Month: November 2017

Another tough night for the Thunder as they fell 103-99 to the Trailblazers on Sunday night in Portland. OKC drops to 4-5 on the season and has still yet to win a game against either a Northwest Division or Western Conference opponent. Of OKC’s four wins to date, three came against Eastern Conference teams who probably won’t make the playoffs and the one quality win came against the Milwaukee Bucks who should make the playoffs. OKC got blown out at Utah, lost two close games to Minnesota, and lost this close game to Portland. To date, OKC has not played a game against an elite team from the West unless you’re giving Minnesota too much credit this early in the season.

Another lethargic performance by OKC’s starters. Steven Adams was brutal and basically played one of the worst games I’ve seen him play with the Thunder. Russell Westbrook had another tough shooting night and missed three free throws at the game’s most critical moment in the final minute of play. Carmelo Anthony got ejected on a questionable Flagrant 2 call in the third period after starting the game red hot shooting the ball. I thought for the second straight game Paul George was OKC’s best player on the floor.

OKC’s bench was pretty good actually as Ray Felton was outstanding and Jerami Grant was his rock solid self again. The problem wasn’t OKC’s bench, it was basically Carmelo getting ejected, Russell struggling at crunch time, and Steven Adams playing like he was hung over. That’s a lot of payroll getting outplayed by a non-contender like Portland.

For a team who on paper has one of the top five rosters in the NBA this isn’t a great start especially the way the team has been playing late in close games.

Super Team this—Super Team that, you gotta bring your A game mentally and physically to the arena to win games in this league.

OKC at Sacramento on Tuesday night. It’s early, but a loss to the feeble Kings coupled with a 4-6 start wouldn’t be a good thing despite the gentle warm things Brian Davis whispers into Thunder ears on the local Fox telecasts.

Might be time for Billy Donovan to say fuck a few times in the locker room and throw a chair… if NBA coaches are allowed to do such things under the collective bargaining agreement.

Always remember…it’s a star/agent driven league.

This call was complete bullshit. They don’t make this call in the North Edmond Little Girl’s Rec Soccer league. Total bullshit. Just me talking out loud as a former hockey coach, but in a situation like this I go to war for my player and if I get ejected then that’s just the way it goes and Mo Cheeks finishes the game. Just saying. Great opportunity to light a fire under your team missed by Billy Donovan. An elbow wasn’t thrown, it was there in a natural position to command space on the play.

Whoa….seriously, whoa. It took 62 points to finally subdue Oklahoma State in what was essentially an elimination game at both the Big 12 Championship Game and National College Football Playoff level…but the Sooners are still breathing in control of at least their own Big 12 Championship destiny.

OU entered as a road underdog, yet hung 62 on Mike Gundy’s feeble defense as the now 8-1 Sooners host TCU next Saturday for first place in the Big 12 regular season championship.

It was like watching the Dodgers vs. the Astros in Game 6. Just when you thought the other guy couldn’t go yard one more time…they went yard. If you’re a Woody or Bo pre-millenial purist this game made you want to puke, but if you like the high octane Big 12 it was vintage stuff. One haymaker begats another haymaker.

It was rookie coach Lincoln Riley’s first Bedlam and he came thru as a southwest rock star Sooner cult hero in victory while Mike Gundy dropped to 2-11 versus the Sooners. Take away Big Game Bob’s disastrous decision to repunt to Tyreke Hill three years ago and Gundy is 1-12 in Bedlam as a head coach.

Riley becomes the first head coach in OU’s storied football history to post eight or more wins in his first season. And that list of former OU coaches includes Bennie Owens, Bud Wilkinson, Barry Switzer, and Bob Stoops who between them have captured seven national championships.

So now OU hosts Gary Patterson and his TCU Horn Frogs in what should be a preview of the Big 12 Championship Game at Jerry’s World in December. Unlike O State, TCU has a legitimate defense and this won’t be a video slugfest. This will more resemble traditional football where people actually get tackled and put on the ground.

And once again next Saturday it will be win, survive, and advance for Lincoln Riley, Baker Mayfield, and their Sooners.

There’s only one Oklahoma, only one—and this is what Boone Pickens never calibrated as he was dropping upwards of half a billion into the O State coffers.

I’m going to tell it like I see it on this blog…period. I’ve listened and read the local takes from others who write or talk about the team before getting on here this morning. As Billy Donovan said in his postgame it was a game of two halves. OKC won the first half 55-37. Boston won the second half 64-39. Just so Billy D and his team know… it’s the second half which matters most because you know that’s when NBA games are usually decided. Anotherwords, good teams usually have a run or two in them even when they’re trailing at half.

So why would OKC go into a coma after one half of play? Why would that happen? None of OKC’s three stars have ever won a ring. So there in no way should ever be an issue with competitive complacency from this team. Quite the opposite should be true…Westbrook, George, and especially Carmelo Anthony should be playing with a chip on their collective shoulders in search of NBA championship validation.

What happened in that OKC locker room at halftime? Were they laid back drinking pina coladas and talking fashion trends?

Let’s call it like it is right now. OKC played like a championship contender the first twenty-four minutes, then didn’t bother to show up in the second half. They loafed on defense. The ball didn’t move. It was ugly iso ball with the team only garnishing 4 assists the entire second half. This is why for the most part the NBA is a star driven league versus being a coach driven league. That being it appeared OKC couldn’t have possibly listened to anything Billy Donovan said to them in the second half of this game…because if they did then Billy Donovan should be fired this afternoon.

I put this one on Russell Westbrook. It’s his team. You gotta take ownership of what you want to be as a team. You have to take pride in playing the right way. You don’t owe that to the fans, you owe it to yourself.

Again–this is pretty damn simple. Teams which loaf on defense and don’t move the basketball are usually done after one round of the NBA Playoffs. As in ‘Gone Fishing’ or on the golf course.

After the Warriors won their first ring—you know what they went and did…they won 73 games the next season without Kevin Durant.

You know what the Warriors did this past playoff run with Kevin Durant—they won their second ring and went 16-1 in post season play. My point? These guys are competitive motherfuckers and it matters to them how they play the game.

The Golden State Warriors don’t just compete against the other 29 teams in the league, they compete against themselves and the notion they want to become this era’s historic dynasty. How they play ‘Matters To Them’.

So…OKC is now 4-4 after eight games. Like I said before on here the record itself isn’t a big deal this early in the season if steady incremental improvement occurs. Effort to me should be there every game and for 48 minutes. Sure, it’s the NBA and it’s an 82 game marathon, but this game was at home and the Thunder were coming off two days of rest and pretty much healthy. Correct me if I’m wrong…but I don’t believe anywhere in the NBA bylaws where it states teams can’t play hard for 48 minutes.

Boston, which is pretty much a new team itself, has now won seven games in a row holding opponents under 95 points a game for seven straight games. Plus, they lost Gordon Hayward for the season in their season opener.

It pretty much comes down to playing hard and playing smart. Not complex.

OKC at Portland on Sunday evening.

The Thunder have a big game tonight at home versus the Boston Celtics. With a win, OKC can improve to 5-3 and have a three game winning streak in the works. So far into this young season the Thunder have emerged as one of the better defensive teams in the league. This should be of no surprise with the addition of Paul George, the re-signing of Andre Roberson, and the continual evolution of Jerami Grant. Throw Steven Adams’ defensive versatility into the mix and the fact Russell Westbrook was at one time a defense first guard—and you have the makings of a very good defensive team.

The Philly Sixers have always been my favorite team in the East. Like from the first grade to the present. It probably started for me with Billy Cunningham and Hal Greer–then went thru Dr. J and Maurice Cheeks–and in the present seeing all these young players assembled in Philly trying to restore the Sixer brand.

So what does Jerami Grant bring to the Thunder? He brings a freakish athletic frame and a versatile game. He can run the floor. He can defend. He can rebound. He can score, and unlike Andre Roberson, he’s not horrible from the line. He can be Billy Donovan’s do anything sub from the bench and play various positions on the floor in either a conventional lineup set or playing with a small ball unit.

Consider if OKC needs a unit on the floor to get a stop against the Warriors–Billy Donovan has the luxury of putting Westbrook, George, Adams, Grant, and Roberson on the floor together. Name five better defenders on the same team in the West currently. You might go…. Thompson, Durant, Draymond Green, Iguodala, and Za Za with the Warriors. To get these five I had to sit Carmelo and Steph, but still it was fun to do from a defensive standpoint.

What Sam Presti did this summer besides adding Paul George and Carmelo Anthony to the team was to turn OKC into one of the best defensive teams in the league.

Say what you want about the Warriors ability to score the ball, but defensive guru Ron Adams has the Warriors playing defense when it matters. The Warriors defense is a big part of why they are who they are currently.

I love Jerami Grant as a player. He reminds me a bit of Stacy Augmon back from his UNLV days. Moving forward–I’m hopeful Billy Donovan expands his role even more.

Actually, when I was in high school the Houston Astros were Oklahoma City’s AAA affiliate and I was a fan of the Astros back in those days. It’s a nice story for the city of Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey so I’m good with it.

LA was pretty much awful on Wednesday night in losing 5-1 at home in Game 7. Yu Darvish was brutal again in giving up five runs in an inning and two-thirds. Bellinger left something like six base runners stranded and Dave Roberts was a bit murky from a managerial standpoint, but give the Astros a ton of credit they never backed down and because of that grit they stand atop the world as champions of baseball only three years removed from being the worst team in the league.

I was happy to see Clayton Kershaw pitch effectively in a long middle relief stinct to keep the Astros scoreless after they torched Darvish…there was that at least.

Very ironic for me in that my favorite OKC Dodger was second baseman Willie Calhoun—and Calhoun was the key piece from LA which brought Darvish from the Texas Rangers to the Dodgers in a late season trade.

Except for Game 7…a rousing World Series featuring two teams who both won over a hundred games this season and should both be right back in the hunt next season.

After three days of beach inner peace in Melbourne, Florida — I feel refreshed, reset, and ready to follow the Thunder’s season. It was wonderful. Great weather, almost completely empty beaches, collecting sea shells with my wife, talking surf fishing with the locals, sea food and cheeseburgers, watching the World Series and college football at night. I know the Thunder lost by three at Minnesota and then blew out the Bulls–but for the most part I was only a casual observer for those two games.

Last night was my first night back and as my custom I was seriously focused for the Thunder’s game in Milwaukee.

I thought it was easily OKC’s best game of the season as they pretty much did what they wanted to in a surprisingly easy 110-91 win over the promising Bucks. OKC improved to 4-3 and now has a two game winning streak heading into Friday’s home game versus the Celtics.

The standings mean little to me this early in the season. Just get better every game and define the roles on the team while getting a feel for one another. What I saw on Tuesday night made me feel this Thunder team has some very good team basketball in front of them as they make their journey through this season.

I can’t think of one thing to bitch about in this recap. Not one. Other than Nick didn’t see the floor. C’mon, Billy Donovan.

Five Thunder players scored in double figures while Felton and Roberson were both one point away from scoring in double figures themselves. And, oh…BTW–Andre Roberson looked liked John Stockton perfectly swishing his two free throw attempts. Andre Being the Ball is what that was about. He must be reading okcthunderground.com. Be the ball, Andre, be the ball, buddy.

Something about Raymond Felton as well. Quite frankly, he’s giving OKC the best backup point guard play they ever had in the ten years here. Some might bristle at that comment and say, “What about Reggie Jackson?” But what I would say is fuck the little bitch Reggie and I’m going with Ray Felton. I really like what I’m seeing from Felton.

Russell almost had another triple double, but this isn’t the season of chasing Oscar. This is the season of chasing a ring so trip dubs aren’t our focus this season. The ball moved, the Thunder had 25 assists as a team. Teams which move the ball win championships–teams which don’t move the ball are on golf courses in May and June. That’s a fairly simple axiom of basketball.

Paul George and Carmelo look more comfortable every game. I have nothing to bitch about there except I am a little disappointed Presti couldn’t land LeBron on this year’s roster.

Steven Adams was excellent and is on a nice run of basketball pretty much looking like the guy from two seasons ago in post season. As I wrote earlier in this season–Adams should be the one player who benefits the most from all the space created by the additions of PG and Melo. Oceans of space and time are there whenever he and Russ nod and wink at each other. That’s another axiom of basketball. Space and time…move the ball. This isn’t as complex as figuring out health care.

Jerami Grant was great in this game with a 17 point performance. Given the fact he’s been a member of my two favorite teams–the Thunder and Sixers…Jerami is one of my favorite Thunder players. Plus, like all serious OU basketball fans how could I not love a guy related to Harvey ‘The General’ Grant from OU’s ’88 championship final team.

Patrick Patterson looks like he’s getting healthy and he played 23 solid minutes on Tuesday night.

I still want to see more from Alex Abrines, but I’m not going to bitch when the Thunder win by 19 points on the road against a playoff caliber team. He made a nice power move on the baseline, then missed the dunk. Great move, but finish. I’m seeing more overall TSN toughness in his game and less of the Euro frilliness…both good things.

The Thunder host the Celtics on Friday inside Chesapeake Energy Arena and it should be a great game with what I think will be a playoff feel inside the building. But really—who needs Big Al Horford when Sam Presti can put Russ, PG, and Melo together in Mystery, Alaska?

Game 7 of the World Series tonight and of course I’m for the Dodgers as my son and I watched so many of these guys play in AAA for the OKC Dodgers…even Clayton Kershaw on an injury rehab assignment pitched here in July. Chris Taylor, the leadoff hitter, is one of those guys and he’s pretty much my favorite Dodger.

LET’S GO DODGERS!