10/19 - POSTGAME | New York Knicks (84) - (105) Oklahoma City Thunder

[Bergmaniac]

If Adams plays most of the season it would be huge for you guys.

I expected to see Westbrook mostly passing in this one and that's what happened. I liked that all but one of his shots were layup attempts, not a single mid-range jumper. The more interesting question is what his approach will be in tougher games, especially on the road, that's where he usually tend to have the games where he forces too many shots.

[sleestak33]

If Russ will play like that all season (outside of the turnovers...he had 7) taking fewer shots and more high percentages ones while distributing the ball (16 assists) it will make this team pretty tough to beat. Pretty discombobulated game overall but you can see the potential Carmelo and George bring although you can also see some of the issues that have been talked about with Carmelo for years as he can be a complete black hole when he gets the ball at times. Andre "nonexistent" Roberson extended his streak this year on 3s going 0-2 (he's now 0-7 including the preseason games) and outside of Russ setting him up twice he had only 2 points in 21 minutes although I like very much that his minutes were reduced by a 1/3. If they can get him out of the starting lineup and down to about 14-16 minutes per game and make him quit shooting 3s I'll never say a word about him because that wouldn't bother me. That should be his role. That was a fun first game and looking forward to seeing more from Patterson and Felton.

[ThunderBolt]

How about Dakari Johnson, guys? I was impressed with his energy and hustle off the bench. I know it was only 3 minutes and it was against the Knicks garbage time unit, but it was a good 3 minutes.

I'm actually really excited for Dakari a ton. Very active during the garbage time, just needs to get faster.

Yeah, he needs to slim down just a bit and I think he will be fine. Hopefully, he can pull an Okafor and go vegan and lose 20 lbs and get sent to the g-league.

FIFY. Kidding. I hope he can gave give us decent minutes.

[ThunderBolt]

If Russ will play like that all season (outside of the turnovers...he had 7) taking fewer shots and more high percentages ones while distributing the ball (16 assists) it will make this team pretty tough to beat. Pretty discombobulated game overall but you can see the potential Carmelo and George bring although you can also see some of the issues that have been talked about with Carmelo for years as he can be a complete black hole when he gets the ball at times. Andre "nonexistent" Roberson extended his streak this year on 3s going 0-2 (he's now 0-7 including the preseason games) and outside of Russ setting him up twice he had only 2 points in 21 minutes although I like very much that his minutes were reduced by a 1/3. If they can get him out of the starting lineup and down to about 14-16 minutes per game and make him quit shooting 3s I'll never say a word about him because that wouldn't bother me. That should be his role. That was a fun first game and looking forward to seeing more from Patterson and Felton.

I noticed you didn’t mention Kanter. Convenient.

[slick_watts]

and outside of Russ setting him up twice he had only 2 points in 21 minutes

do assisted FGM not count in your world?

[hardenASG13]

Thought on this game

Westbrook was in complete control, as expected. Looked engaged on D, still has warp speed.

George and melo were just amazing to have out there, especially after watching last year. Melo had 1 bad stretch, where he was cold/forcing it in the first half. George was very good defensively, porzingis was a tough guard for everyone, including melo.

Abrines and patterson are still working back into shape from the looks of it.

More of the same from Roberson. Mainly a non participant offensively, him and George are amazing in tandem on D. Nice to see his minutes down some, especially since the knicks had nobody they really needed him to guard. He laughably had the second highest Ortg on the team, showing how useless that stat is. Meanwhile he had a lower Drtg than.....

Grant, who also didn't do much in about the same minutes. He's the more capable open shooter, but doesn't appear to have taken any major strides offensively to this point. Patterson will eat into his minutes at the 5, which in turn grant can eat into Robersons minutes at the 3. Don't care what Roberson is listed as, he's not a shooting guard. He will have ups and downs. Why you guys are so critical of him but hail Roberson as a god is still a mystery, particularly in the game thread for this game. He misses a shot and you guys basically celebrate. Roberson does the same and it's crickets.

Adams was great for what he's asked to do. Hopefully he can look that fresh going forward. Playing the deandre role, looked great vs. a weak defensive front court and on D.

The knicks were predictably awful. Looks like there were lots of complaints in the first half(why!?) although it was clear that there was no chance the knicks would stay with okc. Russ was happy to defer in this game, melo and pg were pressing a little in front of their new crowd. Bench is getting healthier the team didn't even play well yet still dominated.

[slick_watts]

Patterson will eat into his minutes at the 5, which in turn grant can eat into Robersons minutes at the 3. Don't care what Roberson is listed as, he's not a shooting guard. He will have ups and downs. Why you guys are so critical of him but hail Roberson as a god is still a mystery, particularly in the game thread for this game. He misses a shot and you guys basically celebrate. Roberson does the same and it's crickets.

grant actively disrupts the offense. roberson may be a non-factor, but he's not setting screens on his own teammates like grant does. re-watch the game (any game grant plays in) and watch him specifically on offense for awhile.

also, roberson is far better defensively. how can you not pick this up just from watching the games is bizarre, but it's also well agreed upon by any objective measure of defensive impact.

either abrines or grant 'eating into' roberson's minutes makes the team worse.

[hardenASG13]

Patterson will eat into his minutes at the 5, which in turn grant can eat into Robersons minutes at the 3. Don't care what Roberson is listed as, he's not a shooting guard. He will have ups and downs. Why you guys are so critical of him but hail Roberson as a god is still a mystery, particularly in the game thread for this game. He misses a shot and you guys basically celebrate. Roberson does the same and it's crickets.

grant actively disrupts the offense. roberson may be a non-factor, but he's not setting screens on his own teammates like grant does. re-watch the game (any game grant plays in) and watch him specifically on offense for awhile.

also, roberson is far better defensively. how can you not pick this up just from watching the games is bizarre, but it's also well agreed upon by any objective measure of defensive impact.

either abrines or grant 'eating into' roberson's minutes makes the team worse.

I know Roberson is far better defensively, I was just making a point about how invalid the Ortg and Drtg were for this game. I agree that Roberson does less to disrupt the offense as non participant, as grant does actually attempt to make plays. If their gonna pick 1 of the 2 to stand in the corner or cut.....grant is the superior option. Abrines is still rusty.....i know the team opened up their lead once Roberson went to the bench. This team is loaded, on both ends. Logic would say all those guys (abrines, grant, patterson,Roberson) should play as matchup, hot hands, etc. dictate, as this team is good enough and versatile enough on both ends to mix it up based on matchups and who s playing well.

[slick_watts]

I know Roberson is far better defensively, I was just making a point about how invalid the Ortg and Drtg were for this game.

what do you mean, 'invalid'? you do know that individual ORTG and DRTG on nba.com boxscores is just team points scored / allowed per 100 possessions when the player is in the game?

if you're saying that you shouldn't use single game, individual ORTG or DRTG as measures of overall aptitude... well, duh. but that doesn't make them 'invalid'. it paints a decent picture of what went on during the game.

[NetsWorld]

Definitely impressed by the first game; shot selection will come in time when chemistry improves. This team's defense is going to be top 5 at the very least. Excited and looking forward to the rest of the season. GO OKC!

[ThunderBolt]

For those that prefer grant or abrines over Robinson, this game wasn’t the one to come out swinging in behalf of Alex and Jerami. Better to just ignore it like sleek.

[RalphSampsonJr]

For those that prefer grant or abrines over Robinson, this game wasn’t the one to come out swinging in behalf of Alex and Jerami. Better to just ignore it like sleek.

Its like this game was a perfect example of what we have all been arguing about all off season.
I see the guys on the anti Robes bandwagon gloss over every important fact that happened that game.
Little to no mention of Adams AMAZING defense,
Grant got a three or two so must be wat better than Robes,
No mention of Kanter getting absolutely ruined out there,
How are we suppose to have good discussions with guys that don't wanna see the whole picture??

[ThunderBolt]

Jake Trotter said Russ didn’t play well last night. Lol, ok.

[Rotten Apple]

Jake trotted said Russ didn’t play well last night. Lol, ok.

I wonder when the overanalyze everything era started.

Russ played a great game on both ends.

[getrichordie]

For those that prefer grant or abrines over Robinson, this game wasn’t the one to come out swinging in behalf of Alex and Jerami. Better to just ignore it like sleek.

Its like this game was a perfect example of what we have all been arguing about all off season.
I see the guys on the anti Robes bandwagon gloss over every important fact that happened that game.
Little to no mention of Adams AMAZING defense,
Grant got a three or two so must be wat better than Robes,
No mention of Kanter getting absolutely ruined out there,
How are we suppose to have good discussions with guys that don't wanna see the whole picture??

I agree completely. Adams was a beast on the defensive end and very efficient on offense as well.

I know what having Roberson in the starting lineup does for our defense, the only reservation I have about Roberson is how he will affect us in the playoffs when we are playing a Houston or a Golden State or one of the better defensive teams in the league. Time will tell, I'm just worried about not having optimal spacing as we all know is huge in today's NBA.

Also, someone mentioned plus-minus above. I just want to point out that while it was against a terrible Knicks team, Grant was +14 and Abrines was +23, and again, while it was a terrible Knicks team, it was working. I think the biggest thing Grant provides is transition offense. If you are playing Grant at the 5, there aren't many other 5s who can beat him down the floor, and he does provide rim protection, he just needs to get better at not fouling, lol. But there is no question, you have to worry about Grant's shot-blocking ability when you get into the paint. I'm definitely interested to see more from this experiment.

I literally watched Kanter spin himself into a travel and a turnover. He looked like a dog chasing his tail for a moment.

Can we please talk more about how efficient Westbrook was tonight? OMG! 7 out of 12. I can't remember the last time he took that few of shots. That was really encouraging. Is there any way to see the last time Westbrook had 12 or less FGA per 36 minutes in a game?

[Bergmaniac]

Can we please talk more about how efficient Westbrook was tonight? OMG! 7 out of 12. I can't remember the last time he took that few of shots. That was really encouraging. Is there any way to see the last time Westbrook had 12 or less FGA per 36 minutes in a game?

https://www.basketball-reference.com/boxscores/201703220OKC.html

I am more interested in when was the last time he didn't shoot any jumpers insider the arc, it was all layups and one 3 point shot.

[bondom34]

They shot more 3s last night than in any game last season. Not great percentages but weird. And in the game last year they shot 37, Russ took 7. They had a 4-7 record last year when they took over 30.

[getrichordie]

They shot more 3s last night than in any game last season. Not great percentages but weird. And in the game last year they shot 37, Russ took 7. They had a 4-7 record last year when they took over 30.

That's good. We should be shooting 3s. Need to get better at them. The only way to do that is to shoot them.

[hardenASG13]

For those that prefer grant or abrines over Robinson, this game wasn’t the one to come out swinging in behalf of Alex and Jerami. Better to just ignore it like sleek.

Its like this game was a perfect example of what we have all been arguing about all off season.
I see the guys on the anti Robes bandwagon gloss over every important fact that happened that game.
Little to no mention of Adams AMAZING defense,
Grant got a three or two so must be wat better than Robes,
No mention of Kanter getting absolutely ruined out there,
How are we suppose to have good discussions with guys that don't wanna see the whole picture??

What does adams playing well have to do with roberson......at all? Adams was good, not sure who is denying it. He better be, he's locked into being a cornerstone for this team, and is being paid to be a consistent contributer.

[Pillendreher]

So here are my (delayed) thoughts:

Our offense was just straight up weird in the first half. We had no real flow, took some whack shots and were overall very discombobulated. Felt like we were playing like the Rockets, just chucking up 3s and not really attacking the basket at all. The 2nd half things got way better because we let Russ be Russ. That's what is the key to our success offensively. Both Melo and George have to give him the freedom to do his thing and feed off of him. If Russ can find this kind of balance, he's gonna average the most assists in the league.
Our defense was stellar at times. I'm loving the activity, especially in the passing lanes. If George keeps this up, we'll have the best wing defense in the league. Adams btw was awesome. Quick on his feet, contesting shots, getting steals. This is the Adams I want to see and the Adams we need.

Grant in smallball lineups was a complete failure imo. He does nothing on offense. He can't set screens. He can't pass. He can't really dribble. Just stop wasting minutes on him and trade him already. This forcing the issue with him could be the death of us in the Playoffs.