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I have no real interest if David Blatt is or isn’t the coach of the Cleveland Cavaliers. I could actually care less. He would never have been my choice to coach an elite NBA team in the first place. But this notion or spin control if you will that LeBron James at the least wasn’t consulted or asked what he thought about the move is laughable.

If LeBron James wants to be player/coach then do it. Bill Russell did it. Lenny Wilkens did it. Billy Cunningham did it. Just to name several. Get on with it and quit insulting the intelligence of NBA fans by how LeBron Inc. the international brand thinks all of this best represents his conglomerate. Enough, already.

Brooklyn Nets 116 — OKC Thunder 106

Just when it appeared OKC’s Thunder might deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as San Antonio and Golden State the Thunder showed any discussions themed of that nature are premature and maybe even delusional. Brooklyn came in a floundering 11-33 team, yet handled OKC with relative ease in coasting to a 116-106 win at home.

For the second game in a row, OKC played without starting center Steven Adams. But unlike Friday night against a perimeter oriented Dallas club, the Nets have a center in Brook Lopez who made OKC pay for the absence of Adams. Lopez scored 31 points, had 10 rebounds, and is easily my No. 1 Star of the Game.

Thaddeus Young was a strong second candidate with a 14, 14 double, double. In all, six Nets scored in double figures as the Nets scored a season high 116 points against a Thunder which basically didn’t look ready to play.

To me—this clearly ranks as the Thunder’s worst performance of the season.

This wasn’t a fluke because OKC lost three of the four quarters and tied the third period. It’s not like a run or some bad calls doomed them.  OKC DID NOT WIN one period in this game against a team which came in at 11-33 and appeared to be ready to tank.

OKC drops to 33-13 and like I wrote above—this team appears to be more like the Little Boy Who Cried Wolf than a serious  title contender on this late January night.

Championship level teams can’t just wilt because Steven Adams was a DNP-elbow. Championship level teams suck it up and find a way to not lose to an opponent like this Net team.

The simple truth is OKC was soft all over the floor defensively giving up 58 points in the paint and allowing the Nets to go 8-17 from beyond the arc.

So gone is OKC’s win streak and the feel the Thunder were getting ready to show they belong in the championship conversation.

Russell Westbrook on Stephen Colbert tomorrow night. Then the Thunder at Madison Square Garden versus the Knicks on Tuesday night. Hopefully, better performances on both counts.

Mike Jackson

November, 2013

If only his team were as interesting as he is.

 

 

OKC’s Thunder will play the sinking Brooklyn Nets at 6:30pm CST this evening as Winter Storm Jonas has caused the start time to be moved back. So we’ll start there.

OKC comes into tonight as one of the hotter teams in the league and winners of twenty-one of their last twenty-five games. With Kevin Durant in the lineup, OKC is 30-8. Against the three teams perceived to be above OKC as championship worthy OKC is…. 1-0 vs. San Antonio, 0-1 vs. Cleveland, and 0-0 vs. Golden State.

It’s a much different story for perhaps the most depressing team in the league with the Brooklyn Nets. Quite simply, this franchise is a mess under the ownership of Russian business visionary Mikhail Prokhorov. The team is 11-33 and very much on the cusp of joining the Lakers and Sixers  in pursuit of being an even bigger dumpster fire this season.

At least with the Lakers, there’s the hope once Kobe Bryant’s salary is dumped—the franchise can get it’s act together landing a couple of free agents and become respectable again. With the Sixers, there’s hope as well with at least some young pieces and a slew of draft picks in hand.

But with the Nets…the future is dim. The team’s future was traded away with the acquisitions of Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett to win immediately, but neither of those vets are still around as Prokhorov’s bid to win big then backfired and the Nets in my view are the joke of the league as far as mismanagement.

Head coach Lionell Hollins was fired on Jan. 10th while GM Billy King was reassigned duties. Since then—the Nets are 1-6 and 1-10 in their last eleven games.  Interim head coaching duties have been assigned to Tony Brown.

Add this to the mix, per Forbes Magazine’s recent business evaluation of the thirty NBA teams-the Nets were the only team in the league to not make a profit. As far as franchise valuation the Nets ranked seventh with an estimated value of $1.7 billion, but with operating revenues of $220 million showed a net loss of $5.7 million last year. Hard to do in this current NBA financial landscape, but the man who sees himself as the conduit between old Russia and a Russia becoming a model of Western free market entrepreneurship has this on his current NBA ownership resume.

Per Forbes continued just for information sake–the current Forbes evaluations estimate the average worth of an NBA franchise to be $1.25 billion dollars. The NY Knicks head the list with an estimated value of $ 3 billion dollars.

OKC’s Thunder ranks 17th on the list with a value of $950 million. OKC  showed a net profit of $20.9 million on $157 million of operating revenue. OKC’s franchise value as whole had an increase of 16%.

OKC comes in tonight on a seven game winning streak, but will be without Steven Adams for the second straight game due to an elbow injury. I would expect Nick Collison to once again get the start.

I’d expect Brooklyn to start Brook Lopez, Thaddeus Young, Joe Johnson, Wayne Ellington and Donald Sloan tonight.

Haven’t even bothered to check the Vegas spread. But his one could be trickier than expected with this game falling in between  road games against the Mavs and Knicks. OKC and Brooklyn met back in OKC on Nov. 25th with the Thunder winning 110-99. I’ll go OKC to win at -12.

Go Patriots, Go Panthers! Brady versus Newton would make for an intriguing Super Bowl.

 

 

Russell Westbrook will be a guest on Late Night with Stephen Colbert this Monday night as the Thunder play the Knicks on Tuesday night at the Garden. From what I understand, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfield will be on the show as well.

Thought this might be a nice time to post Russell’s last appearance on Jimmy Kimmel from September, before I had this modest rogue blog up and running. A retroactive airing so to speak.

Russell and I have three things in common I’ve discovered. 1. We both love peanut butter and strawberry jelly sandwiches on wheat bread. However, I toast mine lightly , never cut the sandwich in half, and have never contemplated putting butter on my sandwich. 2. We’re both momma’s boys and talk to our mothers almost every day if not every day. And 3. He naps an hour before the game and I nap an hour before the recap. Who would have guessed we have so much in common?

Good for Russell. Much more excited about watching Russell on Late Night than I am about seeing the Thunder play the Russian’s dumpster fire Nets tomorrow night. You can rest assured the Game 46 Preview will be a model of brevity.

Can’t wait to see Russell on Colbert Monday night.

Blogger’s edit:  Russ uses Skippy, I prefer Peter Pan.

Biggest game of the NBA season looms on Monday night as the San Antonio Spurs visit the Golden State Warriors at Oracle Arena. Despite San Antonio still riding a ten game winning streak, I’m bumping Golden State back up to No. 1 after their road drubbing of Cleveland and a solid week of basketball. Warriors looked refreshed to me this past week.

This week’s poll:

1    Golden State Warriors

2    San Antonio Spurs

3    Cleveland Cavaliers

4    Oklahoma City Thunder

5     Toronto Raptors

6      LA Clippers

7      Atlanta Hawks

8     Memphis Grizzlies

9     Dallas Mavs

10   Chicago Bulls

11    Detroit Pistons

12    Indiana Pacers

Need some music to soothe me while I make the tough decisions on this week’s poll. How about those Cleveland Cavaliers? Why don’t they just give Lebron the official player/coach title and put an end to this façade? I never would have hired David Blatt, but still. Make Lebron player/coach and at least be honest about it.

Wanted to hear the whole song, so this selection seems obvious this morning.

 

I’m a John Kasich supporter, not a Bernie Sanders supporter, but this might be the best political ad I’ve ever seen. Such a nice escape from Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and Sarah Palin. So much anger with those three.

Seven game winning streak. I could use a song. I’m whipped. Feel like I played tonight.

OKC Thunder 109 — Dallas Mavs 106

In retrospect the tone was set when Steven Adams became a pregame scratch due to an elbow injury. Enter Nick Collison from OKC’s bench to set the tone early and often as every Thunder player not named Durant and Westbrook pulled their link on the proverbial chain as OKC won a hard fought 109-106 thriller over the Mavs in Dallas on Friday night.

These two teams usually play hard fought games with runs coming and going both ways thru the course of their games. This one was no different. Dallas led 56-48 while making eight threes in the first half. But OKC roared back winning the third period 37-18 and led 85-74 entering the fourth period.

Game on–because you knew Dallas would have another run in them, which they did.

Deron Williams hit a three with just over a minute left. 107-106, OKC still leading. Timeout, Billy Donovan. On the ensuing possession Kevin Durant hit a two to pad the lead to 109-106.

Dallas missed and OKC had the ball with a chance to make it a two possession game. But Serge Ibaka was called for a moving screen with 17 seconds left trying to create space for Kevin Durant on the right wing.

Ball… Dallas with a chance to tie the game. Ibaka blocked a three attempt by Williams. Dirk then missed an open three from the right elbow. But the ball found Chandler Parsons for a left corner three which missed at the horn propelling OKC to their 7th straight win and a record of 22-4 in their last twenty-six games.

I’ll start with Nick Collison. He was excellent. In 21 minutes, Collison scored 6 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, six of which were offensive boards. On a night when OKC could have used Steven Adams not playing as an excuse, it didn’t matter because Nick Collison set the tone early, and for that reason I’m picking Nick Collison as my No. 1 Star of the Game.

Next the OKC bench, they were superb. On the night, OKC’s bench outscored the Dallas bench by a 47-27 count, and it wasn’t just one or two guys. It was the entire group.

Enes Kanter with 16 efficient points. Kyle Singler with 10 points and a slew of multiple hustle things which should have him receiving a post game text from Coach K. Cam Payne with 8 points, 3 assists and poised decision making from the point. Dion Waiters breaking out of his two game shooting funk with 13 valuable points and multiple hustle things himself. As a group they were excellent and each could have been my No. 1 Star as well as Nick Collison.

But here’s the thing I take from this one ultimately. On a night when Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka were good, but not great, it was Nick Collison and the four other bench players who literally led OKC to a hard fought  win over a good team on the road.

The win extends OKC’s win streak to a season best seven games. OKC improves to 33-12 overall and 30-8 when No. 35 plays.

It’s not about what the Warriors and Spurs do right now. It’s about Thunder players not named Durant and Westbrook pulling their weight and carrying their load. Mission accomplished in Dallas, Texas tonight.

 

Mike Jackson