Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Utah Jazz 03/23/2011

Post #1 » by **slick_watts** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 10:08 pm

It's about time to get the taste of the Raptors game out of our mouths. I expect the team to come out strong.

Lava Rock Kid · Post #2 » by **Lava Rock Kid** » Wed Mar 23, 2011 11:21 pm

2 months ago, you all were trying to catch utah in the standings. My how things change.

Ok should easily win this one. I am rooting for you guys to win it all.

Post #3 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:31 am

The offense with Thabo in with these starters is dreadful. Why isolate KD behind the three point line with Westbrook and Thabo 'spacing' the floor? Yeah, that'll end well...

Defense has been stupid, too. Thabo helps off twice, Russ over helps.

When you think this team is turning a corner (Miami game) in terms of execution and playing smart, you get the last two games.

Jimmy76 · Post #4 » by **Jimmy76** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:33 am

so how did harden get so much better at finishing or is it just me

Post #5 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:38 am

Jimmy76 wrote:so how did harden get so much better at finishing or is it just me

His shot selection has been better in my opinion, and he's taking his time...

Krodis · Post #6 » by **Krodis** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:42 am

For all of slick's complaining, we're scoring at an absurdly efficient rate and our defense is shutting down everything but the 3 point shot.

Post #7 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:46 am

Krodis wrote:For all of slick's complaining, we're scoring at an absurdly efficient rate and our defense is shutting down everything but the 3 point shot.

Giving up open threes is one of the worst things you can do defensively...

Krodis · Post #8 » by **Krodis** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:49 am

slick_watts wrote:
Krodis wrote:For all of slick's complaining, we're scoring at an absurdly efficient rate and our defense is shutting down everything but the 3 point shot.

Giving up open threes is one of the worst things you can do defensively...

Where did I say it wasn't? They still have less points than they do possessions. I'm just saying, I'll take up 8 through 15 minutes 100% of the time.

Post #9 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 12:56 am

Krodis wrote:
slick_watts wrote:
Krodis wrote:For all of slick's complaining, we're scoring at an absurdly efficient rate and our defense is shutting down everything but the 3 point shot.

Giving up open threes is one of the worst things you can do defensively...

Where did I say it wasn't? They still have less points than they do possessions. I'm just saying, I'll take up 8 through 15 minutes 100% of the time.

Jazz with 53%+ eFG, that's bad defense, sorry.

This game and the last one have been poor efforts from a team that just doesn't seem to know what it's doing all of a sudden.

dream_catcher_9 · Post #10 » by **dream_catcher_9** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:00 am

Ibaka doing work.

Sinant · Post #11 » by **Sinant** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:19 am

Durant has 3x the FTA as he does FGA?

How o_O

Devilanche · Post #12 » by **Devilanche** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:20 am

I guess the team is still making adjustment on defense. I can live with that so log as we have ball movement on offense.

I'm loving how well ibaka is rebounding.

HeartSouloma · Post #13 » by **HeartSouloma** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:37 am

Ibaka 15/13/4

I was right!

fallacy · Post #14 » by **fallacy** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:54 am

Just got back from the game

I hate when Westbrook goes into "rose" mode. 31 points, 5 asts, 4 rebs is nice but I'd much rather him have 20 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds. Of course 11-17 is far from a normal rose game of 11-24, but still the same concept

Of defense was excellent on everyone but Jefferson. Perk had a bad game tonight, missed two easy layups and played badly against Al.

Durant was efficient as **** again. 29 points on 12 shots?!?!?

Westbrook has lost respect from the refs. Watching him up close, he gets fouled almost everytime he drives the ball and never gets calls anymore. I don't know what's up with the damn refs

PS. Durant is absolutely unstoppable when he drives or posts up. He just has too much size and way too many post moves.

dream_catcher_9 · Post #15 » by **dream_catcher_9** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:01 am

fallacy wrote:Just got back from the game

I hate when Westbrook goes into "rose" mode. 31 points, 5 asts, 4 rebs is nice but I'd much rather him have 20 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds. Of course 11-17 is far from a normal rose game of 11-24, but still the same concept

Of defense was excellent on everyone but Jefferson. Perk had a bad game tonight, missed two easy layups and played badly against Al.

Durant was efficient as **** again. 29 points on 12 shots?!?!?

Westbrook has lost respect from the refs. Watching him up close, he gets fouled almost everytime he drives the ball and never gets calls anymore. I don't know what's up with the damn refs

PS. Durant is absolutely unstoppable when he drives or posts up. He just has too much size and way too many post moves.

I agree, I noticed Durant looked pissed that Russ didn't pass to him a couple of times. I have noticed this for awhile, but Durant has bad body language too often, and I wonder if it has to do with Westbrook freezing him out.

Also the reason Russ has lost respect is that he is arguing with the refs after every drive. He needs to forget it and hustle down the court on defense.

fallacy · Post #16 » by **fallacy** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:13 am

dream_catcher_9 wrote:
fallacy wrote:Just got back from the game

I hate when Westbrook goes into "rose" mode. 31 points, 5 asts, 4 rebs is nice but I'd much rather him have 20 points, 10 assists, 5 rebounds. Of course 11-17 is far from a normal rose game of 11-24, but still the same concept

Of defense was excellent on everyone but Jefferson. Perk had a bad game tonight, missed two easy layups and played badly against Al.

Durant was efficient as **** again. 29 points on 12 shots?!?!?

Westbrook has lost respect from the refs. Watching him up close, he gets fouled almost everytime he drives the ball and never gets calls anymore. I don't know what's up with the damn refs

PS. Durant is absolutely unstoppable when he drives or posts up. He just has too much size and way too many post moves.

I agree, I noticed Durant looked pissed that Russ didn't pass to him a couple of times. I have noticed this for awhile, but Durant has bad body language too often, and I wonder if it has to do with Westbrook freezing him out.

Also the reason Russ has lost respect is that he is arguing with the refs after every drive. He needs to forget it and hustle down the court on defense.

While I disagree with you 99.9% of the time with Durant and your made up issues with him, his body language in the second and third quarter tonight was hard to watch.

I kept thinking after every westbrook drive where russ refused to kick the ball out to him when he was wide open that Durant was just going to level him. Durant kept getting frozen out of the offense and was getting really pissed off about it.

Royce even wrote a little about it

The first half for Durant was pretty unusual. He had 12 points at the break, but was just 1-3 from the field. Think about that. Only one make and only three attempts. And it looked like he was starting to get a bit irked about it. Mid-third, KD was ahead of the pack for an easy basket but Thabo didn’t locate him and instead threw the ball ahead to Westbrook. Russ dropped a jumper but coming back down the floor, Durant didn’t look psyched about being overlooked.

The next possession, the ball went into the post to Ibaka with about 12 on the shot clock and Durant was already almost to halfcourt walking to the other end. His body language wasn’t great there for a minute, but it didn’t last long. The next time down, KD hit a tough, contested straighaway jumper, then followed up that one by scoring two more baskets. By the end of the third he had gotten going, eventually finishing with 29 on 7-12 shooting. It’s a skill Durant has that a lot of other players don’t. He can resist the urge to force, but instead relax into the flow of a game. Then seizing the opportunity — this one being when Andrei Kirilenko left the game because of injury and Gordon Hayward was forced to cover Durant — KD turned it on, taking over.

I'm not mad at Durant about that though, I'd be pissed too if I was the most dangerous offensive weapon in the NBA and people refused to give me the damn ball.

He too 12 (TWELVE) shots and scored 29 points. It takes players like rose 25 shots to score 29.

Post #17 » by **slick_watts** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:34 am

The issue of Durant and Westbrook / shot selection is one that's going to have to be resolved eventually. I think Brooks is really making it tough on those guys because:

a: The offense lacks structure and relies heavily on Westbrook and Durant to create something out of nothing.

b: Many of the lineups used feature poor floor spacing and bigs who can't really move the ball well.

Scott Brooks talks a lot about ball movement, but he's more or less promoting an environment where Westbrook and Durant are less likely to move the ball when in the half court. Early in this game there were three or four possessions where Russ dribbled at the 3pt line, got the ball to Durant behind the three point line, then Durant had six to eight seconds to make something happen with his dribble and poor floor balance and spacing. That's just not going to cut it.

Durant and Westbrook both wear their emotions on their sleeves and let it affect their games sometimes. Durant will pout, Westbrook will complain and / or get reckless.

James Harden is the potential glue guy between these two, IMO. He's a secondary ball handler, and a guy who can spread the floor with his shooting. He won't complain if he's not getting shots. He's basically built to do what Jeff Green was supposed to do on the court for this team but never really did. I worry about Russ and KD and how they will develop playing with the current starting unit. Russ' usage has been ridiculous since the trade. Something has to change eventually to reel these guys in and get them playing team basketball. Part of that is changing the lineups to make that feasible.

Hobes · Post #18 » by **Hobes** » Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:22 am

I'm glad you post on these boards slick, your analysis of this team is spot on.

MrWHYNOT · Post #19 » by **MrWHYNOT** » Sat Mar 26, 2011 4:52 pm

i commented on durants pouting and body language after the @LAKERS game.. and all the KD apologists on this baord went ape ****.. i dont think Russ was freezing KD out intentionally but if he did maybe it wasnt a bad idea as KD has shot 40% vs Utah this yr.. Utah has wings with legnth that contest every shot.. and we know if u pass it to KD he's gonna shoot it