Author: Mike

New York Knicks 93 — OKC Thunder 90

 

Difficult game to write about, maybe why I’ve taken my time deciding on how to recap it in my season journal. I’ve thought how to start it, but here’s what I ultimately have to go with.

Thinking, thinking—let’s go with this.

 

With about 26 seconds left and OKC trailing by three, Russell Westbrook penetrated the lane then fired an on target pass to Serge Ibaka in the corner. A completely wide open Serge Ibaka.  Just a perfect basketball play until Ibaka clanked the wide open look. OKC would ultimately get another chance to tie the game, but Westbrook fired a wild three which missed badly, and Dion Waiters missed on a second chance  three which went half way down. Knicks win despite really not making a game winning play in the last thirty seconds or so.

These are the Oklahoma City Thunder without their closer Kevin Durant to steady them in the end of close games. These Thunder are a borderline 8th place team in the West regardless of how many times Russell Westbrook triple doubles or Enes Kanter double doubles.

Serge Ibaka is my favorite player from Congo in the NBA if you know what I mean, but he was bad again. In thirty minutes of play he went 4-13 from the field and had three rebounds if I read the box correctly. Steven Adams was a non-factor as well. Kanter and Waiters were decent, functional, but when you get virtually nothing from your two starting bigs its hard to win against solid NBA teams who are well coached. At 7-6, the NY Knicks under Derek Fisher appear to be headed in that direction. Not great, but solid.

There were two ex Duke players on the floor. The one who played for OKC the first part of last season was by far the most effective ex Coach K player on the floor. He scored 12 important points with several buckets coming down the stretch run. Here’s a clue—his name isn’t Kyle Singler.

Westbrook scored 34 points on the night, but I can’t give him the No. 1 Star, nor can I give it to Carmelo Anthony who scored 25 points and helped his team improve to 7-6.  In all candor–I thought Lance Thomas and Nick Collison were the two most fundamentally sound players in the second half–so I’m setting precedent here by giving the other Duke player and Nick Collison my OkcThunderGround co-No. 1 Stars of the game.

OKC drops to 7-6, but an even more revealing 2-3 when Kevin Durant isn’t on the floor to bail them out in the final four minutes of tight games.

In watching these first thirteen Thunder games I’m coming precariously close to calling Sam Presti a chump who got his lunch money stolen by the playground bully for buying out Scott Brooks final contract year to see this type of basketball. The same mistakes. The same defensive miscues. The perimeter defense gone awol. Same things if you’re really honest with yourself as self admitted Scott Brooks and Kendrick Perkins blamers. Same damn things. Coachable things, correctable things. Especially on the defensive side.

But it’s still November and even though OKC is already six down in the loss column to the Luke Walton coached Golden State Warriors the week before Thanksgiving–I shouldn’t seethe thru a Thunder recap even if it is my own blog.

So I won’t. I’ll leave this to Jim Traber on Monday afternoon on the radio and live thru his seething vicariously.

Rick Carlisle and his streaking Dallas Mavericks at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on Sunday evening. You would think Kevin Durant will be on the floor. Better be.

Mike Jackson

 

 

 

 

 

 

Knicks in town tonight to play the OKC Thunder, but it’s already been announced Kevin Durant is not playing so he’s a scratch. Knicks enter at 6-6 and much improved from last year’s disaster season. Carmelo Anthony and Latvian rookie big man Kristaps Porzingus have anchored a Knick return to respectability under second year coach Derek Fisher.

As we’ve seen in these four games without Durant, they’ve all been struggles to varying degrees. I would expect the same to be true tonight as it should be a good game as the Thunder aspire to improve on their 7-5 mark and stay near San Antonio for the second seed in the West.

To me–it’s very simple if other players on the roster besides Westbrook and Durant cannot consistently start picking up their games, OKC will not seriously contend for the West along with the Warriors and Spurs even after Durant’s return. Period.

At the top of this list I put Ibaka, Kanter, Adams and Waiters. It’s time for these four players to show me why I have them ranked as OKC’s four best players after Westbrook and Durant. The Singler-Morrow thing is vexing, but both of those guys are specific role players with narrowed roles. Same with Andre Roberson.  But much more is needed from the foursome listed above.

Very simple axiom in team building. Here we go…your two stars have to play like elite stars. Your alpha closer has to get healthy and stay healthy. Serge Ibaka has to step up his game and leave no doubt he’s the third best player.  Backup point guard DJ Augustin has to play much better defense and give OKC something when Westbrook has to take a blow. Morrow has to make threes. Collison has to be Collison doing the dirty work. Andre Roberson has to be a better lockdown perimeter defender.

That’s ten players. That would be my rotation. Quit messing with the roles upon Durant’s return. This means Kyle Singler becomes the 11th man and a floater in sense after Durant returns to the lineup.

OKC needs to win tonight, get to 8-5 and have Durant in the lineup Sunday night against the Mavericks.

 

Behind a Russell Westbrook 43 point, 9 rebound, 8 assist night–Oklahoma City had just enough to beat a New Orleans team which only suited nine players, with one of the missing players being Anthony Davis. Final score read 110-103, but it felt more like Russell Westbrook beat the Pelicans with some help from Enes Kanter–but not much else from the rest of the Thunder.

This is just my take,  during these four games which Kevin Durant has missed–I’ve seen nothing from the rest of the roster with any consistency which would lead one to believe the team minus Westbrook and Durant is getting any better. Serge Ibaka–ostensibly the third best player on the team went 2-11 with six points on the night. I’m sorry, but that just can’t happen when one of your stars is a scratch. Almost a month into this season and other than Westbrook and Durant it’s somewhat difficult to see roles emerging with the team.

In thirty-six minutes, Russell Westbrook scored 43 points on a 14-25 shooting night, but more importantly–saved the rest of the Thunder from suffering thru an embarrassing loss which right now would rival losing to the lowly Sixers. In these four games without Durant the Thunder are 2-2. We can only thank the basketball gods two of the four were against Philly and the Pelicans.

Russell Westbrook is easily my OKCThunderGround No. 1 Star of the Game.

Enes Kanter played 31 minutes scored 24 points, grabbed 14 rebounds. No other Thunder player scored in double figures on the night.

New Orleans was led by Ryan Anderson’s 30 points. Guards Eric Gordon and Ish Smith each scored 18 points on the night.

OKC improves to 7-5, but what does that really mean? It means on certain nights either Durant or Westbrook or both have to carry the load just like they did for seven seasons of Scott Brooks. I would challenge anyone who supported the firing of Scott Brooks to single out for me steady, incremental improvement in the rest of the team twelve games into this season.

New Orleans drops to a nightmarish 1-11 for a team most picked to make the Western Conference Playoffs and maybe even win a round this season.

OKC hosts the NY Knicks on Friday at the Chesapeake Energy Arena. There’s a possibility Kevin Durant returns against the Knicks. Good thing for Russell Westbrook—he could use some help.

Mike Jackson

 

 

 

No story about the Oklahoma City Thunder would be complete without a chapter on Perk. Perhaps, the most polarizing player in the brief history of the team in OKC, yet once he came over from Boston in the Jeff Green trade and became the starting center to shore up the defense—all OKC did was win. No player in Oklahoma was scorned as much by the internet warriors and local sports radio talk than Perk. Yet–in the end, he exited with grace and class after being traded to Utah at the trade deadline last February. He’s out for 2-3 months with a pectoral injury and won’t play tonight. No story on the rise of the OKC Thunder to the NBA Finals can be complete without a Perk chapter. My son named his lab after Perk–so I’ll always have a place in my heart for both Perks. Just saying.

 

When the schedule came out this appeared to be a game with great viewing promise. OKC back in the championship hunt with a healthy Durant, the Pelicans a young team on the rise with their star Anthony Davis and new head coach Alvin Gentry. Scratch most of that tonight as New Orleans limps into the Chesapeake Energy Arena with a Western Conference worst 1-10 record and Anthony Davis suffering from a hip injury.

This is Day 7 for the evaluation of Kevin Durant’s hamstring strain, so maybe there might be some good news on that front for OKC. Otherwise—this appears to be an early season meeting of two of the league’s most exciting young teams derailed by injury to date.

Both teams coming off losses. OKC coming off a road loss to Memphis on Monday night, the Pelicans coming off a 115-98 loss to the Denver Nuggets last night. New Orleans precariously close to reliving OKC’s injury riddled past season as they close in on exceeding OKC’s 3-12 start. Adding to the surreal feel of it is Kendrick Perkins and Ish Smith now play for the Pelicans–although Perk won’t play due to a pectoral injury.

OKC enters 6-5 and very much in need of Kevin Durant’s return. The Thunder are 1-2 without Durant and even looked shaky in the win over the still winless Sixers. The same problems which have daunted OKC in the past still exist–namely overall team defense and the inability for this team to trust an offensive system which goes beyond Durant and Westbrook in the fourth period against good teams. The bench inconsistency has been an issue for OKC as well.

The internet GM’s in Thunder Nation have already deemed the Billy Donovan Era in OKC doomed eleven games in–cancel the season…sigh. Russell Westbrook and Billy Donovan have this in common—they both need Kevin Durant back in the lineup as soon as possible so the internet GM’s don’t declare the Thunder season over before Thanksgiving arrives.

Just win this game tonight against a Pelicans team which will probably be missing Anthony Davis, Tyreke Evans, Jrue Holiday (back to back medical restriction), Kendrick Perkins and possibly Omar Asik. Just win the game, improve to 7-5, take a collective deep breath, hopefully get Durant back in the lineup—and restart the process of Billy Donovan figuring out his team.

 

 

I want this blog to not only be a story of the 2015-16 Oklahoma City Thunder season, but a history of the franchise since its migration to OKC.  I do not want to bog the reader down by going through all the previous years in Seattle or a game by game account of the previous seven seasons in Oklahoma City, but rather using some of these videos to give the reader a better feel for the players, coaches and principal parties who have been instrumental in the Thunder story in OKC. Chronologically—I may jump around with these videos, but at the end of the day I hope it enriches the story of this season and why it’s so important long term to the franchise. This won’t be the last Sam Presti video, but rather the first as this season moves along.