Month: February 2016

Orlando Magic visiting the Thunder tonight in the final prerequisite game before the much anticipated track meet at Golden State on Saturday night.

OKC and Orlando met earlier in the year in a classic game in which the Thunder made a miraculous comeback highlighted by a Westbrook half court heave and some great shot making by Magic guard Victor Oladipo. OKC finally escaped with a pulsating 139-136 double overtime win in a game which became a Thunder instant classic. It was clearly a classic regular season game where your relatives and friends were calling or texting during the final minutes asking, “Are you believing this game?” I’m guessing Brian Davis peed on himself at least twice coming down the stretch. It was a great last twenty minutes of ball.

Magic come in tonight a pedestrian 21-26 and have fallen back in the standings after a promising start to the season. Orlando currently sits as the 11th seed in the East.

Like many teams in the East, Orlando has some nice young talent, but still a star player away from being a serious playoff contender considering  the plethora of good to medium level teams in the East this season.

I’d prefer not to talk about the rumor-story circulating about Durant possibly going to Golden State in free agency. That would not only be depressing from a Thunder standpoint, but from a league standpoint as well. Golden State is the last team in the league which needs Kevin Durant. Jim Myers, Jerry West, lighten up. You’ve made your point already. You have a potential dynasty, except you didn’t trade part of it to the Houston Rockets.

Thunder come in tonight at 37-13 and 4-0 so far with the Dion Waiters starting experiment starting to get some traction from most smart B-ball people except some of the Daily Thunder analytic youngsters who all find themselves trailing yours truly in the prestigious Daily Thunder Western Conference Regular Season Seeding Championship.

Some nice play by the Thunder in their last two games as the roster as a whole has stepped up and shown some energy, passion, and overall caring.

OKC needs to take care of this Magic team, play sharp, play crisp, and don’t get anybody nicked up tonight before heading out west to play the defending champion Warriors who are already 45-4 without Kevin Durant.

OKC is 34-9 with Durant, and my hope is the Durant to Golden State story circulating is just one of many false stories which should come rolling along as the season moves towards summer. I mean, the Warriors already have Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut, and Harrison Barnes.

I can’t help it—I’m already thinking about Golden State this Saturday myself and wondering if Billy Donovan is going to stick with Adams and Serge together–or come out small.

Hope the Thunder are more focused on the Magic than I am, because the game every fan in the NBA has been wanting to see is in the on deck circle.

Haven’t seen the Vegas line, but I’ll go OKC -13 tonight.

 

 

OKC Thunder 114 — Washington Wizards 98

While most of the nation had an eye to Iowa’s presidential caucus, OKC’s Thunder easily handled the underachieving Wizards by a 114-98 count on Monday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

OKC came out fast, led early, and was never really in danger while improving to 37-13 overall and 34-9 in games Kevin Durant has played.

This is a Washington team most picked to be top six team in the East, my guess is there will be a coaching change at some point this season or at the conclusion of the season. I would think Randy Wittman’s days are numbered.

Russell Westbrook had his seventh triple double of the season and eighteenth in the last two seasons. Again, the type of line which makes me want to believe OKC can possibly get where they want come April…. 17 points, 13 rebounds, and 11 assists. Russell Westbrook is my No. 1 Star of the Game.

Kevin Durant went 29, 8, and 4 was just basically Kevin Durant playing against inferior talent.

Serge Ibaka was functional with a double, double of 19 points and 10 rebounds.

Dion Waiters had an off shooting night going 3-11, but grabbed 6 rebounds, dished 3 assists, and had 3 steals. But keep this in mind, even when Waiters is missing shots he’s doing something Andre Roberson will never do with the starters…namely–spacing the floor because he can’t be left alone by opposing defenses. And I don’t care how many white guys who never played basketball and have twenty thousand gazillion versions of plus/minus say otherwise. Against elite competition your shooting guard has to BE ABLE TO SHOOT THE BALL OR AT LEAST CREATE THAT ILLUSION.

OKC’s bench was good scoring 32 points. Enes Kanter led the bench with 14 points, while Cam Payne returned to action and had what I thought were 13 minutes of serviceable play.

My takeaway is simple, OKC won the game, played well, took care of business like professionals, and hopefully got showered in time to watch four different presidential canidates claim they won the Iowa caucus,  thankfully none of which were Donald Trump. Note to the Big Donald—don’t skip any debates in New Hampshire.

Orlando Magic in town on Wednesday night.

Mike Jackson

Wizards in town tonight sporting a disappointing 21-24 record in a season in which there were supposed to show Kevin Durant he could come back home and win a championship. Wizards are currently in the tenth slot in the East, two and a half games back of Detroit for the eighth spot. I could see Kevin Durant leaving OKC in 2017 after he’s completed his one year option season next season, but Washington D.C. isn’t where I’d see him going. Maybe either LA team, maybe the NY Knicks, maybe with Popovich in San Antonio, maybe back with Harden, maybe even with Pat Riley in Miami, or staying put in Oklahoma City, but not with the Wizards at this point.

Steven A Smith talking again about Durant and Westbrook both heading to the Lakers in 2017. But there’s a problem with that, the Lakers do not have strong or wise ownership with the Buss children as they did previously with Dr. Buss, who knew what he was doing.

I would also ask myself this question if I were Kevin Durant’s surrogate uncle/advisor…if after all these seasons together with Russell Westbrook in Oklahoma City and only one NBA Finals appearance to show for it—what makes you think going in tandem with Westbrook to any future destination improves your chances of winning a championship? Maybe at that point, it would be better for both to go separate directions. I mean, who’s to say Durant and Harden back together isn’t  potentially a better pair suited to win a ring together.

Anyway, it will be fascinating to watch as it unfolds from an NBA historical perspective

Back to tonight. OKC comes in with a little bit of swagger possibly after winning a big game against the Houston Rockets. For the first time in a while, both Durant and Westbrook led by example on the defensive end and temporarily quieted the justified criticism targeted at OKC’s defense.

It’s a big week for OKC with homes games against Washington and Orlando, then the much anticipated Saturday night game at Golden State. From what I read, Cam Payne is a game time decision tonight as far being given a green light from the concussion. Another game to see if Dion Waiters as a starter makes him a consistent player or if this has just been one of Dion’s mini up cycles?

I respect what Andre Roberson brings to the table for OKC, but I firmly believe for OKC to beat the teams like Golden State, Cleveland, and San Antonio in a six or seven game series they need someone to fill the shooting guard position who can actually ‘shoot’ a basketball here and there. So I think it’s a relatively important thing if Dion Waiters can become consistent with the starters these next few weeks. If not, OKC has a problem.

Haven’t looked at the Vegas spread yet, but I’d think OKC -7 would be reasonable.