Author: Mike

Reminiscent of the Thunder airport welcomes in 2012 when the Thunder made their run to the Finals as kids. So much has transpired since then. The team is so different. Harden is in Houston. Perk and Thabo in other cities as well. Reggie Jackson is a minimalist starting point guard for the upstart Detroit Pistons. Cole Aldrich is a Clipper. Derek Fisher has been a head coach with the NY Knicks and fired. Scott Brooks about to begin his head coaching career with the Wizards. Kevin Durant possibly on the cusp of leaving thru free agency this July.

It feels like a lifetime between then and now basketball wise.

It puts a lump in my throat watching this video. So many good memories flash in an instant. This is what some of the national media don’t  get about the Thunder in Oklahoma City. The small market closeness which has brought the city together. Like the Packers are in Green Bay—the Thunder are the focal point  of the community.

Oklahoma City Thunder 98 — San Antonio Spurs 97

This is the beauty of NBA playoff basketball. Only one game removed from one of the worst performances in Oklahoma City Thunder post season history, the Thunder fought the Spurs, their own inner demons, and perhaps even the basketball gods to win a heart stopping 98-97 thriller in Game 2 to even the Western Conference Semi-Finals at one game apiece.

It was in no way a piece of art, but this one wreaked of pathos, humanity, dysfunction, and just plain survival as the final seconds ticked off at the AT&T Center. It had everything every Thunder fan has come to expect this season. Dysfunction, bad decisions, emotional torture, another apparent gut punching  defeat. Then there at the end laying on the floor with the ball cradled on his stomach as time expired was Serge Ibaka as the Thunder escaped Game 2 to even a series in which Oklahoma City amidst all of this now has home court advantage in what is now a best three out of five series.

Go figure.

I don’t want to spend too much on the final scene because no one who’s a fan of the Spurs has a right to bitch about the obvious elbow Dion Waiters used to clear Ginobli on the last inbounds pass with thirteen seconds left on the clock.

Me being a Prestette homer? Don’t think so. Sure he threw the elbow. Everyone saw it. But only while three other violations weren’t called on the play as well… 1 Ginobli stepping on the sidelines boundary line, 2 Kawhi Leonard clutching Westbrook’s jersey, and 3 Danny Green fouling Kevin Durant at mid-court. The zebras let everyone play and something finally went OKC’s way in these last two seasons of heart break basketball.

San Antonio didn’t lose this game because of this no call, they lost the game because they came out soft in the first period and allowed the Thunder to believe they could win this game. Keep this in mind, in the previous four Thunder-Spurs post seasons games played in San Antonio—the Spurs won the last four by an average of 28 points.

OKC led early and for the most part led the entire game. Russell Westbrook led the way with 29 points and 10 assists. Kevin Durant came out of his coma and chipped in with 28 points and 7 rebounds.

For good measure…Westbrook and Durant added to their diva drama soap opera during a second half argument on the OKC bench during a timeout.

Whatever.

But my No. 1 Star of the Game is Steven Adams. Steven Adams was a hoss in Game 2. He double doubled with 17 boards and 12 points. He was physical. He was daunting. He brought his usual lunchpail work ethic and then some. He flat out competed from the opening tip and set the tone along with Russell Westbrook that this would not be another night of sleepwalking indifference in what was basically a must win Game 2 for the Thunder.

Steven Adams was everything and then some on this night when Billy Donovan needed something special from a player not named Westbrook or Durant.

Westbrook was clearly OKC’s MVP on this night, but there was something special about the way Adams competed. His will was contagious.

LaMarcus Aldridge was once again superb scoring 41 points, but the rest of the Spurs looked like a team suffering from a Game 1 victory hangover.

The playoff math is now remarkably in the hands of the Thunder as they suddenly have home court advantage in the series.

If OKC somehow wins this series, then somehow wins two more series while the Thunder somehow win an NBA championship–this will be the night we all look back on and say ‘this is where it changed.’

But not just because Westbrook and Durant led as they should, but because Steven Adams took a very large step forward and gave the team a nudge in the right direction.

Game 3 — Friday night at Chesapeake Energy Arena, 8:30pm.

 

Mike Jackson

 

 

Oklahoma City Thunder 98 – San Antonio Spurs 97

It’s about time these guys got a break. But you know what they say about luck…you make your own luck in life. Never truer than tonight in San Antonio.

Recap in progress. This is more like it. We have ourselves a series.

 

I can’t believe I had to write this as a headline even on a rogue blog. But what else can you write if you have a shred of honesty attached to your coverage of this team?

OKC had four days rest before Game 1. They were completely healthy. This is a team which did not make the playoffs last season. This is a team which rested its stars at the end of this regular season. This is a team which for various reasons has been the most underachieving team from a talent standpoint the past three seasons….and they loafed defensively, especially the two stars.

Chris Webber on the TNT telecast can talk all he wants about OKC’s pick and roll defense being the worst he’s ever seen, but at the core they loafed. They didn’t get back in transition defense against a Spurs team which is not noted for running a fast break offense. They committed four boneheaded fouls outside the three point line in the first half which Charles Barkley was correct in stating ‘is just stupid basketball.’

There didn’t seem to be much caring by either Durant or Westbrook.  It’s one thing to see this in a meaningless regular season road game at Phoenix in late February, it’s quite another thing to see this in Game 1 of the Western Conference Semi-Finals.

I get it. I’ve been watching the NBA since about 1964. There’s an unspoken culture within the NBA where it’s kind of  okay to coast defensively during  certain regular season games. For all we know, it may even be in small print in the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement….’pursuant to Article 622 paragraph IV–loafing is allowed in designated regular season games’.

But are you kidding me about Saturday night?

It was just right there to see for all the world. OKC’s two stars loafed defensively. As I was watching I wondered what Scott Brooks and Kendrick Perkins were thinking to themselves since their main tasks while in OKC were to plead with the two stars to ‘run back faster’ and ‘play harder’.

I don’t ever really recall this ever being an issue with Michael or Scottie or Kobe or LeBron or even Kawhi. Real superstars. Honest two way basketball players bring their lunch box in the goal achieving portion of the season.

Talk all you want about benching Andre Roberson because he can’t shoot a basketball or tweaking the pick and roll defense, but if Durant and Westbrook don’t give a flip about playing defense then it doesn’t matter for OKC who starts at the shooting guard position.

There are certain things some fans tolerate. I’m certainly like that in some regards, but watching two stars loaf in Game 1 is not something I can turn my head away from.

Like I wrote yesterday, all things considered, Durant and Westbrook may need to get out of Oklahoma City and play for someone like Pop, Steve Kerr, or Rick Carlisle where a coach can talk to these two players with total job security intact.

Game 2 tonight in San Antonio. Hope we see some caring from the two stars.

There’s been some national scribes writing about how Durant has already checked it out in Oklahoma City. Maybe a rousing song could get him going in this Spurs series. Maybe turn things around for him like it did for Trump after losing in Wisconsin to Lyin’ Ted Cruz, then crushing the idiot in New York and Pennslyvania. Maybe this will get KD going. Norman Dale never had to do this with Jimmy Chitwood in Hoosiers, but it couldn’t hurt.

If you want to be regarded as one of the league’s elite super stars there’s no better place to show your skills than in post season. As we all know, Oklahoma City missed the playoffs last season when Kevin Durant missed 55 games due to a Jones fracture injury.

So far this post season, Kevin Durant has not been elite. Russell Westbrook maintained Durant’s Game 2 woes versus the Mavs was just a one time thing, but not the case when you really look at the numbers.

Last night in Game 1 against the Spurs — Durant’s line read 33 minutes, 6-15, 8 rebounds,  6 assists, 1 turnover, -31. The whole team was miserable, so we’ll push that to the side for the moment.

But when you go back and examine Durant’s body of work in the Dallas series against a team with no real defensive prowess the numbers in those five games are revealing. No Kawhi Leonard. No Tony Allen. No LeBron James. Just a Dallas team trying to field a team.

In the five Dallas games, these were Durant’s numbers… 43-117 (36%) from the field, 11-41 (26%) from three point, 16 assists, 18 turnovers.

Not exactly the numbers Billy Donovan and his club need from Kevin Durant if their season is to extend beyond next week-end.

OKC’s margin to compete and possibly beat the Spurs is razor thin with Durant playing well, with Durant playing like this the Thunder have no chance.

 

 

Phil, Pop, and Red in that order with me as the three greatest NBA coaches of all-time. They not only knew/know basketball, but they understood the human element of coaching. That doesn’t come from an ESPN metric stats page. It comes from understanding people. This is horrible to say coming from a Thunder fan/blogger, but it wouldn’t hurt either Durant or Westbrook to spend a season or two with Greg Popovich.