Oklahoma City Thunder @ Denver Nuggets 01/19/2011

[dream_catcher_9]

good points slick. I also think our defense has been terrible. When our 2 leaders (Durant and Westbrook) don't play any, the rest of the team follows.

what is it going to take for KD and Russ to play hard on the defensive end consistently?

[slick_watts]

good points slick. I also think our defense has been terrible. When our 2 leaders (Durant and Westbrook) don't play any, the rest of the team follows.

what is it going to take for KD and Russ to play hard on the defensive end consistently?

I don't know. I've somewhat resigned myself to the fact that this just isn't a team that's going to give the effort on defense consistently. It hasn't been for awhile.

Right now, Russ and KD are bigger than Scott Brooks. I don't think Brooks has the coaching chops to get the consistent effort defensively out of those two - and when those guys don't try on defense (especially Westbrook), it causes a trickle down effect. Russ in particular has been very bad all year on defense. KD comes and goes, but has been worse than last season. Collison is really our only player who gives a consistent effort.

Maybe another dusting in the playoffs will get the message across. I have a feeling that the expectations and praise the team earned has had an effect on their effort in terms of team play.

[cajun joe]

the team needs a proven coach. scott brooks is in over his head without ron adams. what does he do well? can't coach defense, can't coach offense, doesn't allocate minutes well. the team isn't coached well and win games because they have two of the best talents in the game. a proven coach would greatly speed up the development of the young talent imo. I would say the team is so young that they aren't mature enough to bring it on the defensive end every night, but that contradicts what happened the first half of last season. why aren't they giving the effort? however way you look at, it all comes back to coaching. they should be motivated to play defense, especially when brooks is apparently a "defense first" coach.

[MoeRoadKill]

Westbrook is the main part of the offensive struggles down the stretch of games, he cant run a offense he either looks to pass to Durant or he will shoot, not saying he is selfish but he needs to learn how to run a offense

[Devilanche]

Down the stretch of games, our offense kills us. I hate those possessions where Russ spends 15-16 seconds trying to get the ball to KD behind the 3PT line (where he's not very effective anyway), then tries to create a jumper for himself.

We're at a disadvantage against so many teams because of this. Seems like we've always got tougher shots to make at the end of games than the opponent.

I do wonder if the running down of clock is by design or Westbrook in whatever mode that is.
Westbrook can pass that's for sure but surely we have at least 5 plays that he can run rather than run down the clock. Not like a driving lane will open magically nor giving durant a contested shot a good thing. I get that giving consistent defense is hard for most players but not moving the ball is just weird. Any other team that does the same?