikola Pekovic, Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin, and Kevin Garnett. So there’s enough there to win some games.

OKC comes in at 34-13, but given what we’ve seen of late from the Thunder it wouldn’t be implausible for the Thunder to get beat in this game if they can’t elicit some emotion and focus. Minnesota is one of the league’s worst three point shooting teams so that lessens the concern a bit, but anything is possible from this Thunder team as far as being defensively inconsistent. Or would it be more to the point saying they’re consistently inconsistent. Whatever.

Enes Kanter comes off what I think was his worse performance this season. So you’d think the thought is he’ll bounce back and  provide some bench points against the Wolves.

With the Blake Griffin mess in Los Angeles, it would appear OKC won’t be under any pressure to sustain the No. 3 seed, but again, with this OKC team, presuming anything might be dangerous.

 

 

 

The Rumsfeld interview was excellent, the Westbrook interview a little too fluffy. I would have loved to hear Russell talk about Golden State’s season, David Blatt’s firing, his and Kevin Durant’s impending free agencies, or his new home purchase in Los Angeles. Here are both interviews.

 

OKC Thunder  128 — New York Knicks 122 OT

Even though the NY Knicks are a better team than the Brooklyn Nets, three things made me feel optimistic just before tip at Madison Square Garden. 1 Carmelo Anthony would not be playing, 2 Steven Adams would be playing, and 3 Robin Lopez isn’t nearly as skilled as his brother Brook who torched the Thunder two nights earlier.

If any of these three variables hadn’t fallen into place I’m not sure Kevin Durant’s 44 point, 14 rebound game would have been enough to save OKC’s Thunder from a second straight road loss to a sub .500  New York  team though.

But on this January night circa 2016, the basketball gods inside Madison Square Garden smiled on OKC as Durant’s Thunder escaped with a thrilling 128-122 overtime win over the Knickerbockers. Tramelesque, eh.

This was not a piece of art by any means, but at this point in this season with this team you’ll take wins any way they come–if there’s some art attached, feel grateful.

Durant’s 44 points were his season high and he’s obviously my No. 1 Star of the Game as OKC was down by as many as 11 points with nine and a half minutes left in regulation. Blame Billy Donovan because he started the fourth period with a horrible floor combination of Payne, Singler, Waiters, Morrow, and Kanter. He should know better forty-seven games in. Seriously.

Two timeouts later–OKC had gone from three to eleven down in the blink of an eye before Donovan cleaned up his mistake. Reminded me somewhat of the way OKC opened the fourth period in Cleveland. Bad lineup. Except this time LeBron James wasn’t there to demonize Kevin Durant.

Anyway, the lineup was changed to Westbrook, Payne, Adams, Ibaka, and Waiters, and wouldn’t you know OKC quickly pulled back into it courtesy of a couple of big threes by Cam Payne,  then eventually tied it with Durant doing his thing down the stretch after replacing Payne.

Durant hit 20 of his points from the beginning  of the fourth period thru overtime. He hit a jumper with 16.2 seconds left in regulation to tie the game, then scored seven of OKC’s fifteen points in overtime to get his team a much needed win after the debacle against Brooklyn.

Westbrook was good as well going 30, 8, 10 one night removed from doing a shameless promotion of his trendy eye ware business on Late Night with Stephen Colbert. It would have been more interesting to hear Russell’s views on Blatt, Golden State, or his free agency in two years, but it was Late Night and Colbert had worn himself out with Donald Rumsfeld.

Steven Adams returned and was good to the tune of 9 points, 8 rebounds, and some priceless addition of basketball toughness and smarts.  Steven Adams in my view is very close to catching Serge Ibaka as the third most important player on the team. Ibaka was good as well going for 11 points and 17 rebounds…. so for the time being they’re 3a and 3b, but Steven is closing fast.

Dion Waiters started for Roberson, played 43 minutes, scored 14 points and was solid despite what you might read from some of the teatherheads on the Daily Thunder message board.

Cam Payne only played 15 minutes, but was impactful hitting four threes and helping OKC come back from Billy Donovan’s disastrous lineup combination to start the fourth period.

As a whole, OKC’s bench only scored 21 points as Enes Kanter was just basically awful on both ends of the floor–as in unplayable awful.

OKC improves to 34-13 and plays in Minnesota tomorrow night.

The take here is simple if you’re paying attention to the entire thirty team league. There’s only one team which appears flawless at this point and they play inside Oracle Arena. The other twenty-nine have flaws, blemishes, and shortcomings. Currently, OKC is one of those teams, but unlike the others, they have Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook radiating hope OKC can find itself as a team and give the Warriors a run.

Mike Jackson

 

 

This will be a different type of preview today because I’m still in shock the Thunder found a way to lose against the semi-dumpster fire Nets on Sunday evening. Plus, I’m not sure what Steven Adams’ status will or won’t be tonight. Andre Roberson is out for an estimated three weeks with a knee sprain, but we don’t know yet on Adams.

So–I’d like to go another direction since nobody seems to care Kevin Durant will be a free agent either this July, or in July 2017 if he signs a one year deal after this season with an opt out at the same time Russell Westbrook will be hitting the market. Most think this is the scenario which will play out and it makes sense when you really think it through.

But still, I have to admit, if Kevin Durant does eventually decides to move on after 2017, as a long time NBA fan it wouldn’t kill me to see him end up New York with Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher because I have so much respect for both of them and what they could possibly do to help Durant finally win his championship.

Of course–if OKC wins a championship in either of the next two years I’d feel differently. But unless Sam Presti can find ‘that’ player to put OKC over the edge, I’m not holding my breath, just observing and waiting.

What I’m saying is if I were Kevin Durant’s uncle, and he were asking my advice on the matter, I’d say, “Stay in OKC through 2017 and see if Sam Presti can put a championship team together or go talk to Phil Jackson and Derek Fisher and see what they specifically have in mind as far as team building.”

Would suck for a guy from Deer Creek, Oklahoma who loves watching Durant play in person and who has no intentions of moving to New York, but at some point as his hypothetical surrogate uncle that’s what I’d probably say. If you’re going to make a move, then do it with a coach and general manager you respect to the max.

So this Phil Jackson interview is my preview for tonight. I love Phil Jackson because of the way he interacts with his players intellectually. He gives each of his players books to read which I just think is totally cool and he completely values the way he can bring the utmost out in each player. Plus, he’s just a very funny, engaging guy.

Eight days ago the Warriors lost their fourth game of the season to the Detroit Pistons by a score of 113-95 in Detroit. Eight days later the Warriors have beaten the likes of Cleveland, Chicago, and San Antonio by a combined margin of 95 points.

Last night at Oracle—the trifecta was completed with a Warrior 120-90 cakewalk over a Spurs team which didn’t play Tim Duncan and looked out of its element against these Warriors. Steph Curry looked virtually unstoppable scoring 37 points on six threes. Draymond Green looked like the most effective point forward in the league, and that’s saying something considering there’s this guy in Cleveland named LeBron James playing the same position–only without Steph Curry to catch his passes.

This was a mismatch. Golden State has swept its season series with Cleveland and now has a 1-0 season series lead over the Spurs. The teams will play two times in San Antonio, and one more time at Oracle. Maybe the presence of Duncan on Spurs’  home floor will help. But playing Duncan won’t help the fact Tony Parker has no one on this Golden State team he can guard… and that’s a big hill to climb even for a great coach such as Greg Popovich.  BTW…this is the same problem Popovich will have if his Spurs meet Russell Westbrook somewhere along the line in the upcoming playoffs. If you put Kawhi Leonard on Westbrook, then who guards Kevin Durant?

OKC’s Thunder, even with its putrid loss to the Nets still has a potential role to play in the West if it can get its act together for the simple reason there’s no team in the West who have a defending combo to guard Durant and Westbrook to the hilt defensively. Cleveland, yes, with LeBron James and Shumpert, but not as much with Golden State and San Antonio.

But having written all of the above, none of this would tip OKC over the edge against Golden State if the Thunder can’t get some sort of grip on their overall team defensive issues. Plus, what does Billy Donovan do with Steven Adams and Serge Ibaka against a Warrior lineup of Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, and Andrew Bogut?

Here’s what he could do if he’s got the nerve. Go small from the opening tip with Westbrook on Curry, Adams or Ibaka on Bogut, Durant on Draymond Green, Roberson on Thompson, and Dion Waiters on Harrison Barnes.

Move Ibaka or Adams to the second unit with Kanter to give the second unit some rim protection. Against Golden State why have Adams and Ibaka on the floor together since Kerr will go for every small ball mismatch he can manufacture? Why even do it? Why not dictate the terms and put Kanter with Adams or Ibaka and overlap some Durant minutes with this grouping? Be flexible, flow the script of each game, but don’t be married to the thought Adams and Ibaka have to be together against these Warriors.

Lots of little things Billy Donovan has at his lineup disposal when the Thunder play Golden State which the Spurs and Cavs do not have.

But of course, if OKC doesn’t get its defensive issues somewhat in hand,  all these possibilities would be moot. But still, some interesting things to ponder if OKC can get its defensive house in order because the Thunder are a team which could offensively hang with the Warriors.

In closing, this was a horrible game as it was played. The games in San Antonio with Duncan should be better games than what we saw last night, but how much better remains to be seen.