Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Chicago Bulls 10/27/2010

[slick_watts]

Russell Westbrook / Thabo Sefolosha / Kevin Durant / Jeff Green / Nenad Krstic

VS




Derrick Rose / Keith Bogans / Luol Deng / Taj Gibson / Joakim Noah

Matchup

New look Bulls will have to wait a bit, OKC gets a bit of an opening day reprieve with Carlos Boozer out. Joakim Noah is also coming off missing the final two preseason games due to illness. I'm reading that Keith Bogans is likely to start at SG for the Bulls over Ronnie Brewer but there does not seem to be any consensus.

Last year we had some tough games against Chicago, they are a great rebounding team and played us tough defensively. This will be an excellent test for whether or not the offense will be up to snuff this season.

Derrick Rose v. Russell Westbrook is the marquee matchup here. Westbrook stole some of Rose's thunder in the FIBA Worlds, but Rose has historically owned this head to head matchup.

Luol Deng has had a fantastic preseason, this may be one of those games where Green guards the SF and Durant takes the PF (Gibson).

Some Numbers

The Thunder starting lineup played very well against NOH in the final preseason game, displaying the kind of continuity and sync that you'd expect. But the Thunder gave up a blistering 48.4% FG percentage in seven preseason games. Does this have anything to do with the now Bulls assistant Ron Adams defecting or is it just preseason malaise?

A Question

What are you most eager to see in the opener?

[BIG EDDIE]

Very nice, very nice, two more days to go.
Bulls are a tough team with or without Boozer.
They defend like hell and rebound like animals. They will however probably not score more than 90 on us, so if our offense works good this game, we should win this.

I dont agree with Green defending Deng and Durant guarding Gibson.
Gibson is more physical and Green can hold his ground against him, he is not that big of a threat and Durant can guard Deng better, as he is more of a distance shooter than post-up player.
He can defend his shots with his long arms much better than Green.

What Im eager to see in this first game, is whether I can recognize any significant differences to last years play.
Would be nice to share the ball, Westbrook coordinating well and hit 40% of our 3-pointers.

Im expecting a 20 point game from Harden here.

[Jimmy76]

Most interested in seeing Harden's role and how he plays for sure

glad Boozer is out I feel like he would abuse us otherwise

We're at home, the Bulls are banged up and usually start slow so I think we have a very good shot at this one

[cool007]

As for Bulls, I think Gibson vs Green is a TERRIBLE matchup. Gibson is a good defender but he has tough time guarding players who are perimeter oriented and who can shoot 3s. Those players give big time trouble to Gibson.

I personally would like to see Deng play PF but then who will guard Durant? Maybe we can put Brewer on him? I rather trust Deng than Brewer right now (as Brewer is just coming back from Hammy problem).

Meaning if Jeff Green is having a big game, then Bulls are in trouble. if Bulls role players come to play, I like their chances.

We shall see. 1 thing for sure, it will be so much fun to see. By the way, Westbrook/Durant and Thunder are my 2nd fav to watch. I actually root for them everytime except Bulls ofcourse.

Good Luck. Can't wait for the season to start.

[The Force.]

Bulls fan here...

I just wanted to say that Durant scares the **** out of me every time he's on the court. That is all.

[Clangus]

Looking forward to this game. Good write up SLick.

side note - we really need to get a pic of Thabo in a Thunder Uniform. The one above is still his Bulls one

[slick_watts]

Looking forward to this game. Good write up SLick.

side note - we really need to get a pic of Thabo in a Thunder Uniform. The one above is still his Bulls one

Fixed.. I was lazy and used ESPN shots from last season.

[dream_catcher_9]

game is only a day away, can't wait to watch and see who has improved and by how much.

[V for Vendetta]

I am looking forward to see the improvement of harden,ibaka and aldrich. I also want to see our frontcourt rotation.
Too bad i cant watch the game

[fallacy]

Sefolosha is kind of useless in this game. Chicago has worthless offensive SG's besides Korver (who is mostly as spot up shooter) and he could never really guard rose too well.

I hope harden gets big minutes in this one

[sonictecture]

How is this team going to continue to improve with the same starting lineup and presumed rotation as last year?

Why isn't Harden, at the very least, in the starting line up?

[wiff]

I could see Durant playing some four against the bulls. Taj Gibson isn't exactly a wrecking crew. It's not like the guy is Charles Oakley.

Looking forward to the Westbrook vs Rose match up. Also looking forward to the Rose vs Westbrook debate that will rage ferociously on these pages this coming year. Only to come to the conclusion I already know. Westbrook is better than Rose.

I expect both Westbrook and Durant to improve this season. They are both already damn good. A little improvement is one hell of a player. I see Jeff Green, Collison, Nonads and Thabo maintaining. I'm hoping Harden and Ibaka improve but you never know. I also think Cole Aldrich has a chance to be the second best big in the draft this year if you take into account defense. He should see minutes this season. No reason why he can't make an impact on this team this year.

So opening night in OKC, Durant and Westbrook just killed it in Fiba, the Bulls are without Boozer, and possibly Noah, Keith Bogans is in the "starting" line up, I like the Thunders chances.

[umfan83]

Good luck guys. I'm sure you guys will probably get revenge for beating you in OKC last year. Really excited to see if you guys can live up to the hype!

[BIG EDDIE]

So who is inactive for this game? Only Collison?

[Big_Mac79]

I'm hoping Serge has a huge game so he can start making the push for starter right off the bat

[BIG EDDIE]

[fallacy]

I like how all they did to rose for his "superpower" was to turn him mexican

[Sinant]

33 points tonight and KD hits 6000 career points.

I wonder if he knows that

[thedagger]

Huge game tonight although I wouldn't be surprised to see Durant struggle. He has always struggled the first 2 months of the season and then he starts DOMINATING in January/February. It's been that way all 3 years so far, time to see if the trend will continue.

If we win big tonight and he has a great game he will take a commanding lead in the MVP race 1 game into the season

[jc23]

All you guys must be at the game or something.