In less than a week the OKC Thunder’s young season has gone from posers back to possible Western Conference contenders with four straight wins in a span of six days. On Friday night in D.C. the soaring Thunder dismantled a Scott Brooks team which quite frankly showed little if any effort on the defensive side of the game.
The Thunder on the second night of a road back to back coasted with a stunningly easy 134-111 win over a now 1-7 Washington Wizards team. In the eleven year history of the Thunder I don’t recall a complete and total team effort as dismal as the one by the Wizards on Friday night. I’m not sure what the buyout is on Scott Brooks contract, but given the booing by the home crowd and complete lack of effort from the Wizards it doesn’t look good for a team which was supposed make the Eastern Conference playoffs.
The Thunder were excellent. They put the Wizards away and never allowed them to breathe any hope of a comeback in a win which featured a 79 point first half and a 44 point second quarter.
Shooting wise it was a stellar night for a team which is shooting challenged at times. The Thunder shot 51% from the field, 47% from three, and 81% from the line. The Thunder had 34 assists to 13 turnovers and looked like a team which ‘could’ challenge for a top four seed in the West if Russell Westbrook can maintain the style of basketball he has shown this week.
Russell Westbrook was in a phrase…Maurice Cheeks-like this game and for the entire week following the disastrous ending in the Celtics home loss. The basketball dumb three point chucking was almost completely absent from Westbrook’s game in these last two games. He did chuck one three point attempt against the Wizards in the third period, but was subbed out and never had to return into the game.
Westbrook appears to be back in game shape. The Thunder are 4-2 with Westbrook with the two home losses to Dave Joerger’s surprising Kings and the Celtics.
This is the Westbrook the Thunder need to see. The Westbrook who plays defense, who moves the ball, who gets to the rim, and who makes the team around him better and more confident. I have no idea why Russell Westbrook can’t show this player for the duration of a season. If Westbrook wants to embellish his legacy this is the player he needs to be. Don’t get me wrong, Wild Thing makes my heart sing at times, but Wild Thing also reminds me the Thunder aren’t winning anything until they learn to play and win as a team every night. The right way. And the right way always starts with team effort on defense and moving the basketball.
The rest of the team has followed Westbrook’s lead. This is not complex stuff. When the rest of the team sees Westbrook loaf on defense and take horrible shots what is it which would make them want to buy in on the notion of being a special team.
This is a star driven league, not a coach driven league. If this were a coach driven league do you think we’d be seeing this bullshit in Minnesota with Jimmy Butler or the suspense in Toronto as to what Kawhi Leonard will do at the end of this season. Other than Pop, Kerr, Stevens, and maybe still Carlisle—head coaches are secondary assets.
This isn’t Billy Donovan’s team, it’s Russell Westbrook’s team and you would think he’s tired of being viewed as a player whose game doesn’t translate to the post season when team locks down and play 48 minutes of defense.
The rest of the team is coming around. Minus Harden and Nick Collison coming off the bench in 2012 this could possibly be the best bench in the Thunder era. Schroder and Abrines are a nice bench backcourt. Nerlen Noels could actually play with the starters and I don’t think the Thunder would look much different when Westbrook is playing the right way. Hamidou Diallo is a nice player and I think Pat Patterson is a smart enough vet who will meld his game as per what the team needs off the bench on a given night.
Jerami Grant has found his game playing with the starters. I smiled when they showed his father Harvey sitting at the game Friday night. Hard to believe he was as skinny as Jerami back in ’88 when the Sooners made their magical run to the national championship game. Harvey Grant was a warrior and a member of my favorite college basketball team of all-time…those full court pressing, running Billy Tubbs ’88 Sooners. Whoo! Harvey was the inbounds pressure guy on the press and Mookie Blaylock and Dave Sieger were the scramblers. Seeing Harvey at the game made me happy. Jerami is going to be an excellent player if he just seamlessly calibrates when and when not to shoot the three. I have to admit—he’s doing better with his threes and he’s a beast when he goes to the rim.
The Thunder host the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday night in what should be a great basketball game.
Harvey ‘The General’ Grant—Harvey Grant, Mookie Blaylock, Stacy King, Dave Sieger, and Ricky Grace were OU’s starting five that season. Harvey, Mookie, and Stacy would all go on to be NBA first round picks. Dave Sieger was an electrical engineer major and I’m not sure what Rickey Grace did after college.