Month: April 2017

If Russell Westbrook didn’t already have his MVP votes in line with those allowed to vote, he made another strong argument for his case with a scintillating performance on Wednesday night in Memphis. In a season which has had one virtuoso big boy performance heaped on top of another, Russell Westbrook once again put his team on his back and carried them to a 103-100 victory with a 45 point, 9 rebound, 10 assist, 5 steal night and a career high 8 made three pointers.

True, it doesn’t rank as an official trip dub which would have put Bad Little Dude at No. 42 and Oscar Robertson in his rear view mirror, but it was vintage Westbrook as I’m almost certain he yelled, ‘Motherfucker’, and then tapped the top of his head twice after his last made dagger three which in essence solidified the Thunder as the No. 6 seed for the playoffs.

It was a great game as OKC finally won the game even though Marc Gasol and Zach Randolph both turned in stellar performances which made Thunder purists remember how grand this OKC-Memphis series used to be before Golden State lured Durant to Oakland. The first half was a track meet with OKC doing what it does best in transition, but Memphis brought the game to a halt and it turned it into a grindfest. Even Nick Collison got into the fray and banged bodies with Zbo for old times sake. It was just a great basketball game.

As has been the case on multiple occasions this season, Westbrook didn’t really have a second offensive option on this night, but I don’t think the rest of the team was awful in that they competed hard, didn’t play like a group of pussies, and did some nice things in the overall scheme of things.

Victor Oladipo was pretty good with 15 points, but 22 points would have been better, just saying. Steven Adams banged bodies all night long and had 10 rebounds. Kanter was okay with 10 points, but he could have been better as well. Gibson made some nice plays, but still when he’s near the rim with the ball, he needs to finish like a hoss. But still, overall, I’d give these guys a B on the night.

The main take for me tonight was Doug McDermott as in he played 32 minutes because Alex Abrines is hurt ‘again’ and Jerami Grant was a coach’s DNP decision. Here’s what I have to say about this, Euro ball is much less physical than NBA ball, and not even close to what NBA play becomes as far as physicality once post season defensive grinding is present on every defensive possession. I think this is where Billy Donovan has to make a decision and go with Doug McDermott as his rotational player and use the oft hurt Abrines as his situational option. I’m not big on frilly players, OKC needs someone they can depend on filling this role.

Even though this wasn’t an official triple double, in essence it was and OKC is now 33-9 on nights when Russell Westbrook has been other worldly.

OKC improves to 45-33 with four games remaining and is virtually assured of playing James Harden and the Houston Rockets in the first round.

The Thunder get a night of rest then play the tanking last place Phoenix Suns on Friday night on the road. I would guess and hope a decent portion of Phoenix fans will be wearing blue and cheering the making of basketball history on Friday night as a Westbrook-Booker Dual in the Desert looms on the horizon.

It was a lovely spring basketball evening in Oklahoma City. Far removed from July 4th and what at the time seemed like the end of the world for Thunder basketball fans like myself. I’d almost have to describe it as surreal.

Russell Westbrook garnered his 41st triple double of the season on a workmanlike 12 point, 13 rebound, 13 assist night. It was a game in which he didn’t have to work all that hard as his teammates showed up in droves and gave him the help he needs on a more consistent basis for this team to take their game to the next level. It was fitting on this historic night the Thunder played their best game since winning in Toronto on March 16th, and perhaps played one of their better games of the entire season by torching the Milwaukee Bucks 110-79.

We’ve seen him grow up in Oklahoma City. Sam Presti took a chance on him and what we’ve seen is a young player develop into one of the best of this generation and beyond as he only needs one more triple double to break Oscar’s record and have it as his own. He needs 16 assists in these last five games to average a triple double for the entire season. When Kobe gave him the moniker Bad Little Dude he knew exactly what he was talking about.

OKC improved to 44-33 on the season on this glorious night. When Bad Little Dude has tripled doubled the Thunder are 32-9, when he hasn’t the Thunder are 12-24. MVP, MVP…..duh.

This Thunder team is the third youngest in the entire NBA and if they win three of their last five games they’ll end up 47-35. For this Thunder team to win anything close to fifty games is a testament to why Russell Westbrook should be this season’s MVP.

Keep this in mind, in the Thunder’s first season in Oklahoma City these young guys were on the roster…Kevin Durant, Jeff Green, Russell Westbrook, Serge Ibaka, a young Nick Collison, Nenad and others, and you know what their record was…23-59.

What I’m saying here is that other than Russell Westbrook there has been no other constant variable for the Thunder this basketball season. Oladipo has been injured twice. Adams has had some issues offensively. Kanter decided to break his own arm. Andre Roberson still has a broken shot. Young guys like Abrines, Sabonis, Grant, and Christon have gone poof into the night in multiple NBA arenas not located in Bricktown…and sometimes even at home.

But through it all, Russell Westbrook has kept his composure, led this team, and in the process set NBA history. MVP means just that — Most Valuable Player. Who’s the most valuable player to the their respective team is the question. My take is very simple…it’s Russell Westbrook at No. 1 and James Harden at No. 2 because Harden has a much better supporting cast around him which has been taylor crafted by his GM to fit Harden’s specific skill set. Imagine for a second if Russell had Trevor Ariza as his three, or Ryan Anderson as his stretch four, or of all things Patrick Beverly as his back up point guard…imagine all those three things and tell me you don’t think this team would have had a few more wins.

But you know what, I’ve never heard Westbrook bitch about any of that publicly. He’s hung with the hand which he was dealt and made this team respectable…and that’s why he easily has my MVP vote.

Congrats to Russell Westbrook and thanks for a season I’ll never forget.

I love the ladies with the triple double stat lines in the stands. It was fitting. I have to be honest, there was a collective lump in the throat of Thunder Nation on the tenth assist.

It was a great tournament with Oregon, South Carolina, and Gonzaga all making historic runs. But in the end it was a story of redemption as Roy Williams and his Tar Heels came back from last year’s tough loss to Villanova to claim the title. As a basketball fan, you couldn’t have ask for more compelling storylines. Great stuff.

Russell Westbrook notched his 40th triple double of the season and is now only needs one more to tie Oscar Robertson’s 1960-’61 season mark. Westbrook’s numbers were 40 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists. Otherwise, it was a bleak afternoon of basketball in Oklahoma City as the Thunder as a team brought little edge or emotion to the game and lost by a count of 113-101. This was the first ever time since the Sonics move to Oklahoma City in which Charlotte has won in Chesapeake Energy Arena in the Thunder era.

Other than Westbrook and perhaps Andre Roberson, the performance by the Thunder was abysmal and disappointing. Take away the two miracle comebacks fueled by Westbrook and this team has played like a dead team walking for two weeks. I hate to write this again , but without Westbrook, this team would be no different than the Lakers, the Suns, the Magic, and the Nets and in the hunt for draft lottery position.

Especially disappointing has been the recent play of Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo, and Enes Kanter. There’s no reason for any of these three players to be tired, they’ve all missed time with injuries this season and they’re expected to be the the second, third, and fourth best players on this team. They’re all being paid well, this team needs them to produce accordingly and give Westbrook help every night.

Here’s what they produced on Sunday afternoon. In 76 combined minutes of play, they went a collective 11-28 from the field and as a group scored 30 points. At a minimum, these three need to be scoring 42-44 points a game and giving this team something it can count on other than Russell Westbrook.

Alex Abrines and Doug McDermott were even worse. They’re on this roster to fill one specific need, namely three point shooting scoring. In 25 minutes of combined play, Abrines and McDermott didn’t make a shot and both went scorless..at HOME. Are you kidding?

Brian Davis on the Fox Network said something the other night which literally made me shake my head. He said he will be voting in Billy Donovan third on his Coach of the Year ballot. I hope he was kidding. I measure coaching in incremental improvement both individually and as a team. Other than Westbrook, there’s not one player on this team who has moved the needle individually enough to make this a better team than it was on opening night against the Sixers in Philly. Go through the roster yourself and see if you can make an argument for improvement. Except for Westbrook, I can’t make that argument for one single player on the team, at least on a consistent basis.

My Coach of the Year ballot would go 1 Brad Stevens, Boston, 2 Mike D’ Antoni, Houston, and 3 Scott Brooks, Washington.

With this loss, OKC stands at 43-33 and ‘still’ in the No. 6 seeding position. The Thunder stand a game and half ahead of Memphis, but OKC still has to play at Memphis on Wednesday. Given the way this team is playing right now, there’s not a game which could be labeled as a sure win.

Russell Westbrook needs some help. I feel like I’ve written this a thousand times this season, and it’s not like Sam Presti isn’t paying some nice money for Adams, Oladipo, and Kanter to give Westbrook some help. As a group it’s very simple they have to step up and fill their roles on this basketball team. Same with Abrines and McDermott. Same with Taj Gibson. Same with every player on the roster.

I hate teams which play soft both mentally and physically and don’t take accountability for their play. It makes me ill. This team needs to step up in a big way in a hurry.

I haven’t played this video in a long time. Maybe I’ll play it for myself. Maybe Billy Donovan should play it for his team. It couldn’t hurt. I’m tired of hearing all these excuses for guys being young. Age should in no way be an excuse for playing like a pussy. Maybe Nick Collison needs to say a few things in the locker room.

I held off writing a recap on OKC’s tough 100-95 meltdown loss against the Spurs on Friday night in Oklahoma City because I wanted to make sure I didn’t overreact one way or another. When a home team blows a 21 point lead it’s an alarming thing, but really when you think about it in this case it wasn’t.

What this game reveals is just basically the truth, absent Russell Westbrook, this team is a very young NBA team which at times struggles mightily to not get in its own way. There’s a reason San Antonio is a 58 win team and OKC is a 43 win team, namely the Spurs have better, older, and smarter players who don’t beat themselves. That’s pretty much it.

As the Spurs were closing this game three mental gaffes stand out to me separate of multiple defensive breakdowns in the fourth quarter. 1 Enes Kanter was in the wrong spot on an in bounds pass and Westbrook had to burn a valuable timeout. 2 Victor Oladipo had his foot on the boundary line when Westbrook found him for a wide open three late in the game. 3 On the game’s biggest play, Doug McDermott took an and one on Kahwi Leonard which basically sealed this loss for Oklahoma City. These are just little things which seasoned, smart NBA players don’t do. These things can’t happen. But then again, usually Russell Westbrook doesn’t get stoned by LaMarcus Aldridge at the rim either. Westbrook can’t always bail these guys out.

Let’s be even more brutally candid, OKC will close out this regular season a combined 2-9 against Golden State, San Antonio, and Houston. Truth hurts, Russell Westbrook can only do so much.

With seven regular season games remaining, OKC is 43-32, and despite what Mark Cuban says–Russell Westbrook is a superstar, he’s just a superstar without a second support player on this roster who shows up every night. You might notice, Golden State is on a current ten game winning streak with Durant still sitting. Tell me what that says about the state of these two respective rosters. Seriously.

Westbrook garnered his 39th triple double on Friday versus the Spurs. His line was 32 points, 15 rebound, and 12 assists. Westbrook did everything he could during the stretch run to distribute the ball to his teammates, but the simple truth is his teammates aren’t good enough on most nights to close the deal. Westbrook has Victor Oladipo, Steven Adams, and Enes Kanter while an injured Kevin Durant has Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green. See my point?

But it is what it is and this afternoon in Oklahoma City–Westbrook goes after his 40th triple double of the season against a Charlotte team who’s mascot name is I think the Bobcats or is it the Hornets.

This season has been very clear for the most part, it’s Russell Westbrook’s season and the hope that some of his teammates will grow from the experience and get better in the process.

I thought about going with Billy Donovan’s post game comments, but they were just coach speak. At some point, he has to say, ‘these other guys have to step the fuck up.’ But, of course, he’s probably already done that behind closed doors on multiple occasions. Russell was very calm with his post game comments. Trump should only be so composed. BTW, I’ll get back to Billy Bush’s foreplay coach on Tuesday. Also, after having two telephone rant conversations with U.S. Senator James Lankford’s office, I received a very nice two page letter yesterday. I was pleasantly surprised to say the least. So there might be some hope in that regard.

James Lankford going after the Russians and our village idiot president. Lankford has a very nice, articulate voice. It doesn’t have that normal Okie twang. I don’t have the Okie twang either. We have that in common–so there’s that. You know how I love this clip from Gorky Park.