For some reason the Daily Thunder has prematurely released the standings in their annual Western Conference Standings Contest. I have no idea as to why. As per the norm I’ve started near the bottom third with Vegas but getting ready to start making my move in these next twenty games as the newness of the season wears on. I feel very good about my start. Like the champion Secretariat it usually takes me a bit to gain traction. Just so you Trekkies know…I’m getting ready to start high stepping.
After playing uninspired ball in Dallas on Saturday night and losing their seven game winning streak, the Thunder got back to winning with a taking care of business 118-101 win over the pitiful Phoenix Suns. The main goal in Phoenix this season is to lose enough games to challenge the Cleveland Cavaliers for the honor of being the worst team in the NBA come mid April.
Paul George decided to play the Batman role and was superb in leading the Thunder to a coast to coast easy win. PG scored 32 points, grabbed 8 boards, and had 6 assists.
Dennis Schroder or DS from this point moving forward frolicked being Robin scoring 20 points, adding 9 assists, and making 4 steals. Steven Adams scored whenever he really wanted to while adding 18 points and 7 rebounds.
Jerami Grant was solid. Terrance Ferguson played the Andre Roberson role with effective energy and was +30 on the night.
The bench was much better tonight than it was in Dallas scoring 33 points. Wild Thing Jr. was excellent with 9 points and his usual high torque energy contributions. I love Diallo. I do. He’s my kind of ball player.
Russell Westbrook missed his fourth straight game and to be honest with you it appeared the Thunder never missed him in this game against the abysmal Suns. I would just keep Westbrook out until he’s completely healthy. The Thunder play the Warriors at home on November 21st and that’s where I would want Russell Westbrook back in complete and total good health moving forward. There’s no need for him to rush back. These guys need to keep getting better without him and develop complete confidence in their own play.
The West is shaping up as the Warriors and pretty much about six or seven teams who could be the second best team in the conference. Houston is not what they were last season. So..if I’m Donovan I want the rest of my players improving to the point where when Westbrook returns he can do it with reduced usage and for the first time in a long while concentrate on being an honest two way player. That means I want Westbrook playing defense much like the rest of the team is playing defense. The Thunder have done the Oscar Roberstson thing, it’s time to become a real basketball team. Period.
The Thunder host another bad team this Wednesday night when they play the woeful New York Knicks inside the Peake.
The Thunder behind their Big Three minus Westbrook need to come out fast and take care of business.
Just your typical Bedlam game of late with OU holding on at the very end to beat O State by a 48-47 count. OU now leads the series by a 88-18-7 count, but the games of late for the most part have been very entertaining.
Mike Gundy is now 2-12 in Bedlam and would be 1-13 if not for the repunt to Tyreke Hill in 2014 which gift wrapped a win to Mike Gundy’s Cowboys. Gundy can’t beat OU–that much appears to be evident and he’s now 0-2 versus Lincoln Riley.
In all candor O State could have very well won this ballgame, but as per the norm couldn’t make a game winning play in the game’s final period. O State always seems snakebit in this series. Always.
In the game’s final period O State played with grit, but lost a costly fumble, missed a critical extra point, allowed Kennedy Brooks to run almost untouched on a long run setting up OU’s game winner, and then threw the ball into the ground on the game’s deciding moment on a two point conversion attempt. Typical stuff if you’ve watched this series as intently as I have over the years.
It appears to be a mental thing with O State because OU’s defense is pretty much awful and really can’t stop anybody who has decent quarterback play.
OU’s offense is as good as any team in the country, but that defense is to the point where you have to come to terms with the fact OU isn’t Final Four worthy. It’s not Mike Stoops, they just aren’t good enough. It is what it is.
But still it’s very entertaining to watch Kyler Murray play the quarterback position at the highest level I’ve ever witnessed in OU football history.
Consider this when you vote your Heisman vote, the kid from Alabama has a defense which stuffs every team it plays against, whereas Kyler Murray knows his team has to score nearly fifty points to beat good teams. Kyler Murray will get my first place Heisman vote, the kid from Alabama will get my second place vote, and my third place vote is still to be decided.
I’m not gnashing my teeth over these Sooners, but more enjoying their incredible offense and hoping they can make enough tackles to win the Big 12 and play in one of the better bowls excluding the playoff.
It was actually kind of boring even with Russell Westbrook sitting and it being the TNT early game of the night. The now progressive Oklahoma City crowd did the right thing and didn’t boo Carmelo even though he was vintage horrible only making one shot on the night. It was that kind of night. A night where the Thunder without their best player from last year in Westbrook and without their biggest defensive liability in Carmelo from last year coasted past a Rockets team which isn’t that good without Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute by a score of 98-80.
It was really just kind of boring.
If the NBA Executive of the Year award were to be awarded based on last night’s games then Sam Presti would have it on his office desk this morning. Presti would/could be the frontrunner if Billy Donovan can harness Russell Westbrook enough to get more defense from his star and less three point chucking when it’s not needed.
The fact Daryl Morey in Houston now has Carmelo as a Rocket and it’s not any longer Sam Presti’s problem in and of itself would qualify Presti as NBA Exec of the Year.
But enough of that.
Paul George isn’t Batman, but what he is when he brings his complete game to the arena is a very nice balanced player who ultimately could be the player to hopefully help Russell Westbrook get around this last bend in the point guard championship learning curve. Paul George was rock solid against the Rockets with 20 points, 11 rebounds, 6 assists, 6 steals and a +34. It wasn’t flashy, but it was winning basketball pure and simple.
If I could sit next to Russell Westbrook and tell him three things basketball related they would be.. 1 play defense with the same commitment as Paul George, 2 quit shooting bad threes, and 3 calibrate risk in a more sagacious manner in the last six minutes.. That’s it.
The whole Thunder team was good on Thursday. In all six players scored in double figures. Steven Adams looked like he was toying with the Rockets. Terrance Ferguson was excellent and won’t be headed to the G League as he hit 4-9 from three and was +24. Quite simply, Ferguson looked like the player we all hoped Andre Roberson could become if he ever figured out his broken shot. I don’t want to go too far with Ferguson this early, but we’re starting to see the rational behind what Presti is doing with this Thunder team. On this night Presti’s Thunder shot 9-37 from threes and yet still routed the Rockets in a game which was never close.
Here’s what Presti is doing, he’s putting a team together including Andre Roberson as the 11th or 12th guy who can all play defense when Russell Westbrook plays defense like he did at UCLA before he became a fashion icon.
Just look at the roster from a defensive standpoint and tell me who the pylon is amongst this group? There isn’t a horrible defender when Westbrook is trying. Presti has shored up the defense with the additions of Nerlens Noel and Diallo. With the addition of Noel this is the best Thunder defensive team in their eleven year existence if Roberson can come back and just play a role of any sort.
In this day of analytics you wonder if you can win it all doing it this way, but always remember this in closing, there’s a reason Ron Adams sits next to Steve Kerr on that Warriors’ bench…the reason being defense still wins championships.
With Golden State’s home blowout loss against Mike Budenholzer’s Bucks last night one should always be reminded nothing stays permanently stagnant in sports and life. Steph is getting an MRI on his groin today. Things always change.
The Thunder now have the league’s longest current winning streak at seven. The team appears to be listening to Billy Donovan. Life and basketball can sometimes be funny this way.
The Thunder in Dallas tomorrow night to play Rick Carlisle’s still struggling Mavs. If the Thunder beat Carlisle without Westbrook what does that say?
If Russell Westbrook isn’t a hundred per cent he should sit.
The Thunder have him covered.
The Warriors’ transition defense with Ron Adams. Ignore the audio. As Thunder fans we know how to ignore audio after ten years of Brian Davis.
Like with hockey, defense should seamlessly transition into offense. Defense kick starts offense. If only Russell Westbrook could become Bobby Orr.I could ascend to the basketball heavens tomorrow.
The game itself was almost unwatchable as the Thunder without Russell Westbrook held on to beat the abysmal Cleveland Cavaliers by a 95-86 count. The game would have been a complete downer if not for one thing…that thing being the sizzling play of Dennis Schroder.
OKC’s bench struggled. Patrick Patterson couldn’t hold on to the basketball and complete basketball plays. Nerlens Noel played like he was hungover. Ray Felton struggled at times looking rusty. Alex Abrines wasn’t horrible, but he was 3-12 shooting the basketball, albeit the three makes were three of the seven total three point makes for the Thunder on the night. Hamidou Diallo had a nice first half, but struggled with some bad fouls which seemed to derail his energy.
It was one of those nights when young role players struggled on the road after playing some really sharp basketball for several games. But it’s hard to blame them being the setting in Cleveland is so depressing that even the Cav players don’t really want to be there. Kyle Korver would be a nice landing spot for the three point shooting challenged Thunder who were 7-27 shooting threes on this night.
As far as the starters…Terrance Ferguson was almost unnoticeable. Jerami Grant was off and on. Steven Adams was okay and I’d give him a B-. Which brings us to Batman and Robin on this night when Russell Westbrook was not able to play because of the ankle sprain.
A funny thing happened though. Dennis Schroder emerged as Batman, while Paul George seemed content with still being Robin even with Westbrook sitting. I could care less. But it’s something I’ve noticed with Paul George since his arrival in OKC. He doesn’t seem to crave being ‘the guy’. A solid player and leader yes, but not what you describe as a player who has to be the center of attention. The almost perfect second best player on a team.
On this night it was clearly Dennis Schroder playing the Russell Westbrook role as he led the Thunder with 28 points and made the plays when the plays had to be made coming down the stretch.
This is not a game you dwell on long. It was the first night of a back to back with the Houston Rockets looming tomorrow night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena. This is clearly a game where the Thunder need both Russell Westbrook and Dennis Schroder on the floor to counter James Harden and Chris Paul. It’s one thing to disguise the absence of Westbrook versus the lowly Cavs, but something entirely different with the Rockets coming to town for the national TNT game tonight.
Carmelo Anthony returns for his first return visit to Oklahoma City since last season’s dismal ending in Salt Lake and Carmelo’s then foolish exit interview. I mean, I hope there isn’t booing though. Oklahoma City isn’t a red dirt dumb Trump city anymore. Heck these people must be reading the NY Times nowadays given they just elected Kendra Horn to Congress as their first ever Dem in the contemporary era of politics in Oklahoma. I’m guessing Kevin Durant will no longer be booed again as well when he comes back to OKC. There’s now more compassion, empathy, and smarts inside the building since it could be possible more people in the market are more aware than they were say eight years ago. Maybe there is a residual culture effect to having an NBA team. Who would have thought…Oklahoma City would emerge as a mecca of liberal diversity and thought? Who would have possibly thought this possible ten years ago? Maybe it was the Sam Anderson book? Maybe these people figure it’s time to somewhat begin to smarten up just a little since they receive 1.5 federal dollars for every dollar they pay in to the United States Treasury. Know what I mean? You need to be smart enough to at least vote in your own self interest. You’ll never ever hear Mary Fallin or Kevin Stitt give that federal dollar exchange rate in Oklahoma. Like in ever. This didn’t escape Sam Anderson as well.
Move over Seattle, San Francisco, and Denver. Here comes Oklahoma City. Just kidding. That was benevolent sarcasm.
I really never paid attention to Drew Edmondson until I walked in on his speech at Fassler’s Hall. He was a good speaker in person and I liked him. I like his wife as well. A history major no less, go figure. A very nice couple. They’re probably lucky they don’t have to spend the next four years of their lives dealing with the Oklahoma state legislature. Good luck with that.
I watched the mid-term results last night with intense interest. Not because of Donald Trump, but more curious what would happen across the country in various congressional elections which would determine the balance of power in the House.
Even though my nephews and I stumbled across a Drew Edmondson fundraiser last Tuesday at Fassler’s Hall–I knew he really didn’t have a chance because I thought outside of Oklahoma County he would get killed in Oklahoma’s rural counties which supported Donald Trump in record numbers. I knew Kevin Stitt would win because he was attached at the hip to Trump. I knew this because the very same thing happened to moderate Mick Cornett in this summer’s GOP runoff.
What we’re seeing in America with Trump isn’t really North and South. It’s not really liberals vs. conservatives, but it’s more urban versus rural. It’s one face of America which represents the realistic future demographic of the country as opposed to another face of the country going back to the 1930’s with protectionism, the lack of democratic coalitions which were formed in WWII, the Marshall Plan, and basically the lack of societal diversity.
When Trump supporters wear those stupid ball caps they embarrass themselves. They show they have no idea what America is and how it got here as the greatest diverse democracy in the history of mankind.
The thing which stunned me though was that in the congressional district in which I live…Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district, a Democrat by the name of Kendra Horn stunned GOP incumbent Steve Russell. This is the first time in my voting lifetime a Dem has won this congressional seat. Nate Silver’s website Five Thirty Eight gave Kendra Horn a 7% chance of winning yesterday morning.
Do you believe in miracles?
Holy shit! Who would have thought in this political dumpster fire shithole this could happen? This place which elected Mary Fallin…twice as their governor.
Who could have possibly seen this coming?
I owe both Russell Westbrook and Paul George an apology because I told both of them to get their sons out of this place because of this lack of diverse thought. But I was clearly wrong. You don’t have to move to Toronto or Wash Park in Denver to experience progressive thinking or fairness if you’re not white.
I just finished reading Mick Cornett’s book, The Next American City. It was a great read and one every citizen in or around Oklahoma City should take the time to read. What it made me realize is that in small pockets of urban life across this country amazing things can get done with conservatives and liberals working together to make their communities better. Tip O’Neil once said, “All politics are in fact local.” Circle that quote moving forward.
So here I sit this morning not at all concerned about Donald Trump and his Twitter account. Maybe I don’t have to move to Toronto or Denver. I sit here literally stunned, but in a good way. Who would have known Oklahoma’s 5th congressional district was the mecca of progressive thinking in America.
I had no idea my fellow Oklahomans in this district felt this way. I just assumed they were Trump zombies wearing stupid hats.
This is why our constitution and democracy are still something worth fighting for.
Kendra Horn, thanking you for reminding me of this. Thank you for fighting.
Don’t look now but all the sudden the OKC Thunder finds itself at 5-4 and ‘one’ game in the loss column out of third place in the Western Conference.
The Thunder for the fifth straight game found itself a winner this time with a nice 122-116 home win over Anthony Davis and his Pelicans. Russell Westbrook sprained his ankle with four minutes left in the third period and never returned to the game. Dennis Schroder took over and smoothly guided the team home with their fifth straight win after losing their first four games of the season.
Schroder scored a season high 22 points and Paul George led the Thunder with 23 points. Steven Adams had a nice game and Patrick Patterson injected key three point shooting just when the Thunder needed it on this night. Hamidou Diallo made two rim rocking dunks not long after Westbrook’s ankle injury doing his part to make sure the Chesapeake Energy Arena crowd still had a feel for Wild Thing after the ankle roll. Wild Thing Jr is a player and while Schroder is filling in for the injured real Wild Thing…WTJ will keep Thunder fans hearts singing. He will.
Westbrook’s ankle was x-rayed and came up negative. Who knows how long he will be out?
But two things should work for the Thunder’s favor in case Westbrook misses up to a month. One, they have Dennis Schroder to fill the void and if you look at the Thunder’s November schedule it’s relatively easy with only two games against solid playoff caliber teams…those being Houston this Thursday and at home against the Warriors on Nov. 21st or so.
Real contenders have to deal with injury situations like this. They have to adapt and keep winning games. The Warriors, the Rockets, the Celtics, and the Spurs do this with regularity.
Paul now becomes Batman, Dennis Schroder now becomes Robin. Hamidou Diallo becomes Wild Thing Jr. Raymond Felton becomes the backup point guard again. This is not complex. Suck it up and find ways to win games and become a better team for it when the real Wild Thing has a healthy left ankle once again.
The Thunder are at Cleveland on Wednesday night to play the already tanking Cavs.
Thunder fans should thank their lucky stars Dan Gilbert isn’t their owner.
See the glass half full—the Thunder become a better team long run with other guys learning how to close games without Russell Westbrook.
The Thunder are 4-4 after eight games, 4-2 if you only count games Russell Westbrook played.
Shooting. I think it’s pretty clear the Thunder aren’t one of the best shooting teams in the league. But just for my own interest I wanted to see some individual numbers after eight games played. Mainly, I wanted see the three point and free throw numbers. Both Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel have yet to attempt a three so on their numbers I went with their two point shot numbers.
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.
Very, very odd game for the Thunder in Charlotte. And yet when the dust settled and you figured the Thunder could be 2-5…they weren’t.
Consider this, as a team the Thunder shot 8-37 from three point land. More to the point if you exclude Alex Abrines from this stat, the Thunder as a team were 3-27 shooting threes. If you then exclude Dennis Schroder’s 2-6 the Thunder were a ghastly 1-21. Paul George had a horrible shooting game going 4-20 overall and 0-10 from beyond the arc. Russell Westbrook was 0-3 shooting threes and struggled up until the fourth quarter when he finally put his Rickey Vaughn cape on and stormed the mound.
Consider this as well, the Thunder had four assists as a team the first half and 16 assists in the second half when they roared back from a 19 point mid third period deficit to somehow beat the Charlotte Hornets on the road by a 111-107 count.
And in the end, when the Thunder needed their closer to come out and finish the road win…Rickey ‘Wild Thing’ Vaughn came out of Billy Donovan’s bullpen and got his coach a much needed win.
Westbrook scored 13 points in the fourth period on an array of Wild Thing dunks and breakaways, plus a couple of key mid-range jumpers. But this night was in reality the night in which Alex Abrines and Dennis Schroder scored a combined 46 points as the Thunder’s bench unit backcourt. I would assume that sets a Thunder team record for that feat in particular.
Hamidou Diallo came off the bench and did some nice things as well in scoring six points and doing a myriad of Westbrook-like athletic things.
The thing which really impressed me with these three is that as role players on the road they didn’t seem fazed at all by the situation. Usually young role players tighten up on the road and under perform. This was not the case by these three in a game in which the Thunder needed desperately to keep their season headed in the right direction.
For me, the good news is in multiples as the Thunder now sit at 3-4 and are set to play the reeling Washington Wizards tonight on the second night of a road back to back. But beyond even this at least the Thunder are watchable even with their warts and it won’t be a death march of a season. The Warriors will still win the championship, but we have Rickey Vaughn.
Russell Westbrook appears to be back in game shape after missing the preseason and the first two regular season games. Wild Thing is back with all his glory. I mean, let’s not coat this like I’m Nick Gallo or Royce Young and on the Thunder payroll per se. Russell Westbrook is Rickey “Wild Thing’ Vaughn. Period. Paul George called him the baddest motherfucker in the league in his post game comments last night…so I can’t imagine there’s anything wrong with me calling Russell….Wild Thing.
I mean, Bob Cousy and John Stockton will never be confused with Russell Westbrook. It is what it is and you have to be who you are. And if you’re Rickey Vaughn coming out of the bullpen with a 100 mph heater then that’s who you are. If you know what I mean?
But every great closer needs his starters and middle relief guys to set the table for him. And on this night in Charlotte both Alex Abrines and Dennis Schroder were superb in setting the table for Russell Westbrook’s first save of the season.