RealGM

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

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Jose Calderon / Demar DeRozan / Sonny Weems / Amir Johnson / Andrea Bargnani

Matchup

This won't be a push over game. The Raptors are a talented team, with a bunch of young athletes that will push the ball in transition even after makes. We've seen a trend of late with teams pushing the ball to get mis-matches against the Thunder.

The most interesting matchup to me is Andrea Bargnani vs. Whoever. The Thunder have had immense, huge, gigantic problems this year with big guys who can shoot. Whether it's Matt Bonner, Kevin Love, Anthony Tolliver, Josh McRoberts, Brad Miller; it seems these guys get lost on high screens against our perimeter defense and hammer us from the outside. Bargnani plays center, so it will be Krstic's responsibility to come out and guard him. Nenad played great defense on Brook Lopez down the stretch of our last game, but Bargnani might be a little bit too rangy for Nenad so we might get a good dose of Ibaka at C in this game. The Thunder also may opt to put Jeff Green on Bargnani and have Krstic guard Amir Johnson.

Jose Calderon is crafty and is the type of PG who can frustrate Westbrook. Russ should have no problem slicing and dancing around this Raptors defense but I'd like to see him be more vigilant with keeping opposing PG's out of the paint and on the perimter.

The Raptors give up a high eFG% from the floor and foul at a decent clip. This should not be a game where our offense struggles to score, and the matchups here benefit us in that capacity. Although they are rated highly on the offense boards and average or so on the defensive boards, Reggie Evans had much to do with that and he is out with a foot injury.

Defensively, the Thunder can't get into a race with this team and allow them easy baskets in transition. Aside from Bargnani, Jose Calderon is the only other decent 3PT shooter and guys like Weems, DeRozan, etc. aren't going to beat us from the perimeter. Doing some switching on the high screens might be the thing to do here.

EDIT: Kevin Durant looks like he won't be playing again with his knee injury, so Serge Ibaka will start at PF and Jeff Green will start again at SF.

Some Numbers

The Thunder are 8-2 when missing at least one player from their regular starting lineup and 5-4 when the starters are together. Our starting lineup is also one of our worst performing lineups that we use with any regularity. Makes you wonder.

A Question

What are the odds that Russell Westbrook outrebounds Andrea Bargnani?

Is Durant playing tonight?

Sinant wrote:Is Durant playing tonight?

Listed as questionable last I checked.

Edit: Looks like he's out again.

Also, regarding your lineup question, I'm not great at finding/reading +/- numbers, but isn't Westbrook-Thabo-Durant-Ibaka-Kristic one of the better lineups?

Durant is officially out

Sinant wrote:Also, regarding your lineup question, I'm not great at finding/reading +/- numbers, but isn't Westbrook-Thabo-Durant-Ibaka-Kristic one of the better lineups?

According to 82games by far our best lineup is westbrook-sefolosha-durant-ibaka-krstic. Our second best is westbrook-harden-sefolosha-durant-ibaka

And if you were wanting to know, by far our worst lineup is westbrook-sefolosha-durant-green-collison

Don't forget about Barbosa, Bayless, Kleiza and Peja. All solid 3 point shooters.

Barbosa and Kleiza are each shooting sub-30% this year, Barbosa's 3PT% has dropped every year the last three seasons. Bayless is 31% for his career. Forgot about Peja.

HSOB SIRHC wrote:Don't forget about Barbosa, Bayless, Kleiza and Peja. All solid 3 point shooters.

Solid? no. I could give it to you if you said average

The OP said aside from Bargnani, Jose Calderon is the only other decent 3PT shooter. The players I mentioned can go off beyond the arc at anytime. Everyone knows what Peja can do and I agree, even though Kleiza shot 56% from three in the preseason, he isn't shooting well as of late. In the first 4 games Bayless has played for the Raps, he's shooting 55% from three. Barbosa... I'd say he's more than decent from three point range.

good luck tonight. I think alot of raps fans want Colangelo to build the team similar to the way OKC has.

Damn, this team was one of the healthiest last season.

Too bad that Durant is not playing, but OKC looks like a very good young team.

As well as he's played offensively I wish Russ would play that way on defense. He's been so inconsistent.

nifty pass by harden

russ falling in love with his jumper a bit when it was him vs calderon on the fastbreak he should have gone all the way to the rim

slick_watts wrote:As well as he's played offensively I wish Russ would play that way on defense. He's been so inconsistent.

yep, he gambles wayy too much.

I think you're right about the shooting bigs slick just giving bargs open looks off the pnr and screens

Typical quarter for this team. Missing layups, not passing on the break. The half court offense has looked OK but we're playing Toronto.

Getting lost on the high screens, poor communication on the rotations leads to open shots for the bigs. Amir Johnson had a couple looks and of course Bargnani.

Our defense on the high screens is dreadful. All year.

Looking forward to see how Westbrook and Bayless play each other. Still like MoPete.

If only Harden were always this aggressive. Its just a matter of time before he puts it all together, not really sure if he can in okc though.