RealGM

Its here guys. Thunder up!

Schedule:

Game 1 - Saturday, April 16, 9:30 p.m. EST at Oklahoma City
Game 2 - Monday, April 18, 8:00 p.m. EST at Oklahoma City
Game 3 - Thursday, April 21, 7:00 p.m. EST at Dallas
Game 4 - Saturday, April 23, 8:00 p.m. EST at Dallas
Game 5 - Monday, April 25 at Oklahoma City (if necessary)
Game 6 - Thursday, April 28 at Dallas (if necessary)
Game 7 - Saturday, April 30 at Oklahoma City (if necessary)

Starters:

OKC Thunder

Russell Westbrook


Andre Roberson


Kevin Durant


Serge Ibaka


Steven Adams



Dallas Mavericks


Deron Williams

Wesley Matthews

Justin Anderson

Dirk Nowitzki

Zaza Pachulia

I'd be shocked if this takes more than 5 games. I'm 95 % sure we sweep them. Granted, we've always had problems keeping them from heating up, but this depleted squad isn't gonna be able to head up enough to make us sweat.

Our defense should improve just by Russ and KD giving effort and it's up to Billy to find other guys that can contribute.

Underrated fact: First playoffs for Waiters, Singler, Morrow, Huestis and Payne. Roberson and Kanter have only played 6 combined playoff games.

I think we SHOULD beat them in 4 or 5, but Carlisle is going to coach circles around Donovan. For that reason, Dallas may actually win two games and most games might be closer than they should be.

NaturalThunder wrote:I think we SHOULD beat them in 4 or 5, but Carlisle is going to coach circles around Donovan. For that reason, Dallas may actually win two games and most games might be closer than they should be.

Already preparing myself to pull my hair out of over BillDoh's lineups. If they were maddening during meaningless regular season games just wait until how you feel during the playoffs. Oh my.

Old Man Game wrote:

NaturalThunder wrote:I think we SHOULD beat them in 4 or 5, but Carlisle is going to coach circles around Donovan. For that reason, Dallas may actually win two games and most games might be closer than they should be.

Already preparing myself to pull my hair out of over BillDoh's lineups. If they were maddening during meaningless regular season games just wait until how you feel during the playoffs. Oh my.

This might be over-optimism talking, but I sincerely hope the last RS game was an eye opener for Billy. The lineups he put out there actually worked quite well and if not for Waiters, we win that game. Our 2nd and 3rd strings of guys played as a team and defended quite well. That's what we need in the Playoffs and I hope Billy has finally understood that. Payne playing 40 minutes despite turning the ball over several times gives me hope he had a revelation.

Please Billy, pretty please.

This is going to be a sweep... 5 games max if we decide to get bored one game.

Donavon is actually going to gain yall respect and coach circles around Carlisle... Bet on it

Grizzlies would have been the best match-up, but this isn't far behind with where the Mavs health is at currently. Keep in mind as great as Carlisle and Dirk are, they haven't won a playoff series since they won the title 5 years ago. Since then they've been swept by us in '12, missed the playoffs in '13, took the Spurs to 7 in Round 1 in '14, lost in 5 to the Rockets in '15. This is arguably their worst playoff team in that timespan as well, rivaling only last years squad after Rondo went into self destruct mode.

Carlisle is a fantastic coach, but that only goes so far when your talent level is that much lower than the opposition. People last year were saying he'd coach circles around McHale, and nothing close to that happened. Getting this rag tag team to the playoffs, albeit in a down year for the West, is an accomplishment for the franchise, and I'm glad for Dirk. That being said this should be a sweep with Parsons being out and a number of other players not being at 100%.

Then again, Dirk could channel 2011, Salah Mejiri could continue his random dominance against us, and Wes could magically find his 3 point shot, stretching this series all the way out to 5 games.

OkcMagic wrote:Donavon is actually going to gain yall respect and coach circles around Carlisle... Bet on it

Honestly, I could see this. Donovan is such a weird coach: On one hand, he looks like such an incredibly stupid idiot, but on the other hand, he has some very nice moments.
This just came to me: Is he the Waiters of coaches?

I think that Thunder got this in 5 or 6. Mavs are no match for KD&Russ, but I could see us dropping a couple. I expect Donovan to be severely outcoached by Carlisle and you already know that there will be one vintage Thunder game, where we'll witness our defensive collapse, but at the end of the day Mavs simply don't have the talent to match ours.

Yeah, I'm on board with 5 but can see 6. The coaching gap is huge, and Dirk may go off a few times. Plus Mejiri seems to love playing OKC.

Don't know where to post it, but just wanted to wish you guys luck in the playoffs. I'm rooting for you guys (regardless of Kanter) and hope you go all the way. Godspeed.

bondom34 wrote:Yeah, I'm on board with 5 but can see 6. The coaching gap is huge, and Dirk may go off a few times. Plus Mejiri seems to love playing OKC.

Serge just can't stop Dirk. In 3 games against us this season he's averaging 19.3 pts on 65 TS% and he has historically pummeled Serge. I wonder if we'd find more success with putting KD on Dirk. He has the agility, quickness to guard him on the perimiter and his reach is long enough so he could bother his shots in the post. With Chandler being out and Mavs being forced to start Anderson that should be the possibility worth exploting imo.

LacosteM wrote:

bondom34 wrote:Yeah, I'm on board with 5 but can see 6. The coaching gap is huge, and Dirk may go off a few times. Plus Mejiri seems to love playing OKC.

Serge just can't stop Dirk. In 3 games against us this season he's averaging 19.3 pts on 65 TS% and he has historically pummeled Serge. I wonder if we'd find more success with putting KD on Dirk. He has the agility, quickness to guard him on the perimiter and his reach is long enough so he could bother his shots in the post. With Chandler being out and Mavs being forced to start Anderson that should be the possibility worth exploting imo.

Yeah, it is a weird matchup for Serge. Russ should in theory have a good series too, Anderson has been playing really well for them of late especially on D. He's a guy I liked in the draft and he's performed really well. Its a big difference from having Parsons offensively though.

Inigo Montoya wrote:Don't know where to post it, but just wanted to wish you guys luck in the playoffs. I'm rooting for you guys (regardless of Kanter) and hope you go all the way. Godspeed.

Appreciated.

RE: Enes, FWIW in an interview that just went up today on NewsOK he talked about the fact that he always felt like he was competing against the other bigs in Utah, where when he came here he started to cheer on the other guys and it changed his mentality. In his words it made "all the difference in the world".

Can't blame you guys for feeling salty, but it seems like there's been some personal growth there, which is good to see.

Inigo Montoya wrote:Don't know where to post it, but just wanted to wish you guys luck in the playoffs. I'm rooting for you guys (regardless of Kanter) and hope you go all the way. Godspeed.

Thanks man. Kanter's been really solid of late, his defensive effort is there even if the ability just may not totally be there speed wise. I've always felt like I'll take a guy who tries hard and maybe can't do something well over a guy who has the ability but no effort, and the kid's really impressed me. Feel free to stop by any time, the extra opinion is always appreciated!

dbrandon wrote:

Inigo Montoya wrote:Don't know where to post it, but just wanted to wish you guys luck in the playoffs. I'm rooting for you guys (regardless of Kanter) and hope you go all the way. Godspeed.

Appreciated.

RE: Enes, FWIW in an interview that just went up today on NewsOK he talked about the fact that he always felt like he was competing against the other bigs in Utah, where when he came here he started to cheer on the other guys and it changed his mentality. In his words it made "all the difference in the world".

Can't blame you guys for feeling salty, but it seems like there's been some personal growth there, which is good to see.

I'm not salty at all (though many Jazz fans are). If anything, I'm salty at our front office for mismanaging his situation from the start.

Inigo Montoya wrote:

dbrandon wrote:

Inigo Montoya wrote:Don't know where to post it, but just wanted to wish you guys luck in the playoffs. I'm rooting for you guys (regardless of Kanter) and hope you go all the way. Godspeed.

Appreciated.

RE: Enes, FWIW in an interview that just went up today on NewsOK he talked about the fact that he always felt like he was competing against the other bigs in Utah, where when he came here he started to cheer on the other guys and it changed his mentality. In his words it made "all the difference in the world".

Can't blame you guys for feeling salty, but it seems like there's been some personal growth there, which is good to see.

I'm not salty at all (though many Jazz fans are). If anything, I'm salty at our front office for mismanaging his situation from the start.

Ah, fair enough. I've been involved in enough Reddit brawls over Kanter that there's a little wariness there.

I have no idea why the Jazz FO has such a love affair with bigs.

dbrandon wrote:

Inigo Montoya wrote:

dbrandon wrote:
Appreciated.

RE: Enes, FWIW in an interview that just went up today on NewsOK he talked about the fact that he always felt like he was competing against the other bigs in Utah, where when he came here he started to cheer on the other guys and it changed his mentality. In his words it made "all the difference in the world".

Can't blame you guys for feeling salty, but it seems like there's been some personal growth there, which is good to see.

I'm not salty at all (though many Jazz fans are). If anything, I'm salty at our front office for mismanaging his situation from the start.

Ah, fair enough. I've been involved in enough Reddit brawls over Kanter that there's a little wariness there.

I have no idea why the Jazz FO has such a love affair with bigs.

Well, you know, Trump, big hands - I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere.

Durant is 2nd in the league in Post Ups(149 poss) PPP at 1.23.

61% FG on Postups along with a 17% FT Frequency. The Mavs have no one that equals the length of KD on the perimeter, If we want to end this series quick and fast we need KD to abuse every opportunity he can in the post.

I'm hoping Donovan is able to use the the time between games to coach more.