Oklahoma City Thunder vs Phoenix Sun 12/19/10

[fallacy]

Russell Wesbrook - 23.2p/8.5a/5.1r
Thabo Sefolosha - 6.4p/1.6a/5.5r
Kevin Durant - 27.4p/3.0a/6.7r
Jeff Green - 17.3p/1.9a/6.5r
Serge Ibaka - 10.5p/6.6r/2.4b

Versus




Steve Nash - 17.5p/10.2a/3.4r
Josh Childress - 5.3p/.9a/3.0r
Grant Hill - 14.2p/2.3a/4.7r
Channing Frye - 11.2p/6.2r/1.4b
Robin Lopez - 6p/4.7r/1.0b


The suns will not have Hedo Turkoglu, Jason Richardson, Earl Clark, Vince Carter, Marcin Gortat, or Mickael Pietrus for tonight's game due to a recent trade. Steve Nash suffered what looked like a horrific back injury in the first quarter of the Sun's last game. All reports to this point have him starting the game. I don't know how he feel or what percentage he can go at.

Nenad Krstic is reported to be out for this game as well but of course that could change by game time. Kevin Durant shouldn't be stopped by Grant Hill tonight but needs to stay close to him on the defensive end, he's going to be their go-to guy tonight. Jeff Green gets his time of matchup with a PF that likes to sit around the perimeter and shoot jump shots. Lopez should be tough inside but so far he has had a very bad year.

OKC is 5-0 in their last five games, 19-8 overall, 10-4 at home
PHX is 1-4 in their last five games, 12-13 overall, 5-8 on the road

PHX has the number one offensive team in the league but has the second worst defense and is the fourth worst rebounding team. We should be able to score often and should be able to win by 10+ if we can hold the boards

Matchup of the Night - Westbrook vs Nash. If Westbrook can contain Nash the Suns don't have anyone else on their team to create shots.

[dream_catcher_9]

As long as we take this game seriously we will win. This team is young so you really don't know what to expect each and every game.

[BIG EDDIE]

Even if Nash is playing and is 100%, even then we should be able to blow them out tonight.
No Richardson, no Turkoglu...they dont have anyone who can score 20-25 points and they are not that good on D eiher. I expect Westbrook to penetrate all night long and look for a strong finish or a good dish.
Also, I think Ibaka should be able to clean up the glasses on both ends.
Really looking for a blowout here.
117-91

[sunsfever68]

Two safest bets in sports today:

Patriots -13 1/2 against Green Bay (no Rodgers)
Thunder -9 against Suns (no Hedo No Richardson no Clark)


Need a couple hundred dollars for Christmas shopping haha

[slick_watts]

Thanks for the game thread!

Nash is gonna play so it's no gimme. Hopefully we can get some rest for the starters before the short road trip coming up.

[grumpysaddle]

Suns fan here. Tonight should get ugly. Hoping I'm wrong... but I'd love to be in your guys' shoes right now.

Also, Warrick/Frye are capable of putting up 20-30 any given night... Frye, if his 3 is falling/Warrick if he's beasting on the PnR.

Dragic is also capable of having insane games here and there. Anyway... I'd wish you good luck, but you don't need it.

[Cutter]

Suns fan here.

I'm gonna watch Jeff Green closley tonight. He's a restricted free agent end of this season and I like him a lot. I know he plays PF for OKC, but I think he is a more natural SF. He would be awsome for the Suns in that position, but we'll see if Suns FO are interested later this year.

Thunder fans: is he considered core? I hear that he is at times but to me Thunder core are Durant and Westbrook. How open to trade of Green is OKC?

Oh yeah....Suns +2.

[slick_watts]

Jeff Green is the polarizing figure on this team. It's obvious to most Thunder fans now that he's not starting PF material, but he's a great locker room guy and does a lot of the little things.

Some will say he's core, others won't. He wasn't extended, and the sides were 'far apart', and that's about all we really have to go on. I don't think there's anything on the Suns roster they would give up for us to trade Jeff Green, though.

[fallacy]

Suns fan here.

I'm gonna watch Jeff Green closley tonight. He's a restricted free agent end of this season and I like him a lot. I know he plays PF for OKC, but I think he is a more natural SF. He would be awsome for the Suns in that position, but we'll see if Suns FO are interested later this year.

Thunder fans: is he considered core? I hear that he is at times but to me Thunder core are Durant and Westbrook. How open to trade of Green is OKC?

Oh yeah....Suns +2.

As much as the media projects him as one of our big 3, he's not really a part of it. He doesn't have a real position here in OKC because he's not a PF. He is clutch as hell and when the game is on the line i trust him more than westbrook or durant taking the last shot, but him being awesome in the last two minutes doesn't make up for being a below average PF for the first 46.

If he were to stay as a 6th man i would LOVE for him to stay. As a starter, i couldn't advise it here in OKC. He will be a top ten SF in the league if he gets on a decent team and with nash in PHX, he would be really good there. I'm going to hate the day when he leaves because he does so many awesome things but he just can't be a starter here.

In terms of the most valuable players to OKC it would go

Durant
Westbrook
Ibaka (those are our "big three")
Harden
Green
Sefolosha
Aldrich
Maynor
then so on

[Cutter]

Jeff Green is the polarizing figure on this team. It's obvious to most Thunder fans now that he's not starting PF material, but he's a great locker room guy and does a lot of the little things.

Some will say he's core, others won't. He wasn't extended, and the sides were 'far apart', and that's about all we really have to go on. I don't think there's anything on the Suns roster they would give up for us to trade Jeff Green, though.

I would only be interseted in him as a SF (although he's better than any of our current PF unfortunately). I know he is a RFA with a $5.9million qualifying offer. Not sure how much OKC or Suns would value him. Suns have however paid 6m per year for Channing Frye and close to that for Josh Childress. So I can see them opening the wallet some for Green.

Also sounds like he is a high character player which the Suns value a lot.

[slick_watts]

Green's value around the league is probably perceived as higher than it really is and he's got David Falk as his agent. They'll probably try to use the deal LaMarcus Aldridge got as a baseline for negotiations (i.e. "young starting PF, playing high minutes), I could see Green getting up to 5/50 on the open market unless he bombs in the playoffs again.

[fallacy]

Green's value around the league is probably perceived as higher than it really is and he's got David Falk as his agent. They'll probably try to use the deal LaMarcus Aldridge got as a baseline for negotiations (i.e. "young starting PF, playing high minutes), I could see Green getting up to 5/50 on the open market unless he bombs in the playoffs again.

Also, if he goes off in the playoffs this year we might be compelled to keep him.

He is having the best season of his career this year

[slick_watts]

It's a great idea to switch screens on Steve Nash and leave help off Channing Frye in the corner.

What a hilarious start.

[Sinant]

It's all isos on offense

[slick_watts]

It's all isos on offense

Shooting 23.5% against the Suns.

How many threes is Jeff Green going to miss before he makes one this game? Seven? Eight?

[Sinant]

It's all isos on offense

Shooting 23.5% against the Suns.

How many threes is Jeff Green going to miss before he makes one this game? Seven? Eight?

The Suns also have twice as many rebounds. Lol.

[Trip]

Collison is playing pretty well so far.

[slick_watts]

Still shooting under 30% again the Suns! Suns are dead last in opponent shooting efficiency.

The offense had been playing much better, this is probably the worst shooting game of the season so far considering who we are playing. Eric Maynor looked like he had never seen a zone defense in his life.

[slick_watts]

Russell Westbrook with an absolute stinker. He's been awful.

[wiff]

The offense has just been gross.