Oklahom City Thunder @ Portland Trailblazers 04/01/2011

Post #1 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 7:35 pm

I think Nate McMillan has a tough decision to make in this game. He can either go with the same starters he went with last time out to exploit Gerald Wallace's mismatch against Ibaka, or he can bring Marcus Camby back off the bench and play a little bit more traditional to mitigate all the work the Thunder did in the paint to start the last game off.

Portland's fighting for playoff seeding, and they always get up for a division game. The Thunder will have to bring the same kind of intensity on both ends we saw the other night against Phoenix to close out that game.

Russell Westbrook missed shoot around today for a 'personal matter', but is expected to play.

thunderup_0_35 · Post #2 » by **thunderup_0_35** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 7:55 pm

hey there thunder fans im new to realgm and this my 2nd post. Im a huge thunder fan i watch every game and im a westbrook lover so dont talk down on him lol but in all seriousness im expecting a good game and i expect the thunder to start the month off 1-0!!!

CKRT · Post #3 » by **CKRT** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 7:56 pm

hopefully this means he'll actually pass the damn ball instead of taking contested jumpers since he missed the shootaround

Post #4 » by **slick_watts** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:00 pm

CKRT wrote:hopefully this means he'll actually pass the damn ball instead of taking contested jumpers since he missed the shootaround

Russ is averaging 30 points on terrific efficiency against Portland this season...

fallacy · Post #5 » by **fallacy** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:09 pm

against teams like portland and LA we want russ to "ballhog." There isn't anyone on the team that can stop him whereas both teams have guys (Artest, Wallace) who can bother Durant. This is what's awesome about having two great players on one team.

But anyway, I have this one down as a loss

dream_catcher_9 · Post #6 » by **dream_catcher_9** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:19 pm

thunderup_0_35 wrote:hey there thunder fans im new to realgm and this my 2nd post. Im a huge thunder fan i watch every game and im a westbrook lover so dont talk down on him lol but in all seriousness im expecting a good game and i expect the thunder to start the month off 1-0!!!

welcome.

I expect a tough loss tonight. Its extremely hard to sweep a division opponent, especially a good one like Portland.

thunderup_0_35 · Post #7 » by **thunderup_0_35** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:21 pm

does it really make you a ballhog if your scoring efficiently? If somethings going for your team you keep going to it until they can prove it can be stop!!! -go russ

Trip · Post #8 » by **Trip** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:42 pm

thunderup_0_35 wrote:does it really make you a ballhog if your scoring efficiently? If somethings going for your team you keep going to it until they can prove it can be stop!!! -go russ

There are times he won't stop when its not working too.

Post #9 » by **DeBlazerRiddem** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 8:43 pm

thunderup_0_35 wrote:hey there thunder fans im new to realgm and this my 2nd post. Im a huge thunder fan i watch every game and im a westbrook lover so dont talk down on him lol but in all seriousness im expecting a good game and i expect the thunder to start the month off 1-0!!!

I hate Westbrook. And, by that, I mean I would do pretty much anything to get him over here on the Blazers.

Seriously though, games against you guys are my favorite, even more than playing the Lakers. Expecting good rivalries for years to come, especially once Oden starts hopping around the court again - then it is truly a match-up for the ages. So many connections, everything from the Seattle/Portland connections and division rivalry, the 1st-2ed picks 2007, us stealing Cho away.... Even Batum looks at Durant as "the guy he will be defending against his whole career" almost in a defining way...

Best of luck guys. You're gonna need it tonight.

thunderup_0_35 · Post #10 » by **thunderup_0_35** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 9:02 pm

dream_catcher_9 wrote:
thunderup_0_35 wrote:hey there thunder fans im new to realgm and this my 2nd post. Im a huge thunder fan i watch every game and im a westbrook lover so dont talk down on him lol but in all seriousness im expecting a good game and i expect the thunder to start the month off 1-0!!!

welcome.

I expect a tough loss tonight. Its extremely hard to sweep a division opponent, especially a good one like Portland.

agreed just hoping for the best, and idk what it is but i just expect us to when every game because of the way we been playing but i know thats not realistic :lol:

Devilanche · Post #11 » by **Devilanche** » Fri Apr 1, 2011 9:44 pm

Portland at home is hard for alot of teams. Would be nice to get the win though.
1 more game for the new lineup to gel.
Another chance for durant to learn playing a physical threat.
We're just 2.5 games back from mavs, probably won't overtake but would be nice to keep them close anyway since lakers are 2.5 back on spurs.

Stolen Team Fan · Post #12 » by **Stolen Team Fan** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:09 am

thunderup_0_35 wrote:So many connections, everything from the Seattle/Portland connections and division rivalry, the 1st-2ed picks 2007, us stealing Cho away.... Even Batum looks at Durant as "the guy he will be defending against his whole career" almost in a defining way...

You forgot stealing Nate McMillan away too. I think that hurt more.

fallacy · Post #13 » by **fallacy** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:14 am

Stolen Team Fan wrote:
thunderup_0_35 wrote:So many connections, everything from the Seattle/Portland connections and division rivalry, the 1st-2ed picks 2007, us stealing Cho away.... Even Batum looks at Durant as "the guy he will be defending against his whole career" almost in a defining way...

You forgot stealing Nate McMillan away too. I think that hurt more.

Most people now couldn't give a crap about McMillan. That's more of a seattle thing than a thunder thing

Post #14 » by **slick_watts** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:16 am

fallacy wrote:
Stolen Team Fan wrote:
thunderup_0_35 wrote:So many connections, everything from the Seattle/Portland connections and division rivalry, the 1st-2ed picks 2007, us stealing Cho away.... Even Batum looks at Durant as "the guy he will be defending against his whole career" almost in a defining way...

You forgot stealing Nate McMillan away too. I think that hurt more.

Most people now couldn't give a crap about McMillan. That's more of a seattle thing than a thunder thing

I think that whole Sonics era could be taken in as a cautionary tale, and give us reason to be thankful for competent management who would never replace a coach like McMillan with a stooge such as Bob Weiss.

fallacy · Post #15 » by **fallacy** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:20 am

ahhh, Weis and Hill. Good times, gooood times. PJ might have even been worse, I hope he wasn't hired by Presti :pray:

Post #16 » by **slick_watts** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 12:27 am

Nobody was worse than Bob Weiss.

I recall the first article about him being named coach was about how easy going he was and how he liked to perform magic tricks.

''A guy like Bob Weiss would come to the front of the plane and show us his magic tricks,'' star Ray Allen told the Seattle Post-Intelligencer last weekend.

It was such a joke. Nobody would consciously hire Bob Weiss to coach a group of star players who did not want to play defense and were sick of playing for a coach who held them accountable. Except for Sonics management circa 2005.

Post #17 » by **slick_watts** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 1:08 am

Well it seems my pregame notes were prophetic, Portland will start Camby at center and bring Batum off the bench, sliding Wallace to SF. Although this takes Ibaka off of Wallace, I think this balances out Portland's lineup better against us and makes the game tougher to win.

fallacy · Post #18 » by **fallacy** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 1:27 am

slick_watts wrote:Well it seems my pregame notes were prophetic, Portland will start Camby at center and bring Batum off the bench, sliding Wallace to SF. Although this takes Ibaka off of Wallace, I think this balances out Portland's lineup better against us and makes the game tougher to win.

It makes it tougher to score on them but it's also much easier for us to guard them.

I kind of liked it (for them) when they went small against us. Going against small teams is our weakness right now

Post #19 » by **slick_watts** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 1:29 am

I don't know. The last game against Portland our starting five had trouble scoring, especially in the third quarter when Camby started for Batum. Portland wasn't scoring much against us anyway in the last game. I think this definitely makes it tougher.

Edit, here are the details:

First quarter: Portland outscores us 10-4 in three and a half minutes.
Third quarter: Portland outscores us 15-8 in six minutes to start the quarter.

So that’s 25-12 in about 10 minutes worth of basketball. And it wasn’t even that close, especially to start the third quarter where we couldn’t score for the first three minutes.

Devilanche · Post #20 » by **Devilanche** » Sat Apr 2, 2011 1:38 am

slick_watts wrote:I don't know. The last game against Portland our starting five had trouble scoring, especially in the third quarter when Camby started for Batum. Portland wasn't scoring much against us anyway in the last game. I think this definitely makes it tougher.

Edit, here are the details:

First quarter: Portland outscores us 10-4 in three and a half minutes.
Third quarter: Portland outscores us 15-8 in six minutes to start the quarter.

So that’s 25-12 in about 10 minutes worth of basketball. And it wasn’t even that close, especially to start the third quarter where we couldn’t score for the first three minutes.

since there is still the possibility we can meet them, better for them to throw as much combination as the would actually play. practise time!