Author: Mike

I love this. I wish some of our players were as competitive as she is. This is great. Sam Presti should sign her up and try her at shooting guard. Couldn’t hurt.

Cleveland Cavs 115 — OKC Thunder 92

Lebron James and his Cleveland Cavs basically played on the road today without Kyrie Irving, Iman Shumpert, and Mo Williams, but still easily beat the Thunder by a score of 115-92 inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. It would not be a reach to say Oklahoma City was outclassed from start to finish.

Cleveland led 62-53 at the half, then 95-73 after three periods. If this were a prizefight a white towel would have seemed appropriate. LeBron, Kevin Love, JR Smith and Co. were better than anything the Thunder could answer.

This defeat goes down as the fourth worst home defeat (23 points) since Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City just prior to the inaugural 2008 season.

In my eyes, the previous worst Thunder home defeat came in that 2008 season when OKC was blown out by New Orleans in the game which got PJ Carlesimo fired and Scott Brooks elevated to interim head coach. But keep in mind, Durant, Westbrook, Green, and Ibaka were still youngsters just discovering their way during a 23-59 season.

Today was worse because Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka were all healthy and rested. No excuses. Oklahoma City was simply outclassed because they can’t defend at an elite level and their journey to find a dependable shooting guard remains an unsolved puzzle.

Dion Waiters will go down as the scapegoat and he was in fact horrific, but keep in mind Waiters, Morrow, and Randy Foye went a combined 4-21.

Add to the fact, Kyle Singler didn’t score a point while Enes Kanter was literally abused by Timothy Mosgov.

I’m sure this won’t lead Nick Gallo’s storyline, but basically all four players Sam Presti acquired by trade either last season or this season were all bad today versus the Cavs.

Durant, Westbrook, Adams, and even rookie Cam Payne  played okay, but there wasn’t enough from the rest of the team to beat a Cleveland club which was missing two of its top six players on the road.

You can sugarcoat it, you can blame it on Dion Waiters, you can blame it on multiple things, but what OKC showed today was they’re much closer to pretender status versus being regarded as a serious contender.

Mike Jackson

Team Lebron in Oklahoma City this afternoon for the ABC national telecast game. Pretty much agreed by most there are four teams with a chance to win the NBA championship with OKC and the Cavs being two of the four teams.

Cleveland won the first encounter this season by a 104-100 count in a very competitive game where Billy Donovan let his team down by not staggering Durant and Westbrook sitting to start the fourth period. It was disastrous for OKC as Cleveland predictably went on a spurt and the game changed. Donovan did the same thing Friday night in the home loss to Indiana. Not sure what part of this Billy Donovan is struggling to grasp.

Cleveland comes in with a new head coach in Tyronn Lue after the LeBron dismissal of David Blatt for obvious reasons. Namely, wtf reason is there to have Kevin Love on your team if you’re not going use him properly. Plus, he wants the Cavs to play a more up tempo style of play which should be conducive to the overall Cavs roster. So–all in all probably a wise move by LeBron to make the coaching change.

OKC comes in at 40-15 on the heels of a bitterly disappointing home loss to the Indiana Pacers. Same old bug-a-boos for the Thunder. Shaky perimeter defense and a lack of offensive execution coming down the stretch, plus not a great fourth period of coaching by Donovan. He didn’t stagger his subs starting the fourth, and I really feel like he burned OKC’s final timeout prematurely. Keep the timeout in your pocket and have it for your last timeout with 5.1 seconds left and a chance to send the game into overtime. I can’t believe he wasn’t even slightly taken to task for this by the apparently scared to death OKC local media.

Not a huge Bill Simmons fan, other than his Book of Basketball, but maybe he’s right in calling the OKC media the the Prestettes. I mean, c’mon, do we have anyone ever asking even a remotely tough question in the fear the Thunder may banish all and leave Thunder coverage exclusively to be handled by Nick Gallo. That’s why you need an underground and it’s why ‘some’ of what Jim Traber does is actually necessary.

Anyway, same old story for OKC today. Namely, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook could use some help. I hate beating this to death, but guys like Ibaka, Adams, Kanter, Waiters, Payne, Singler and Morrow can’t just go invisible. They have to competitively engage. They have to make an imprint on the game.

It will be interesting to see if Randy Foye sees any minutes in this game if Dion Waiters can’t contribute any offense whatsoever.

LeBron has held a very dominant edge over Durant and Westbrook so far into their respective careers. To me this is a fairly huge game for OKC just to show if OKC can really be counted as a serious championship contender going beyond just the fact Durant and Westbrook wear Thunder blue.

Can’t wait. Going to a chilli-footlong Thunder watch party with Sonic onion rings and everything. To date, OKC is a combined 1-2 against Golden State, San Antonio, and Cleveland. Next seven days should reveal a little more if OKC is a pretender or a contender.

 

 

Indiana Pacers 101 — Oklahoma City Thunder 98

The Indiana Pacers entered the fourth period down by nine on the road against OKC’s Thunder, but led by clutch threes from Myles Turner and Monta Ellis in the final minute—the Pacers stunned OKC 101-98 on Friday night inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena.

Myles Turner nailed his first three of the season from the right corner to tie the game 95-95 with 55.4 left in the game. Kevin Durant missed a three. Monta Ellis made a tough three with Dion Waiters somewhat draped on him to make it 98-95 with 18.8 left.

Westbrook missed a layup. OKC fouled and George Hill split a pair of free throws to make it 99-95. Billy Donovan burned OKC’s last timeout, but Durant hit a tough three to make it 99-98 with 5.9 seconds remaining.

Paul George hit two free throws with 5.1 seconds left, but without a timeout —Westbrook could get nothing better than a desperation heave just inside the midcourt line.

Pacers 101 — Thunder 98. Ouch.

This is not the way OKC wanted to start the post All-Star Game run. The Pacers are a nice team, but not one an elite team like the Thunder should lose to at home on a night when Russell Westbrook had 23 points and 18 assists. Throw in Durant’s 31 points, 8 rebounds and Ibaka’s 12 point, 11 rebound night and it’s hard to imagine OKC losing at home to a Pacer team which has been offensively challenged for the most part. But this is exactly what the Thunder did.

Most compelling stat of the night for me—Waiters, Singler, Kanter, and Morrow went a combined 8-31 from the field. Dion Waiters didn’t score a point in doing his best Andre Roberson imitation as the Thunder’s starting shooting guard. Yet, off the top of my head, I can’t remember many nights when Roberson couldn’t even score one basket.

There it is. Same old thing. Oklahoma City’s Thunder still struggling with the starting shooting guard position.

Hard for me not to give Westbrook my No. 1 Star of the Game, but I can’t, his team puked on itself coming down the stretch and lost at home to a team they had no business losing to on this night. I think I’ll go Monta Ellis with his 27 points and clutch play for my choice tonight.

So frustrating. To see Durant and Westbrook play at this level and yet Sam Presti not able to find a dependable starting shooting guard for this team.

Very tough loss because OKC’s next four are at home against Cleveland, on the road against Dallas and New Orleans, then home against the Warriors. Of OKC’s last 28 games, 17 are on the road, and the Thunder have the toughest schedule remaining of any team in the league.

LeBron James and his Cleveland Cavaliers in Oklahoma City on Sunday afternoon in the national ABC game.

Mike Jackson

 

 

This is just beautiful. Hard to watch this without crying, yet it left me an incredibly positive feeling and genuinely touched me with something I’m dealing with in my life. Touched me to the point I think I need to write Monty Williams a brief letter and say thank you.

Seventh overall pick by the Boston Celtics in 2006–Randy Foye.

It’s being reported OKC has acquired Randy Foye from the Denver Nuggets in exchange for Steve Novak, DJ Augustin, and two second round picks. To be blunt, this does nothing for me. It gives the Thunder another wing player who is an average defender. Foye is a ten year vet who was drafted out of Villanova as the seventh overall pick by Boston. He’s currently having the worst shooting season of his career at .351% and .296%.

Not sure where his minutes will come from given he’s not a better defender than either Waiters or Singler. He’s certainly not a better three point shooter than Morrow and he’s certainly not in Roberson’s class as a defender. Maybe there’s more to Roberson’s injury than we’ve been told so far.

The Thunder do create an open roster space and have cut a bit of salary as well.

Certainly nothing here which moves the Thunder in a big way. About what was expected. But I’ve always liked Randy Foye, especially about four years earlier in his career.

I’ve had some tough things going on in my family recently. But I just received a call from my son which warmed my heart and made he happy. It’s a beautiful spring-like day. I think I’m going to smile, exhale, and walk on some sunshine–if you know what I mean.

 

The NBA trade deadline expires later this afternoon and quite frankly I don’t expect Oklahoma City to do much beyond possibly moving Steve Novak’s expiring $3.75 million contract to make a roster spot available for a late season buyout of a player like say Kevin Martin.

OKC is every bit as elite offensively as Golden State so even adding Martin isn’t that big of a deal unless you’re one these types who believe Kevin Martin is an overall better player than Dion Waiters. He isn’t. Waiters is much better defensively than Martin. Martin is more efficient offensively, but as we saw in the Golden State game–Waiters only took five shots, so that isn’t what got the Thunder beat. Defense is where Oklahoma City has to become better if they’re to make a special run this post season.

Defense is where OKC will either improve or not make it to the NBA Finals. With Roberson at some point reentering, plus Donovan’s confidence in both Waiters and Singler—those three guys are key to OKC improving their perimeter defense as we move along into March and April. Again, Kevin Martin would do nothing to meet that end and OKC is already elite offensively.

It’s all about defense. If you doubt, ask Cam Newton and the Carolina Panthers. Another words, taking the other guy’s space and time away from him as much as humanly possibly.

Some have talked about a DJ Augustin and Mitch McGary deal for PJ Tucker, but I don’t think so for two reasons.

One, Cam Payne got eaten alive in the Golden State game. Not dissing Payne because I like him, but it might be good to have Augustin around for the post season just in case.

Two, Presti might actually need McGary next season because common sense would say Serge Ibaka could very well be traded next season in  preparation of Durant, Westbrook, and Adams all becoming free agents at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season. Of course, in writing this I’m assuming Durant signs a one year extension after this season to stay with Westbrook.

In the event OKC keeps both Durant and Westbrook long term, there’s no way they can afford to keep both Adams and Ibaka. Let’s be candid, Adams has caught Ibaka and will probably pass him as an overall player. Plus, with Adams at center and Durant at the power forward spot, OKC can more than match the type of matchups Golden State dictates, it’s going to be about small ball in many instances and Serge Ibaka becomes expendable. In fact, if OKC makes it to the conference finals against Golden State—where exactly does Serge Ibaka fit in?

He doesn’t–as we saw on Super Bowl Saturday as he couldn’t keep up with Harrison Barnes. Golden State is changing the way the game is played and to beat them you either adapt or get beat. Not complicated.

Maybe Presti will surprise me and make a major move, but I don’t think so, at least not until sometime next season.

The Thunder have a good team, just tweak some things defensively and see what happens is my take given what’s available currently.

 

Feeling mentally rested from the break. Ready to bear down for the home stretch and the goal achieving portion of the season. Thought this would be a good time to maybe go through some of the award leaders.

MVP – Steph Curry. Enough said.

Offensive Player of the Year – Steph Curry again. But I think OKC’s own Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook have been excellent and should be in the mix.

Defensive Player of the Year – I’ll go Kawhi Leonard.

Sixth Man of the Year  –  I’ll go multiple guys here with it still being a horserace between Victor Oladipo, Jeremy Lin, Ryan Anderson, and Will Barton.

Coach of the Year – At this juncture, I’m going with either Brad Stevens or Terry Stotts.

Rookie of the Year – I’m going with Karl-Anthony Towns, with Kristaps Porzingus in close pursuit.

Most Improved Player – I’m going with CJ McCullum from the Portland Trailblazers.

Most Surprising Team From a Positive Standpoint – I’m going with either Boston or Portland. Both have been great stories. Nobody thought Portland had much of a chance to even contend for a playoff spot. Boston is on a roll and currently the No. 3 seed in the East with a young core of players who are growing up under Brad Stevens.

Most Disappointing Team – New Orleans clearly leads in this category with Houston and Washington following in the mix.

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Already starting to miss games. Trade deadline on Thursday. Then big home games this week-end against the Pacers and Cleveland.