2/9 | G55: Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets - 7:30PM CST

[Pillendreher]

ALL HAIL PAUL GEORGE

[Raijin]

What is up with Adams? I'm excited about the win. It puts us one game behind the Nuggets and four full games ahead of the Rockets.

But how does Adams play 38 minutes against the Rockets, who don't have Capela so their tallest player on the floor at any given time is 6'7", only manage 6 points and 9 rebounds?

That's inexcusable.

Inexcusable? What?

Adams just put in the best half of basketball he's played in weeks.

I don't really care about numbers when he defends like that. Sure, I would have liked him to be more aggressive with ball in hand (although we didn't really post him up much at all), but he created havoc for the Rox on both sides of the ball.

And he'd easily get 12+ rebounds if Russ didn't lead the league in uncontested boards, but that's old news.

Also, he tends to battle/struggle more against Nene than Capela. Note, Nene is actually taller than Capela (which is taller than 6'7"! ), and the Rox always match his minutes up with Steve.



He often bullies Clint, but Nene is a brute:



Anyway, bottom line is that Steve has been playing ass of late - largely defensively - so it was actually good to see him playing well against a good team.

He does need a rest, though. He plays insane minutes for a big that is asked to do what he does game in game out. He'll welcome the ASB more than most.

[Pillendreher]

Russ yells “short” and it’s long.

Which tells us something about whatever feel he has left for his jumpshot. The guy just needs to adapt to this. George goes to the bench in the 4th and Russ starts bricking. We just can't have that.

[ThunderBolt]

Shoutout to Ferguson too. Kid is playing so well.

At worst he’s a 3&D player. I hope he develops beyond that because I’m sure Presti is ready to offer the max. Watching young guys develop is my favorite part of the game.

Until very recently, like 30 games ago, you mocked, criticised, and doubted jerami grant from the day he arrived despite obvious signs of potential, as well as watchable success, that you scoffed at all along the way. He was and is a young guy.

I can probably go back and fine half a dozen times that I’ve said (to you) that grant has proved me wrong. You have such a small mans complex on your takes. Move on.

[CROklahoma]

Yes, Adams is critical in last streches.
Westbrook was brutally bad throughout his whole game.

And yet we won against Rockets who seemed like they couldnt miss from downtown.

LET ME REPEAT. THIS GUY IS BETTER THAN KD EVER WAS FOR US. CHEMISTRY, DEFENSE, OFFENSE, STEALS, ASSISTS, REBOUNDS, CLUTCH, HUSTLE, SHOOTING, PENETRATING.

There is not a single thing this guy is not elite in.
If NBA trully constructed an AI calculating MVP using advanced metrics, considering both ends of the floor, this guy would be No1 on the ladder.

[ThunderBolt]

Russ yells “short” and it’s long.

Which tells us something about whatever feel he has left for his jumpshot. The guy just needs to adapt to this. George goes to the bench in the 4th and Russ starts bricking. We just can't have that.

He tells Lisa Saunders in the post game interview that he impacts the game in other ways besides his shooting. Actually russ, your shooting is having a pretty big impact and if you realized that then you would stop.

[Pillendreher]

Russ yells “short” and it’s long.

Which tells us something about whatever feel he has left for his jumpshot. The guy just needs to adapt to this. George goes to the bench in the 4th and Russ starts bricking. We just can't have that.

He tells Lisa Saunders in the post game interview that he impacts the game in other ways besides his shooting. Actually russ, your shooting is having a pretty big impact and if you realized that then you would stop.

He can't offset using 1/3 of all possessions and not even scoring a point per possession on them.

[spearsy23]

Which tells us something about whatever feel he has left for his jumpshot. The guy just needs to adapt to this. George goes to the bench in the 4th and Russ starts bricking. We just can't have that.

He tells Lisa Saunders in the post game interview that he impacts the game in other ways besides his shooting. Actually russ, your shooting is having a pretty big impact and if you realized that then you would stop.

He can't offset using 1/3 of all possessions and not even scoring a point per possession on them.

The results disagree

[Pillendreher]

Per stats.nba.com tracking data:

When Paul George was deemed the defensive matchup for Harden (39 possessions), Harden went 2/9 from the field for 10 points, had 1 assist to 4 turnovers and the Rockets scored 37 points, ie they didn't even crack a bottom 5 ORtG as a team when George guarded Harden.

[spearsy23]

Assuming Ferguson kept his recent offensive output up where would be rank among starting shooting guards? At least top half, right?

[Pillendreher]

He tells Lisa Saunders in the post game interview that he impacts the game in other ways besides his shooting. Actually russ, your shooting is having a pretty big impact and if you realized that then you would stop.

He can't offset using 1/3 of all possessions and not even scoring a point per possession on them.

The results disagree

They actually don't. We'd be a much, much better team if Russ wasn't this trash on offense. Look at it this way (per pbpstats.com): On the season, the Thunder score 111.3 points per 100 possessions. Westbrook has finished (FGA, FTA, turnover) 1104 of the Thunder's 5692 offensive possessions. Those 1104 possessions have lead to 998 points, ie 90.4 pp100p. Which means that the Thunder have scored 116.4 pp100p every time Westbrook did not finish the possession.

If Westbrook had finished his possessions with an efficiency resembling his historic numbers (which were around 105 pp100p iirc), the Thunder's offense would improve by 2.8 pp100p. That would put us at a +8.0 NetRtG, the 2nd best in Thunder history.

George turning into the best wing in the league is masking a lot of struggles. They're still there.

[sleestak33]

I've been watching all of these recent games over this stretch that Ferguson has suddenly started to play really well out of nowhere to see if it's a fluke and from all appearances it looks as though he's flipped some sort of switch and is really contributing offensively in the way that this team needs their starting shooting guard to in order for them to have a chance to compete with the elite teams. I am more than happy to admit I was wrong about Ferguson and I'm on board with this kid now 100%. I still would rather have Jeremy Lamb who clearly was the better choice over Roberson but they can't change that mistake now so it is what it is. This team really has a solid roster now and all the pieces fit really well unlike last year. The only change I would make is to completely take Patterson out of the rotation and give all of his minutes to Nader. Just a great win against a really good Houston team and watching this team play is almost as much fun as watching them when they had Harden, KD and Westbrook. They are really coming together nicely...just need to get Westbrook hitting his jumpers once the playoffs start.

[ThunderBolt]

Assuming Ferguson kept his recent offensive output up where would be rank among starting shooting guards? At least top half, right?

I would think so. It's hard for me to rank players based on ability and not factor in their contracts.

I don't know why but despite the results I still feel like his shot is weird. Ultimately, that doesn't matter. Reggie Miller had weird form too.

[ThunderBolt]

Read on Twitter

[JustOneFix]

Insane game.Great effort, but to be honest, they would have killed us if it wasn't for Harden injurie.

Glad to see Burton getting some time.

[spearsy23]

Assuming Ferguson kept his recent offensive output up where would be rank among starting shooting guards? At least top half, right?

I would think so. It's hard for me to rank players based on ability and not factor in their contracts.

I don't know why but despite the results I still feel like his shot is weird. Ultimately, that doesn't matter. Reggie Miller had weird form too.

For me it's his legs, sometimes it looks like he's straddling a horse when he jumps

[spearsy23]

He can't offset using 1/3 of all possessions and not even scoring a point per possession on them.

The results disagree

They actually don't. We'd be a much, much better team if Russ wasn't this trash on offense. Look at it this way (per pbpstats.com): On the season, the Thunder score 111.3 points per 100 possessions. Westbrook has finished (FGA, FTA, turnover) 1104 of the Thunder's 5692 offensive possessions. Those 1104 possessions have lead to 998 points, ie 90.4 pp100p. Which means that the Thunder have scored 116.4 pp100p every time Westbrook did not finish the possession.

If Westbrook had finished his possessions with an efficiency resembling his historic numbers (which were around 105 pp100p iirc), the Thunder's offense would improve by 2.8 pp100p. That would put us at a +8.0 NetRtG, the 2nd best in Thunder history.

George turning into the best wing in the league is masking a lot of struggles. They're still there.

If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bike.

Also, you literally just posted 'if he made more shots we'd make more shots.'

[Pillendreher]

The results disagree

They actually don't. We'd be a much, much better team if Russ wasn't this trash on offense. Look at it this way (per pbpstats.com): On the season, the Thunder score 111.3 points per 100 possessions. Westbrook has finished (FGA, FTA, turnover) 1104 of the Thunder's 5692 offensive possessions. Those 1104 possessions have lead to 998 points, ie 90.4 pp100p. Which means that the Thunder have scored 116.4 pp100p every time Westbrook did not finish the possession.

If Westbrook had finished his possessions with an efficiency resembling his historic numbers (which were around 105 pp100p iirc), the Thunder's offense would improve by 2.8 pp100p. That would put us at a +8.0 NetRtG, the 2nd best in Thunder history.

George turning into the best wing in the league is masking a lot of struggles. They're still there.

If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bike.

Also, you literally just posted 'if he made more shots we'd make more shots.'

And isn't that true? What's your counter to that? That we've been winning games despite him having one of the worst volume shooting seasons in league history? That doesn't make the shooting struggles disappear.

[spearsy23]

They actually don't. We'd be a much, much better team if Russ wasn't this trash on offense. Look at it this way (per pbpstats.com): On the season, the Thunder score 111.3 points per 100 possessions. Westbrook has finished (FGA, FTA, turnover) 1104 of the Thunder's 5692 offensive possessions. Those 1104 possessions have lead to 998 points, ie 90.4 pp100p. Which means that the Thunder have scored 116.4 pp100p every time Westbrook did not finish the possession.

If Westbrook had finished his possessions with an efficiency resembling his historic numbers (which were around 105 pp100p iirc), the Thunder's offense would improve by 2.8 pp100p. That would put us at a +8.0 NetRtG, the 2nd best in Thunder history.

George turning into the best wing in the league is masking a lot of struggles. They're still there.

If my grandmother had wheels she'd be a bike.

Also, you literally just posted 'if he made more shots we'd make more shots.'

And isn't that true? What's your counter to that? That we've been winning games despite him having one of the worst volume shooting seasons in league history? That doesn't make the shooting struggles disappear.

If Steven Adams dropped 30 per game we'd score more points too. You said Russ can't offset his efficiency/usage combo, but he has, we're winning games and performing like one of the best teams in the league. The offense has even been good over the last several games, so unless you're countering that Russ has nothing to do with it he's obviously been able to offset it.

If you mean 'this team would be better if Westbrook was making shots' the answer is 'duh.'

[ThunderBolt]

Assuming Ferguson kept his recent offensive output up where would be rank among starting shooting guards? At least top half, right?

I would think so. It's hard for me to rank players based on ability and not factor in their contracts.

I don't know why but despite the results I still feel like his shot is weird. Ultimately, that doesn't matter. Reggie Miller had weird form too.

For me it's his legs, sometimes it looks like he's straddling a horse when he jumps

Its interesting that he manages to look like he's straddling a horse when he jumps but his legs look like a baby horse when he runs.