Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Utah Jazz 10/31/2010

[slick_watts]

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

VS




Deron Williams / Raja Bell / Andrei Kirilenko / Paul Millsap / Al Jefferson

Matchup

Every division game this year is important, even the third game of the season.

The Jazz are 0-2 and have not looked good at all. Their offense has been out of sync and the defense hasn't been there, either. Al Jefferson has zero assists in two games - Carlos Boozer had zero assists in only 9 games in the past five seasons that he played 30 minutes or more. I still think the Jazz will really miss the ball movement and overall offensive intelligence of Boozer. Jefferson's more of a pound the ball type of player who doesn't fit Sloan's style, IMO.

Deron Williams has been shoddy to start the year. He was inconsistent against us last season, with the huge OT game toward the end balancing out a clunker earlier in the year. Thabo Sefolosha will not have anyone to really guard in this game as the Jazz are weak at the SG position. AK usually does a decent job against KD. Millsap / Jefferson might give some of the smaller lineups we like to throw out there some trouble. Millsap against Green in particular might be an issue.

Some Numbers

The Thunder are shooting sub-40% from the field in the first two games. The saving grace has been the free throw line, but eventually the players will have to take good shots and make them.

A Question

Brooks has stated his rotations are 'matchup driven'. Do we see a bigger lineup against a strong Jazz front court?

[dream_catcher_9]

I hope we see a bigger lineup, Cole Aldrich comes to mind........its his birthday too so Brooks better play him.

I see us winning this game pretty easily as long as we are focused.

[fallacy]

Aldrich will play today

[HeartSouloma]

Right now the only person i'm worry about is Al taking that PF spot. Right now Green can't guard a guy like that he's 6'11 weighting over 250 pounds i think.. I rather pur Ibaka at PF spot just for now so he can guard a guy like him. As for Westbrook and Williams thats a good matchup.

[kd35sneighbor]

This will be an easy game. The Jazz have NO chemistry right now. We do.

[sonictecture]

Regarding the question. Perhaps it is a true sign of where this team is that Brooks is attempting to match up with other teams instead of forcing teams to match up to the Thunder. It seems the best teams dictate and only match up as a last resort.

If Cook hit his shots in the first two games I think Brooks would look a lot smarter for using him, but he didn't. It's disappointing that Brooks looks at Cook as a potential difference maker and sees Harden as the player that can continue to sacrifice their game as Brooks tests the theory.

I"d like to add my own question. Which Jeff Green is better, the Jeff Green who is aggressive and doesn't hesitate to shoot or the Jeff Green that becomes hesitant and passes up shots in the offense?

[BIG EDDIE]

So far Im very happy about a couple of things we have done as a TEAM and a couple of things Im quite sad.
Here some team stats incl. the rankings in the NBA so far.

Positives:

Steals 12.5 - 2nd
Blocks 7.0 - 6th
PFs 17.5 - 1st
TOs 12.0 - 2nd
FTA 45.5 - 1st
FTM 37.5 - 1st
FT% 82.4% - 8th

Negatives:

FG% 39.9% - 29th
3pt% 18.2% - 30th
Ast 16.5 - 27th


Probably what mot concerns me is the 3pt shooting. We can seem to buy a bucket from beyong the arc and Im not sure how that will improve that much, until we can set up Harden and Cook for open threes plus Durant hitting his own created ones. PLUS, Green stops taking more than 1 or 2 open threes per game.

Rebounding could also improve, but that probably will with our decreasing missed shots and also using bigger lineups with Aldrich and in future Collison.

[slick_watts]

I'd be delighted if Brooks was willing to be more flexible with the rotations, and his use of the small ball really is matchup driven. I just don't know if that's really the case.

[slick_watts]

If Cook hit his shots in the first two games I think Brooks would look a lot smarter for using him, but he didn't. It's disappointing that Brooks looks at Cook as a potential difference maker and sees Harden as the player that can continue to sacrifice their game as Brooks tests the theory.

I"d like to add my own question. Which Jeff Green is better, the Jeff Green who is aggressive and doesn't hesitate to shoot or the Jeff Green that becomes hesitant and passes up shots in the offense?

Sacrificing Harden's minutes for Cook and Green is silly. He had a great preseason and he's as young as Ibaka. Cook's not going to get better, neither is Green. Harden needs the floor time.

Green shouldn't be shooting as much as he is. His USG rate in the first two games is 24.0 and he has zero assists. He's clearly pressing for money, IMO. Can't imagine this is something that's been game planned.

[Sinant]

I'd like to see Ibaka on Jefferson for a good chunk of time tonight.

The Jazz don't have a ton of chemistry going into the game, but Al J is still a good low-post scorer, so he should be a good test for Ibaka.

[sonictecture]

Enclosed is the article where Brooks talks about Aldrich and match ups for those that missed it.

http://newsok.com/thunder-notebook-when ... le/3509651

I agree that sacrificing Harden's minutes is silly. How do fans reconcile with this? Is this a fundamental weakness of Brooks that is hurting the team or do we assume Brooks knows something we don't? Since Harden was drafted the consensus was that he was the perfect fit next to Westbrook and Durant. Harden seemed to show that he had taken a step forward this summer but Brooks keeps finding excuses not to play Harden.

I personally prefer the active Jeff Green to the passive Jeff Green. With either you can expect Brooks to play him 35 + mpg. Under those conditions I prefer he actually be active and I'll accept any mistakes made.

A key to tonight's game is Deron Williams. Rose and Stuckey have both had big games against the Thunder at the point guard position. If Deron explodes in this game he has the talent and experience to give his team a win on the road.

[HeartSouloma]

Enclosed is the article where Brooks talks about Aldrich and match ups for those that missed it.

http://newsok.com/thunder-notebook-when ... le/3509651

I agree that sacrificing Harden's minutes is silly. How do fans reconcile with this? Is this a fundamental weakness of Brooks that is hurting the team or do we assume Brooks knows something we don't? Since Harden was drafted the consensus was that he was the perfect fit next to Westbrook and Durant. Harden seemed to show that he had taken a step forward this summer but Brooks keeps finding excuses not to play Harden.

I personally prefer the active Jeff Green to the passive Jeff Green. With either you can expect Brooks to play him 35 + mpg. Under those conditions I prefer he actually be active and I'll accept any mistakes made.

A key to tonight's game is Deron Williams. Rose and Stuckey have both had big games against the Thunder at the point guard position. If Deron explodes in this game he has the talent and experience to give his team a win on the road.

Nice find. But if Brooks won't play Cole or even Harden, i would smack Brooks with a brick....

[wiff]

Just win baby! Until they lose I'm not going to bitch.

Brooks did a good job last year and we don't even have Collison yet. I'm going to give Brooks a little time to try to tinker. You don't know unless you try. Brooks isn't an idiot. If something just doesn't work I doubt he will stick with it. We are just two games into the season. If Cole hasn't played and Harden is still averaging 18minutes a game 35 games deep into the season then I will be concerned.

[slick_watts]

Watching the offense you get the sense about how poor the game planning is. So many long jumpers. Not much to the rim.

We need more motion, more shots at the rim that don’t come in transition… I know a lot of people were hoping the offense would be improved with another offseason but it really doesn’t look like all that much has changed. As disciplined as the defense tends to be, the offense leaves so much to be desired. Someone should teach these guys what a high percentage shot is.

Utah has so much movement, always looking for holes in the defense... we settle for the long two pointer far too often.

[Sinant]

A cole aldrich sighting :O

[slick_watts]

Aldrich's first 2 minutes have been more productive than Cook's 35 minutes.

[slick_watts]

Couple bonehead plays to end the quarter.

Kevin Durant three ball handling turnovers in the first quarter - zero assists. I hope this "KD the offense initiator" thing fizzles out because he is not ready to handle the ball so much, especially when we have two effective ball handling PG's (and Harden, who is better).

[jaybound]

Yeah, I think cole will be ok but I hope durant gets it together, 3 turnovers in the first quarter.

[disoblige]

COLE has arrive.

[wiff]

Who is playing with Cole? I can't find a stream.