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Just like against Denver, we're playing another team that improved after making a deadline deal. The Grizzlies acquired Shane Battier for Hasheem Thabeet on 2/25 and he first played against Sacramento. Memphis has definitely been better, but it might not be where you'd expect:

Pre Trade

ORTG: 107.25
DRTG: 105.75

Post Trade

ORTG: 111.68
DRTG: 105.87

The addition of Battier did not galvanize their defense. It galvanized their offense. How? Well, Shane Battier is a good 3PT shooter...

Pre Trade: 33.68% 3PT
Post Trade: 31.76% 3PT

Honestly, it just seems to me like Randolph and Gasol have played better, and they've gotten a lot more contributions offensively from bench players such as Darrell Arthur and Greivis Vasquez.

Memphis Post Deadline was far inferior to the Nuggets, a team we beat in five games, and twice in the regular season. We had some advantages against that Nuggets team that we will not have against the Grizzlies. But the Grizzlies also lack the Nuggets 3PT shooting prowess, and overall athleticism. They don't have super quick point guards who can blow by Westbrook at a moment's notice. What the Grizzlies do have is an offensively gifted front line which destroyed us in every regular season matchup. But... isn't that what we shored up at the deadline?

The main issue for this series to me is going to be two things:

1) Turnovers. Grizzlies force a lot of them, and it killed the Thunder in the regular season games. We won't need fancy dribbling to beat this defense, just get shots up. It's better to shoot a bad shot, than to get a turnover, because of how good an offensive rebounding team we are. I expect us to do a lot of work on the offensive boards in this series. If Durant and Westbrook can't control their turnovers, it will make it much harder to beat this team.

2) Russell Westbrook. Russell was successful against the Grizzlies in the regular season, posting 24.5 p/g on 56% TS, and 9 a/g. He had turnover issues, but largely had little problem scoring against their defense. Mike Conley will be less work to stay in front of than Ty Lawson or Raymond Felton, so Westbrook can devote more energy to staying focused offensively and making the correct decisions. I also anticipate fewer 'revenge attempts' like he did whenever Lawson beat him.

I'm taking the Thunder in five games.

LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTTTTSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO


TTTTHHHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS


I got thunder in 6.


Z-bo is a beast

Ibaka have to keep up with ZBO with his life, hes a beat down low. And are we going to face Mem this Sunday or Tuesday?

Game 1 — Sunday, May 1: Memphis at Oklahoma City, 12:00 p.m. (ABC)
Game 2 — Tuesday, May 3: Memphis at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m. (TNT)
Game 3 — Saturday, May 7: Oklahoma City at Memphis, 4:00 p.m. (ESPN)
Game 4 — Monday, May 9: Oklahoma City at Memphis, 8:30 p.m. (TNT)

Game 5 — Wednesday, May 11: Memphis at Oklahoma City, TBD (TNT)*
Game 6 — Friday, May 13: Oklahoma City at Memphis, TBD (ESPN)*
Game 7 — Sunday, May 15: Memphis at Oklahoma City, TBD (TBD)*

Just can't wait for this game on sunday! LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!

By the why, how the hell are we going to beat the MEM when they have a better bench than us and they had beat us 2 or 3 times during the season. Any body can explain this?

KDfan35 wrote:Just can't wait for this game on sunday! LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE!!!!!!!!!!!

By the why, how the hell are we going to beat the MEM when they have a better bench than us and they had beat us 2 or 3 times during the season. Any body can explain this?

Sarcasm? Their bench is terrible

KDfan35 wrote:
By the why, how the hell are we going to beat the MEM when they have a better bench than us and they had beat us 2 or 3 times during the season. Any body can explain this?

BOOO! their bench and ours both have their own strength, it isn't a poor bench in any way but hey it's not an elite bench either.

It's a new game so we can beat them still Unless they can sneak in Green/Krstic to be our frontcourt, we won't be giving up that much inside anymore.

edit: pretty important we win the first 2 homegame. I see us winning in 6 or 7.

Memphis' bench is only 4 people; Battier, Arthur, Vasquez, and Mayo.

The only backup PF/C they have is Arthur, and he's only 6'9. If either gasol or randolph get in foul trouble, it's going to get ugly for them. Both Gasol and Randolph averaged 40+ minutes in the spurs series

We have not played Memphis after the deadline at full strength. Memphis' advantage against us in the regular season was turnovers, offensive boards, and Jeff Green 'defending' Zach Randolph. And that cute time Kevin Durant defended Marc Gasol.

Our moves at the deadline shore up a lot of our issues we had with Memphis.

fallacy wrote:Memphis' bench is only 4 people; Battier, Arthur, Vasquez, and Mayo.

The only backup PF/C they have is Arthur, and he's only 6'9. If either gasol or randolph get in foul trouble, it's going to get ugly for them. Both Gasol and Randolph averaged 40+ minutes in the spurs series

Even if they only get 30mins out of Gasol/Randolph, that's still alot of talent between those 2. If you're talking about Arthur size, he isn't overly undermatched against our bench size either. There's always Haddadi if they can get something out of him.

If any of you guys aren't going to bed yet

The Beginning of an OKC Dynasty?
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=19626

Memphis' Odd Couple
http://www.hoopsworld.com/Story.asp?story_id=19623

OKC in 7. Homer in me says OKC in 6.

No way this is a sweep for either team. I think this is going to 7. I want to see how we perform against them on Sunday before I make a prediction.

Hello OKC fans,

First of all, congrats on moving on to the next round. I believe this series is going to be the second best series in the second round after boston and miami. Our two teams are the future for the west. But I wanted to add that our bench also has a guy that is a former Celtic. Leon Powe could body up against Perkins as well. If Zach or Arthur get into foul trouble, Powe is more than capable with bomb knee and all in pulling his own weight. He did it against Boston in Boston and I have no doubt he could do it against a former Boston teammate. Tony Allen seems to like playing OKC for some reason. But I must say this, if Durant and Westbrook don't start sharing the ball more, they are going to make this an easy series. OKC is more effective when they are sharing the ball through everyone. Westbrook and Durant could be worn down and Ibaka will have his hands full with Gasol. I can't wait for this series to start.

Good luck guys

First of all, Im glad that we play Memphis and not the Spurs. Not only because this way we have home court advantage AND start already playing this Sunday, but also because this will be a much more entertaining, much more exciting series, than what we would have had against the Spurs.
I like the Grizzlies and how they are playing since their trade.
I like their energy level, the hustle plays from Tony Allen, Battier and everyone.
And I like how they pound the ball inside and go for high percentage shots.

The one thing that really concerns me is Zach Randolph, on offense he is the only scary weapon.
So who is going to guard him? Normally I would say its Ibaka, but I really think that Perk should take care of him.
He has a bigger body to hold his ground and this way it would give Ibaka a good chance to come over from weak side and go for the block.
And Ibaka can also easily defend Marc Gasol, so that should work fine.

What ya'll think?

^Are you crazy? Ibaka is 6-10 235 pounds and Marc Gasol is 7-1 265 pounds, simply Marc would win that match up against Ibaka because of his weight and post moves. As for Perkins and Zach can Perkins keep up with Zach? Remember Zach is quick on his feet.

The only way we can defeat this team is like what Slick said before, limit the TURN-OVERS. I see Ibaka guarding Zach for the rest of the playoffs and Perkins guarding Marc too. And okc can win this series if they move the ball more and playing some good defense. I see Thunders winning this series, and they would have to make some adjustments as the series go.

We can win this series even if we don't limit the turnovers, but it'll make it much tougher. OKC had almost twice as many turnovers as the Grizzlies in the regular season games, and that's why we lost them 3-1 even though we shot better.

Gasol and Randolph are getting overrated a little bit from beasting against a Spurs front line that just didn't have the size or athleticism to deal with them. They are still a terrific front court, but they won't be as productive against us. The Grizzlies will need their role players to show up if they're going to beat us.

No excuses for losing to this team. Thunder in 5.

Imo, unless something really special happens, if Durant dominate this series, he'll turn into the best player in this league imo and Thunder would have a strong case for title.

They have size and durability. They'll force Perkins and Ibaka to play at their limits defensively and I hope Ibaka keep getting easy looks because he can drop them.

Our offense stinks and our best offensive player so far will face the most difficult matchup duo for him: Allen and Battier.

This will be an ugly and tough series. 50-50 imo.

Brooks announced today that Ibaka will play Zach and Perk will play Gasol

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The Grizzlies really need to put battier on durant, not allen.

this season Durant averages 23.4 points on 49% shooting, 18.2 FGA, against Battier

while against Allen Durant averages 28.9 points on 49% shooting, 20.4 FGA.


Neither one of them stop durant, and he shoots very well against both, but battier seems to slow down Durant's shot attemps


The Thunder need to do the same thing with Ibaka against Z-Bo.

With Ibaka on the floor, zach averages 20.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.4 asts, 12.1 FGA, and 56% shooting

With Ibaka off the floor, zach averages 26.6 points, 14.4 rebounds, 2.8 asts, 19.4 FGA, and 60% shooting


So Ibaka against Z-Bo is worth 6 ppg, 5.1 rpg, 1.4 apg, 7.3 FGA, and 4% shooting. Ibaka severely limits Zach's shot attempts and rebounding, so Ibaka needs to play on him a lot