11/5 - POSTGAME | Oklahoma City Thunder (99) - (103) Portland Trail Blazers

[M2J]

Really disappointing past 2 games. Referees have been awful, but they just can't close out and there have been bad rotation decisions.

But all in all, except with Utah, they've competed to the end be tougher teams, and blown out bad teams. Signs are there, decisions have to get better. Finding better shots, making hustle plays, taking care of the ball. Guess you've gotta take the good with the bad, but if only that defense was sharper.

Still gotta think it will come together, but the big concern I have right now is Russell's play. He's not finishing well, he's the defensive liability, and decisions are bad. Even if he's good in terms of turnovers, the shots he was taking were the next worst thing to one.

[bondom34]

I for one, am not as optimistic of much right now. I don't see things magically clicking. Don't know what would cause it.

[getrichordie]

Westbrook isn't healthy. Don't care what anyone says. Tough loss, and I nearly got in a fight. Blazers fans are the worst.

What makes you say that? I didn’t get to watch the game, but did someone say something about his knees?


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[bondom34]

Small sample, but offense was better last year.

[bondom34]

Oh and yeah even though didn't see this one, Russ has been awful this year overall by his standards.

[Thundershock88]

Westbrook isn't healthy. Don't care what anyone says. Tough loss, and I nearly got in a fight. Blazers fans are the worst.

What makes you say that? I didn’t get to watch the game, but did someone say something about his knees?


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Dude is missing layups and free throws. He's not even dunking. There's something wrong.

[M2J]

I for one, am not as optimistic of much right now. I don't see things magically clicking. Don't know what would cause it.

Consistency. The defense has been one of the best overall in the league. They have to not allow the defensive mismatches consistently through the game, but most importantly not in key stretches of the game where a stop is NEEDED

Making key baskets, or not turning it over in key stretches, or the league MVP missing 3 Key fts, and the fact that he has shot 60% from the line this season &he has the ball in his hands down the stretch. A career 82% shooter. Crazy. 3pt line rule be damned.

[bondom34]

I for one, am not as optimistic of much right now. I don't see things magically clicking. Don't know what would cause it.

Consistency. The defense has been one of the best overall in the league. They have to not allow the defensive mismatches consistently through the game, but most importantly not in key stretches of the game where a stop is NEEDED

Making key baskets, or not turning it over in key stretches, or the league MVP missing 3 Key fts, and the fact that he has shot 60% from the line this season &he has the ball in his hands down the stretch. A career 82% shooter. Crazy. 3pt line rule be damned.

I actually don't remember them being consistent for a year since 2013.

[M2J]

Westbrook isn't healthy. Don't care what anyone says. Tough loss, and I nearly got in a fight. Blazers fans are the worst.

What makes you say that? I didn’t get to watch the game, but did someone say something about his knees?


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Dude is missing layups and free throws. He's not even dunking. There's something wrong.

He's almost 30 he will continue to decline athletically. Time for his effectiveness to show in his decision making too & his experience

[Pillendreher]

Katz saying the guys are BIG MAD right now in the locker room. Most animated he's seen them. Mad about officiating in general, especially the Melo ejection. Donovan real POed.

Probably get some fines.

They should be mad at their own pathetic effort. If they had thrown out Russ as well, we might have won this game.

[Pillendreher]

This whole ejection thing is just overshadowing how terrible both Westbrook and Anthony played. Donovan should have benched both of their asses to start the 3rd.

We gave up at least 30 points to Portland because Westbrook did not bother to give a single **** about defending his man. He just switched and stopped moving.
Anthony meanwhile is not moving on defense either. Just like Russ, he's mostly standing around and trying to get easy buckets by just swiping at guys.

And it's not just those two guys. **** Donovan for letting that **** go. Your defensive strategy against such an explosive guard duo is making Steven Adams your main defender on them? Are you **** kidding me?

We're throwing games away because both Russ and our coach are going full (Please Use More Appropriate Word). The franchise should be renamed in 'Oklahoma City Wasted Talent'.

[Thundershock88]

What makes you say that? I didn’t get to watch the game, but did someone say something about his knees?


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Dude is missing layups and free throws. He's not even dunking. There's something wrong.

He's almost 30 he will continue to decline athletically. Time for his effectiveness to show in his decision making too & his experience

Not that fast. Not in 1 season. Dude was the best in the league just a few months ago.

[Pillendreher]

Whose idea was this? You can trap Lillard, but not like this. This is **** insanity. And we did that with McCollum as well. All. Night. Long.

Insanity.



I could probably go through every made 3 by Portland and find stuff like this. This is not gonna cut it, not in the slightest. They talk about challenging the Warriors. We would lose by 70 with this kind of effort.

[Dadouv47]

I for one, am not as optimistic of much right now. I don't see things magically clicking. Don't know what would cause it.

Had the same thought but if WB and PG13 start to play well, it would make a HUGE difference.

[Dadouv47]

Whose idea was this? You can trap Lillard, but not like this. This is **** insanity. And we did that with McCollum as well. All. Night. Long.

Insanity.



I could probably go through every made 3 by Portland and find stuff like this. This is not gonna cut it, not in the slightest. They talk about challenging the Warriors. We would lose by 70 with this kind of effort.

The last play u showed wasn't THAT bad. Portland was getting any bucket they wanted from the paint. Lilard was able to drive too easily and Nurkic was able to get any easy bucket he wanted. We finally made some adjustments defending in the paint.

Tbh we played better defense (and offense) in the end of this game. But we were pathetic for more than 3 quarters.

[Pillendreher]

The last play u showed wasn't THAT bad. Portland was getting any bucket they wanted from the paint.

Of course it was. McCollum was the only shooter on the floor Lillard could pass too. You had Nurkic and Harkless in the paint and Turner in the corner. The only shooter we had to guard was McCollum. And instead of sticking with his man, Russ runs to the basket to grab the defensive rebound. We had 4 guys in the paint and gave up the open 3 because we left the one guy we should contain completely unguarded. Force a tough shot there, grab the defensive rebound try to tie the game. We could have scored on the other end, but because Russ didn't stick with his man, it became a 5/6 point turnaround.

[ThunderBolt]

Well then, after seeing the comments after the game we're either going to start getting some of the calls or their about to kill us even more

I would much rather hear them talking about what they can do to improve. Who cares if Russ gets the call or not when he can’t even hit free throws?

[sleestak33]

Another complete domination of our 100 million dollar man Adams (4 points, 4 rebounds) by Nurkic (25/8) and I promise you won't hear a peep of criticism from anybody on here or in the media. For an "excellent" defender he sure gives up a ton of points. Patterson, Abrines and Roberson combined to play 59 minutes and had only 5 points. It's going to be very difficult to win games against the better teams when you have 3 wing players who are providing basically nothing offensively, especially considering OKC is still running an iso offense on the perimeter. Patterson has been a disaster so far and he needs to pick his game up quick. I can only imagine what this team would look like if he was starting and they were saying that's what they were going to do had they not gotten Carmelo. They've got a long way to go.

[Pillendreher]

Well then, after seeing the comments after the game we're either going to start getting some of the calls or their about to kill us even more

I would much rather hear them talking about what they can do to improve. Who cares if Russ gets the call or not when he can’t even hit free throws?

The FT Line has been a huge problem for us so far, sure. We're 26th in FTr (our FTr would currently rank 51/51 in the shared Thunder/Sonics history) and 25th in OppFTr. If both stats don't improve, we're in for our worst season in that regard since moving to Oklahoma City.

But on the other hand, you're certainly right: This should not overshadow our play in losses. In the 5 losses so far, this is our performance with our 'Big 3' on the court:

101.8 ORtG
118.1 DRtG
-16.3 NetRtG

We have basically been blown out with our best players on the floor. The only reason we kept those games (remotely) close has been our bench. With our Big 3 on the court, we're -35. With Russ on the bench (aka the bench lineup playing), we're +46 in those games. In 57 minutes of time, the bench has been able to make up for the damage our Big 3 did on the court in 114 minutes. If the bench's output had just been 'neutral' (which would still have been decent enough given what we were dealing with last season), we would have lost each and every single one of those games by 15+ points.

So yeah. In addition to the (justified) bitching about the refs, I want to hear them talk about the fact that they're still not rebounding the ball. I want to hear them talk about how they're not bringing energy to the court. I want to hear them talk about how Russ and Melo expect to win games if they don't give a damn on the defensive end. I want to hear them talk about how nobody will gift us wins and that they're ready to put in the work for them.

[Kinglee]

It’s simple as this... It’s not Russ “health”, he looks fine athletically and seems to be in full throttle. The problem is he just isn’t playing like he was last season. George is an upgrade and though he hasn’t been great, he’s been solid. Melo has been solid. Adams has been solid. Felton has been solid. Westbrook has been terrible. Numbers don’t matter. His shot selection, his defense, his basketball IQ... everything about how he’s playing been terrible. To many times he take shots where you say “you don’t need that shot” or a pass where you say “why did you do that?” He goes into this hero mode or whatever you want to call it, where this team doesn’t require him to do that. He has talent around him, ADJUST YOUR GAME, stop playing the same way.

This team is going to be fine though.