Author: Mike

Golden State Warriors 121  — Oklahoma City Thunder 106

Golden State continued on its historical season with a predictable 121-106 win over the Thunder on Thursday night at Oracle Arena. This completes a three games regular season sweep of the series for the Warriors in  a season which was supposed to be all about redemption in Oklahoma City.

Keep in mind, as I proceed further I want to trend gently and show compassion as a human rather than just tear into the Thunder like I have before. The reason is simple–the Thunder are lost right now. Completely and totally lost in going 2-6 since the All-Star break.

This team has no idea what its doing right now. No team identity other than just hoping Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook can do enough and get them over the hump on a given night. The coaching staff has been obliterated by the absence of Monty Williams and Mo Cheeks. The entire state of Oklahoma is in a state of shock over the death of Aubrey McClendon and the Thunder have spiraled downward in the wake of all of this combined with the fact their schedule got really tough at just the wrong time.

I’m not making excuses for the Thunder, just trying to show some compassion amidst what is on the verge of becoming a completely lost season if OKC can’t work thru this in the coming days and start winning some games.

It hurts deeply as a fan to see this in a season which was supposed to be a season of vindication for the Thunder following last season’s injury riddled train wreck which kept the Thunder out of the playoffs. This was supposed to be redemption for Kevin Durant, Sam Presti, and the entire Thunder organization with a new coach and the hopes the team could show enough to keep Kevin Durant in a Thunder uniform for years to come.

Instead, it’s turned into a season of human tragedy and the revelation the Thunder have continued to regress in spite of having two of the most talented players in the world playing together.

Maybe this is what Scott Brooks privately understood about his two superstars and Sam Presti hasn’t been able to come to terms with as the general manager.

Maybe, but I  know I’m not alone in thinking this. While both Durant and Westbrook are lauded as tremendous individual talents–their inability to morph their games into a more team style of play is what national guys like Charles Barkley are correct in pointing out repeatedly. You don’t get that enough from the local media in OKC because quite frankly its a college market which just happens to have an NBA team.

OKC is now one game in front of the Clippers for the third seed in the West. Local homers can make the claim the Warriors and Spurs are doing historical things. So be it. But the Clippers have just basically had to dig in with Chris Paul leading a team which has been without Blake Griffin for a large stretch of this season. I call this professional mental toughness. Others can call it whatever they want.

OKC plays in Milwaukee on Sunday afternoon. The Thunder clearly need a win of any kind right now. Maybe a team meeting with players only wouldn’t be a bad idea between now and then. Clearly a tough spot for the Thunder currently, but it they want this season to be something other than a meltdown they better pull together as a team and figure some things out in a hurry.

Mike Jackson

 

I’m going with a GOP Presidential Debate Preview instead of a Thunder-Warriors preview. The Thunder have left me with no choice, I’m tired of previewing a stupid basketball team. What am I going to honestly write…I wonder if they play smarter tonight?

Besides this GOP race is the national storyline tonight and I can’t be chained to a pedestrian basketball team.

Mitt Romney has entered the fray and my take is that this will mean absolutely nothing. Trump and his followers wouldn’t even listen to Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan…so why would they care what Mitt Romney thinks?

Only four debaters tonight as someone finally pulled Ben Carson aside and said, ” Please go home.” I wish the GOP would get Lindsey Graham drunk and let him take Carson’s place—it would make for great theatre.

Wonder if Trump’s new boy Chris Christie will stand behind him during the debate and glare at Bubble Boy and Cruz? If elected–I could see Chris Christie fomenting a place in history as this generation’s H.R. Haldeman or John Ehrlichman. Google if you need.

Anyway—I’m playing this to get me in the mood for another cerebral GOP presidential debate.

 

LA Clippers 103 — Oklahoma City Thunder 98

Tough to think about a recap considering what transpired in Oklahoma City on Wednesday, but still, this is a Thunder journal so I’ll make this to the point and get off of here.

OKC’s Thunder lost to the LA Clippers on Wednesday night in LA by a score of 103-98. OKC led 58-38 at the half, and led by as many as 22 points late in the third period. But in the game’s final period–OKC was outscored 35-13 and subsequently lost a basketball they had no business losing simply because the team’s two superstars refuse to play the game the right way on a consistent basis.

What I mean by the right way—is to believe in the team concept and instead just go into two man basketball mode whenever a game gets tight. It’s the same mode of play from Durant and Westbrook which has kept them still in search of their first NBA championship this far into their respective careers. It’s why I in no way consider them a viable championship contender even though both of them are stunning individual talents, yet two players who refuse to morph their games to the extent that they can trust their teammates for 48 minutes of play against top half teams in the league.

You look at this this loss through an honesty lense and you have to write the presence of Billy Donovan has in no way changed the culture of this ball club. You get to a point where you read the usual Durant and Westbrook quotes after a loss like this and you just kind of shake your head. Don’t get me wrong, I love these guys and have loved every minute of watching them play in Oklahoma City, but when do they get it? Seriously—when are they going to get it?

With the win LA continues to hang and play decent ball without Blake Griffin. The Clippers have now closed to with a game and a half of the Thunder.

When you watch the Thunder play like this it makes Charles Barkley and others appear prescient when they describe the Thunder as a dumb basketball team. Not Sacramento King dumb, but a team which despite its potential seems intent on playing the game the wrong way and not being smart enough to learn from its mistakes and become the team it has the potential to become.

At Golden State tomorrow night at Oracle.

Mike Jackson

 

Stunning and tragic news on Wednesday as Aubrey McClendon died in a single car accident in northeast Oklahoma City. McClendon was one the original founders of Chesapeake Energy and one of the owners of the Oklahoma City Thunder. Much of what Oklahoma City has become can be directly traced to the drive, vision, and generosity of Aubrey McClendon.

Horrible news for our city and our state. Prayers and thoughts go out to his family.

Can’t be much of a surprise at this point because it matters none what Donald J Trump says or does—he’s going to be the GOP presidential candidate unless the party establishment steals it from him behind closed doors in Cleveland at the Republican National Convention.

And you know what—these people are getting exactly what deserve because these are the same people who eight years ago had no problem whatsoever with Sarah Palin being one massive heart attack away from the presidency.

Karma.

It’s really sad because here we are not even to the conventions and the American citizenry will have gridlock for another four years regardless of if they vote for Hillary or Trump on election day.

Ryan and McConnell have already been informed by King Donald J IV he considers their constitutional roles trivial and meaningless. And if voters opt away from King Donald they’ve got four years of the GOP-Hillary hate we’ve already witnessed ad nauseum.

Kasich makes no sense whatsoever to the voting masses because he’s actually qualified and probably would do a pretty good job of dealing with the clusterf–k in Washington DC. But you can’t really go that direction because CNN, MSNBC, and Fox viewers would become bored with some degree of competence in the White House.

Cruz is too extreme. Bubble Boy is a lightweight. We have no idea what Ben Carson is actually trying to say, and even though Bernie Sanders is a lovely man—America the Reality TV Show couldn’t handle being Sweden or Denmark for a week before impeachment proceedings started.

It’s so bad—Lindsey Graham is now thinking of endorsing Ted Cruz while Chris Christie stands behind Donald Trump looking like a heavier version of Sarah Palin.

Pretty sad.

In retrospect–I guess we can only hope when President Trump builds his wall he allows those of us who want the freedom to move to Mexico the ability to go south thru his wall.

 

 

OKC Thunder 131 — Sacramento Kings 116

First off, I think so little of the Sacramento Kings that I went to sleep and decided to write this recap the next morning. Three things about these Kings, 1 they’re the worst defensive team in the NBA, 2 they’re the dumbest team in the NBA, and 3 George Karl has done nothing which I can see to change this team.

Having written that, OKC did show up and take care of business enough to win a 131-116 game on the heels of the emotional loss to the Warriors. But give the Kings an assist in that for some reason they felt compelled to self implode even more than usual by taking what has to be an NBA record for delay of game technicals.

Billy Donovan should thank the gods every night before he goes to bed his first NBA coaching job didn’t have figuring out DeMarcus Cousins and Rajon Rondo as part of the job description. You look at those sideline shots at Karl and you want to say, ” Stop it. Quit tomorrow. You got your record. Go back to work for ESPN and stop this. God will absolve you for ever having coached the Kings.”

Anyway, it’s Super Tuesday and I really don’t have my heart into this recap. Maybe I should have asked one of the pups over at Daily Thunder to sub for me on this one. But then again…I’m not sure this format allows for 10,000 words on Andre Roberson and a completely meaningless game.

But still–I need to be somewhat professional. Six Thunder players scored in double figures. Durant leading the way with 27 points. Westbrook had another triple double and to be honest with you I have no idea how many triple doubles he now has for the season. It seems like a lot though. Ibaka was so-so going 12 and 7.

But the story was OKC’s bench as it went for 64 points against these clueless, wretched, abysmal Kings. Kanter went 11-11 from the field for 23 points. Dion shot 6-8 and scored 22 points. Even Kyle Singler had a big night scoring 11 points. I wish I could think this was a turner corner for the Thunder bench, but it was against the dumbest team in the league so I’m tempering myself from thinking this.

These three guys are my co No. 1 Stars of the Game.

For the dumbasses who don’t really know anything about +/-, Andre Roberson somehow went -14 in 21 minutes against these Kings. I don’t even know how you do this even if you’re intentionally trying to do this. Seriously.

Billy Donovan, much to my surprise, seems totally wed to the thought of benching Cam Payne and going with Randy Foye as the hybrid guard on the bench unit. But I do like the fact KD is handling the point with these guys so it’s not like something which is won/loss altering.

OKC improves to 42-18 and plays the Clippers next on Wednesday in LA.

My mind is more on Super Tuesday than this recap. John Kasich has taken a very risky approach in putting his entire campaign on the Ohio primary on March 15th. For those of you not paying attention, after tonight, that’s all which will stand between Donald Trump being the nominee for a major political party in America.

I’m not sure exactly where America precisely went off the tracks, but Lindsey Graham is correct when he says our country has gone completely batshit crazy. Pray for our country.

John Kasich 2016

 

Mike Jackson

 

OKC’s staggering Thunder in Sacramento tonight to take on the still psychotic Kings. Kings enter at 24-33 and firmly in command of the No. 10 seed in the West. Kings at 4-6 in their last ten and pretty much look like the same old Kings, but this team has given OKC fits this season so once again it’s not like the Thunder can just walk out there and claim a victory by showing up.

OKC comes off a great performance minus the final thirteen seconds of regulation against the Warriors on Saturday night. The Thunder played beautifully for almost 48 minutes before Kevin Durant’s costly turnover deprived the Thunder of a marquee quality win. Instead, OKC enters at 1-4 since the All-Star break and looking to get some positives heading into the stretch drive.

The Thunder begin the first of a four game road swing tonight which goes Sacramento, Clippers, Warriors, and Milwaukee.

Hard to believe but a Clippers team which has been without Blake Griffin for a substantial time is only two down in the loss column entering tonight.

Since the Foye trade, rookie Cameron Payne has pretty much sat the bench and it appears Donovan is going to go with a combination of Durant and Foye as the second unit point guards of sorts. I thought this was very smart against the Warriors because it deprived Shawn Livingston of just posting Payne down low like he did in the first Thunder-Warriors game.

Vegas has OKC as a 9 point road favorite with Rajon Rondo listed as questionable.

Very simple for OKC, they have to shake-off the nightmare ending against the Warriors and suck it up winning the next two against the Kings and Clippers.

3-1 should be the realistic goal for OKC on this four game road swing.

 

 

Andre Roberson a little slow on the closeout on Curry, not sure why Roberson was passive on the close out–but still a great shot by Steph Curry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The show is too damn long. They should take about two-thirds of the awards and do like the Republicans did in the early debates when they held the pee wee debates with Lindsey Graham, Rick Santorum, and Mike Huckabee where the audience didn’t have to waste their time on them. The main Oscar show should have about twelve awards and be maybe two hours long.

Chris Rock was great. Spotlight deservedly won best picture. Leo finally won his Oscar for what I think is about his third or fourth best performance in The Revenant while Brie Larson won Best Actress for Room. I liked the Girl Scouts Cookie deal. Joe Biden looked great. Lady Gaga was sublime and Michael Keaton needs to take the gum out of his mouth when he takes the stage. But the show is way too long.

You see, this is the advantage of having a rogue blog where I don’t need off the record access to write my blog. I don’t have to kiss Clay Bennett, Sam Presti, Billy Donovan, or even the two stars’ asses to  maintain off the record access. In a word…I can be honest. What a novel concept—being honest. Who would have ever come up with this concept?

As I wrote in my blog recap last night, I said I’d be interested to see how the two primary beats in this market crafted their recaps given the fact Kevin Durant blew the game in the waning seconds of regulation.

Anthony Slater at newsoksport handled it just right. He featured it prominently and addressed it head on. Tough, but I thought fair towards Durant and Donovan. I’d give this an A.

Then I go over and read some nonsense on the Daily Thunder recap which in length seemed like something written by Tolstoy but never once even mentioned the Durant turnover and why the game even went to overtime. I’m sorry, but this gets a D- for basic storyline epic fail.

Pick it up over there at Daily Thunder, the writing needs to be stronger and on point. Stronger writing voices are needed–please address this.  Anthony Slater, Erik Horne, Tramel and I can’t do all the heavy lifting for you. If you want to be homers, blog with Nicky Gallo.

So—who’s fault was it? I would say Durant even though Billy Donovan showed a real chink in his armor in the Indiana game when he wasted that late timeout which basically deprived OKC of a possession with 5.1 seconds left in the game.

Last night Durant had the ball in his hands. He’s clearly the team’s closer and a great free throw shooter. This is his wheelhouse comfort zone. It was a simple play. Call the timeout, move the ball up court, and play the free throw game with the ball in Durant’s hands. Who the hell was he trying to pass to anyway–hopefully not Andre Roberson. Just a really bad play by Durant.

How tough is it to write this? Not tough if you’re not a homer blog pandering sunshine to the youth male demographic. Not tough at all.

And btw—I didn’t even mention Russell Westbrook’s dubious foul on Klay Thompson on the and one layup late in overtime which was really not a heady play at all. But clearly—the storyline was Durant’s turnover at the end of regulation which cost OKC its biggest win in almost two regular seasons of basketball.

So enough of this—OKC tomorrow night in Sacramento against the mentally imbalanced Kings.

Mike Jackson

Golden State Warriors 121 — OKC Thunder 118 OT

OKC’s Thunder played their hearts out on Saturday night against the historic Golden Warriors and should have won this basketball game, but instead a glaring mental mistake by Kevin Durant with twelve seconds left in regulation  cost the Thunder their best win in two seasons. It can’t be about moral victories for Durant and Westbrook in 2016, instead it has to be more about getting it done in the present tense.

It’s a simple play you see in almost every one possession NBA game. The Thunder were leading 101-99 and inbounded the ball under their basket. The ball went to Durant who usually would be fouled in this situation. But the Warriors didn’t want any part of the free throw game and suckered Durant into making a horrible pass at midcourt instead of calling timeout and moving the ball up court. The errant pass was ultimately corralled by Draymond Green. With less than a second left, Andre Iguodala ended up with the ball on the left elbow and was fouled by Durant with .7 left in regulation

Iguodala is a 61% free throw shooter, but he stepped up and coolly dropped both free throws to send the game to overtime and give Steph Curry five more minutes to do his thing. Moral of the story–when you have your foot on  Steph Curry’s throat , never give him a second life.

To make matters even worse, Kevin Durant fouled out of the game less than one minute into the overtime. But to Russell Westbrook and the Thunder’s credit they didn’t cave and actually led by three points with 33 seconds left in the overtime. But a driving layup by Klay Thompson and an and one tied the game–then that guy named Steph Curry hit a three inside midcourt with less than a second left to steal a game for his Warriors which Durant and his Thunder basically had won in regulation.

I’ll be curious when I read some of the Thunder beat writers if they write this aspect of the finish or just gloss over it saying how the Thunder turned a corner tonight. No corner was turned tonight—the Thunder lost a game they shouldn’t have lost. Period.

The Thunder did play markedly harder, but in the end this isn’t the Thunder in 2008 trying to learn how to win games during an inaugural 23-59 season, but rather a team with Durant and Westbrook at the point in their careers where they shouldn’t  lose games like this—even to Steph Curry.

Steph Curry was magnificent scoring 46 points and going 12-16 from behind the arc. He set the single game record for threes and broke his own mark of 286 threes in a season by reaching the 288 mark with 24 games left. Steph Curry is my No. 1 Star of the Game. Duh.

Klay Thompson struggled early, but got it going when it mattered and complimented Curry with 32 points of his own.

Draymond Green was just plain ornery. Green didn’t score the ball, but did have 14 rebounds and 14 assists. He and Durant barked at each other leaving the court at halftime—then according to ABC’s Lisa Salter barked at his teammates during a heated halftime locker room conversation. The Warriors trailed 57-46 at half and trailed by as many as fourteen points in the game, but again you never count Steph Curry out.

Except for the end, Kevin Durant was magnificent, but it’s how you do or don’t close which defines a superstar’s play. That’s just the way it is. Westbrook was mostly excellent, and Serge Ibaka had some great moments with 15 points, 20 rebounds and several big buckets in the game’s final eight minutes.

But in the end it’s a gut wrenching loss for Oklahoma City which should have been a win and the validation that the Thunder with Durant and Westbrook can beat any team on a given night. Instead, OKC is now 1-4 combined against the Warriors, Cavs, and Spurs…and the cloud surrounding this team is if they have the mental stuff to beat either the Spurs, Warriors, and Cavs four times in a two week span to win a series against any of the three–let alone all three in succession to claim an NBA crown. I would simply say—I don’t think so because they keep making dumb plays and teams which aren’t razor sharp mentally don’t win championships.

OKC now heads west for a tough three game road swing with stops in Sacramento, in LA against the Clips, and these very same Warriors on the second night of a road back to back.

The thought now isn’t just about losing this game, but coming back home after the west road swing still holding the No. 3 seed in the West.

Thunder in Sacramento on Monday night to play the Kings.

Mike Jackson