12/25 | G33: Oklahoma City Thunder at Houston Rockets - 2PM CST

[NaturalThunder]

james harden is so much better than russell westbrook in today's nba. teams figure out how to defend guards who can't shoot. d'antoni is putting harden on westbrook without a second thought. harden can lead a team of scrubs to respectability on offense while russ is struggling mightily to do anything without george in the game.

pretty crazy.

merry christmas, all! see you guys tomorrow.

You said you wouldn’t be on here

I know his comments piss a lot of people off but is he really wrong with this? I don't like harden either but hes right. I want russ to be better but hes just not. It sucks but it isn't slicks fault even if he likes ot rub it in.

He's not wrong. It's just that we're all tired of him pushing his agenda. He rags on Russ at the weirdest times. He blames things on Russ that aren't Russ' fault.

So, no, he's not wrong with his post. If I were starting an NBA team right now and had to pick between Russ and Harden, I'd pick Harden without thinking twice. He's a much more effective player. But slick just does stuff to rag on Russ when it's not necessary. He's our "franchise" player and he constantly rags on him. What other fan constantly berates and criticizes their favorite team's franchise player?

[Pillendreher]

The Rockets aren't even that bad anymore. They're 7-1 in their last 8 games. This loss isn't as bad as some might think.

Yes, it is. The Rockets are not a good team. The Brooklyn Nets just went on a 7 w streak or so. That doesn't make them a good team you can lose to without feeling bad about it. Just like against Minnesota they didn't clean up the mistakes and got burned for it. And honestly I'm sick of it. You can see that the opposing team is worse, but we find ways to turn these games into close ones by not correcting mistakes and doing the same **** over and over again.

[NaturalThunder]

41 points on 15/135 and 5/16 from three is extremely inefficient. But we still let that beat us.

And if Russ wasn't a bottom tier FT shooter now, we might still be down by one or two.

[Jstock12]

The Rockets aren't even that bad anymore. They're 7-1 in their last 8 games. This loss isn't as bad as some might think.

Yes, it is. The Rockets are not a good team. The Brooklyn Nets just went on a 7 w streak or so. That doesn't make them a good team you can lose to without feeling bad about it. Just like against Minnesota they didn't clean up the mistakes and got burned for it. And honestly I'm sick of it. You can see that the opposing team is worse, but we find ways to turn these games into close ones by not correcting mistakes and doing the same **** over and over again.

OKC is still the #2 rated defense. That's elite. They only need to improve slightly on the offensive end to really contend. With some more coaching that's very doable.

[Dadouv47]

We lost because our offense was trash and any of our star could deliver, not because Harden is a great player.

[spearsy23]

We actually lost because Steven Adams got his dick kicked in by capela. 10 offensive rebound

[Jstock12]

We lost because our offense was trash and any of our star could deliver, not because Harden is a great player.

I'd say it's a mix of both. Gotta give Harden his credit. Dude is averaging 32 points on 21 shots this season. We're watching an all-time great offensive player.

[Thundershock88]

3 games in 4 days. Not so mad about it.

[Pillendreher]

He rags on Russ at the weirdest times.

Come on man, don't be naive. It's not the "weirdest times". He's an opportunistic troll/instigator. His post frequency spikes when things go badly, yet he's silent when things are going well.

[ThunderBolt]

You said you wouldn’t be on here

I know his comments piss a lot of people off but is he really wrong with this? I don't like harden either but hes right. I want russ to be better but hes just not. It sucks but it isn't slicks fault even if he likes ot rub it in.

He's not wrong. It's just that we're all tired of him pushing his agenda. He rags on Russ at the weirdest times. He blames things on Russ that aren't Russ' fault.

So, no, he's not wrong with his post. If I were starting an NBA team right now and had to pick between Russ and Harden, I'd pick Harden without thinking twice. He's a much more effective player. But slick just does stuff to rag on Russ when it's not necessary. He's our "franchise" player and he constantly rags on him. What other fan constantly berates and criticizes their favorite team's franchise player?

I get it and hes does rub it in. That being said I don't have a problem with russ as a person and I appreciate his loyalty to the organization. His decision to re-sign with OKC and what it means for the viability of keeping a franchise in okc. As a player, even when we know he's healthy,he's so freaking maddening to watch. I don't want to spam the boards with negative comments but i still wish we had rebuilt. It's not Russ' fault that we have one shooter on the entire team. However Russ, Billy and Sam will always get a lot more blame than anyone else. I don't really care if any of the three are gone.

[Pillendreher]

The Rockets aren't even that bad anymore. They're 7-1 in their last 8 games. This loss isn't as bad as some might think.

Yes, it is. The Rockets are not a good team. The Brooklyn Nets just went on a 7 w streak or so. That doesn't make them a good team you can lose to without feeling bad about it. Just like against Minnesota they didn't clean up the mistakes and got burned for it. And honestly I'm sick of it. You can see that the opposing team is worse, but we find ways to turn these games into close ones by not correcting mistakes and doing the same **** over and over again.

OKC is still the #2 rated defense. That's elite. They only need to improve slightly on the offensive end to really contend. With some more coaching that's very doable.

What does that have to do with anything? How about putting these teams away instead of letting them back in it? They just lost a game like this two nights ago. And yet here we are again. You can't let teams hang around and then go on these weird runs of not scoring for minutes. It will bite you in the ass every single time.

[ThunderBolt]

We actually lost because Steven Adams got his dick kicked in by capela. 10 offensive rebound

I love Adams but in a lot of ways he's extremely inconsistent which is the opposite of his reputation. He'll have great games against players like Anthony Davis and then gets completely schooled by a guy like Capella or Nurkic. He also seems to fade as the year goes on.

[Jstock12]

Yes, it is. The Rockets are not a good team. The Brooklyn Nets just went on a 7 w streak or so. That doesn't make them a good team you can lose to without feeling bad about it. Just like against Minnesota they didn't clean up the mistakes and got burned for it. And honestly I'm sick of it. You can see that the opposing team is worse, but we find ways to turn these games into close ones by not correcting mistakes and doing the same **** over and over again.

OKC is still the #2 rated defense. That's elite. They only need to improve slightly on the offensive end to really contend. With some more coaching that's very doable.

What does that have to do with anything? How about putting these teams away instead of letting them back in it? They just lost a game like this two nights ago. And yet here we are again. You can't let teams hang around and then go on these weird runs of not scoring for minutes. It will bite you in the ass every single time.

That's why I say they need to improve offensively a little bit, so that these 'weird runs' don't happen. Being a #19 rated offense won't cut it.

[Dadouv47]

I know his comments piss a lot of people off but is he really wrong with this? I don't like harden either but hes right. I want russ to be better but hes just not. It sucks but it isn't slicks fault even if he likes ot rub it in.

He's not wrong. It's just that we're all tired of him pushing his agenda. He rags on Russ at the weirdest times. He blames things on Russ that aren't Russ' fault.

So, no, he's not wrong with his post. If I were starting an NBA team right now and had to pick between Russ and Harden, I'd pick Harden without thinking twice. He's a much more effective player. But slick just does stuff to rag on Russ when it's not necessary. He's our "franchise" player and he constantly rags on him. What other fan constantly berates and criticizes their favorite team's franchise player?

I get it and hes does rub it in. That being said I don't have a problem with russ as a person and I appreciate his loyalty to the organization. His decision to re-sign with OKC and what it means for the viability of keeping a franchise in okc. As a player, even when we know he's healthy,he's so freaking maddening to watch. I don't want to spam the boards with negative comments but i still wish we had rebuilt. It's not Russ' fault that we have one shooter on the entire team. However Russ, Billy and Sam will always get a lot more blame than anyone else. I don't really care if any of the three are gone.

I still prefer to have Russ, PG13 and Adams on my team.
Sam could have predicted Russ decline (if he's really declining that fast) but not Roberson's freaking injury. We would be crazy good with an healthy Roberson.

I'm so pissed at Russ this year but come on...we still have a relatively good team and that is fun to watch (most nights, not tonight obviously).

[Raijin]

We actually lost because Steven Adams got his dick kicked in by capela. 10 offensive rebound

And how many were with Steve on the floor? Or Steve switched on Harden?

EG + Capela killed the bench - that's what hurt the most.

Billy playing Nader over 2Pat? Unreal.

[Raijin]

We actually think we can win games playing, Schroder-Ferg-Diallo-Nader-Noel?

That's cute.

[ThunderBolt]

He's not wrong. It's just that we're all tired of him pushing his agenda. He rags on Russ at the weirdest times. He blames things on Russ that aren't Russ' fault.

So, no, he's not wrong with his post. If I were starting an NBA team right now and had to pick between Russ and Harden, I'd pick Harden without thinking twice. He's a much more effective player. But slick just does stuff to rag on Russ when it's not necessary. He's our "franchise" player and he constantly rags on him. What other fan constantly berates and criticizes their favorite team's franchise player?

I get it and hes does rub it in. That being said I don't have a problem with russ as a person and I appreciate his loyalty to the organization. His decision to re-sign with OKC and what it means for the viability of keeping a franchise in okc. As a player, even when we know he's healthy,he's so freaking maddening to watch. I don't want to spam the boards with negative comments but i still wish we had rebuilt. It's not Russ' fault that we have one shooter on the entire team. However Russ, Billy and Sam will always get a lot more blame than anyone else. I don't really care if any of the three are gone.

I still prefer to have Russ, PG13 and Adams on my team.
Sam could have predicted Russ decline (if he's really declining that fast) but not Roberson's freaking injury. We would be crazy good with an healthy Roberson.

I'm so pissed at Russ this year but come on...we still have a relatively good team and that is fun to watch (most nights, not tonight obviously).

I’m not criticizing anyone for that viewpoint. I just get tired of feeling like we have to overcome his play so many nights. At this point I hope we win every game this year. If and when the time comes to rebuild, I’ll not be disappointed.

[thekaoswithin]

Russ wasn't great, Adams wasn't great.

Everyone else not named Paul George was horrible.

So we lost. Hopefully Nader never sees the floor again, we'll get better with time.

[Pillendreher]

Read on Twitter

Adjust the rotation then. This is the same issue I've been harping on for years. Don't play every bad bench player at the same time. If you think playing Abdel "What the **** was Presti thinking" Nader is going to work out for you, then I'm sorry, but I can't help you.

[JustOneFix]

Presti really needs to do something with the bench. It's atrocious. Besides Schroder, no one can score to save his life. The first unit can lock down and outscore just about anyone, but the bench is just beyond terrible.

And i have no idea why is Donovan playing Paterson and Nader over Burton. Both are just useless trash. Burton at least looks like he can score some, which is exactly what you want from your bench player.