Oklahoma City Thunder Regular Season 2015-2016 Part 2

[KD35Brah]

Westbrook has missed EVERYTHING after the hot start, some of these shots man...

You have absolutely no chill

He was fine in the 1.5 quarters, but then he just started to miss everything....

Some of these passes by Russ and Durant have been straight up horrible. What are they thinking when they throw these horrible passes?

[bondom34]

Westbrook has missed EVERYTHING after the hot start, some of these shots man...

You have absolutely no chill

He was fine in the 1.5 quarters, but then he just started to miss everything....

Some of these passes by Russ and Durant have been straight up horrible. What are they thinking when they throw these horrible passes?

They're up by 18, take a breath.

[bondom34]

2 things I've noticed:

1. This is Dion's best game. Just saying it because he deserves it.

2. Pretty sure on Cam's second made 3 he did Russ's guns.

[spearsy23]

Our defense hasn't been anything special if you're actually watching the game. Memphis has missed a ton of wide-open threes and quite a few shots in the lane.

In the lane is a concern, but the game plan against Memphis has to be to let them shoot. Also, it's been a pretty low energy game from Memphis so we've just kinda relaxed.

[KD35Brah]

You have absolutely no chill

He was fine in the 1.5 quarters, but then he just started to miss everything....

Some of these passes by Russ and Durant have been straight up horrible. What are they thinking when they throw these horrible passes?

They're up by 18, take a breath.

SA, GSW, and the Cavs extend these leads into 30 point blowouts...we have been extremely sloppy and letting Memphis back in it.

It's just annoying to watch...

[bondom34]

Our defense hasn't been anything special if you're actually watching the game. Memphis has missed a ton of wide-open threes and quite a few shots in the lane.

In the lane is a concern, but the game plan against Memphis has to be to let them shoot. Also, it's been a pretty low energy game from Memphis so we've just kinda relaxed.

They're the anti-Dubs offensively.

[KD35Brah]

Even Slater had to tweet about it...

[tweet]https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/684953806019248128[/tweet]

[NaturalThunder]

We were terrible that quarter. Somehow Memphis only managed to knock off two points from our halftime lead.

[spearsy23]

He was fine in the 1.5 quarters, but then he just started to miss everything....

Some of these passes by Russ and Durant have been straight up horrible. What are they thinking when they throw these horrible passes?

They're up by 18, take a breath.

SA, GSW, and the Cavs extend these leads into 30 point blowouts...we have been extremely sloppy and letting Memphis back in it.

It's just annoying to watch...

I was curious about this so I did some box score scanning
20+ point wins by team
Spurs- 11
OKC- 7
Warriors- 5
Cleveland- 5

[bondom34]

Completely random statistical note, but someone on WTLC mentioned during the game A Mo had 7 points on 1 FGA, so I had to look it up.

http://bkref.com/tiny/H9BmJ


Most ever is a guy in the 80s with 15 points on 1 FGA!

[spearsy23]

Completely random statistical note, but someone on WTLC mentioned during the game A Mo had 7 points on 1 FGA, so I had to look it up.

http://bkref.com/tiny/H9BmJ


Most ever is a guy in the 80s with 15 points on 1 FGA!

Which made me look up most points without a fga. Jarron Collins and Clint McDaniels both had 8.

[spearsy23]

Unless I'm mistaken, if the seeds hold serve wouldn't we play the Grizz in the first round? From the way things have gone so far that's the matchup I want.

[bondom34]

Unless I'm mistaken, if the seeds hold serve wouldn't we play the Grizz in the first round? From the way things have gone so far that's the matchup I want.

Yep.

[bondom34]

Oh, Cam did the gun 1 handed!

http://gfycat.com/VigilantEnlightenedCatfish

[spearsy23]

Oh, Cam did the gun 1 handed!

http://gfycat.com/VigilantEnlightenedCatfish

Not even his shooting hand

[NaturalThunder]

Unless I'm mistaken, if the seeds hold serve wouldn't we play the Grizz in the first round? From the way things have gone so far that's the matchup I want.

I don't know, the Grizzlies seem to be one of those teams over the last few years who, even when it looks like they're going to be an easy out in the playoffs, give whoever they play in the 1st round hell. Granted, this does appear to be the worst version of the "Grit n' Grind" Grizzlies, but if healthy their sort of "Big 3" of Gasol, Conley, and Randolph is still very formidable and they're still ideally built and suited for the playoffs. And now they have Mario Chalmers who, for whatever reasons, turns into an All-Star and sometimes superstar caliber PG when he plays the Thunder.

[Pillendreher]

And this is why I think Waiters can bring back something of value. He has potential, that's clear to see. The problem is him not realizing it (his potential) and being generally dumb. But who knows that if he's not a Thunder fan? Some GM will be stupid enough to fall for it. They get the bird rights and gamble a little bit. Go for it Presti.

[lethalizer]

Unless I'm mistaken, if the seeds hold serve wouldn't we play the Grizz in the first round? From the way things have gone so far that's the matchup I want.

I don't know, the Grizzlies seem to be one of those teams over the last few years who, even when it looks like they're going to be an easy out in the playoffs, give whoever they play in the 1st round hell. Granted, this does appear to be the worst version of the "Grit n' Grind" Grizzlies, but if healthy their sort of "Big 3" of Gasol, Conley, and Randolph is still very formidable and they're still ideally built and suited for the playoffs. And now they have Mario Chalmers who, for whatever reasons, turns into an All-Star and sometimes superstar caliber PG when he plays the Thunder.

The thing with Memphis is, they're just a REALLY bad matchup for the Thunder right now. They can't punish Kanter on D enough, because their pick-and-roll game is just not strong, and they can't keep up with OKC on offense.

The swap of Kanter&Perkins is the true difference here. With Kanter, Memphis just can't plan their defensive schemes like they're used to. When you have the ability to completely ignore an opposing big without having to resort to small ball, that matchup would likely cause hell, and in the previous years it did.

Now, against teams like GSW this won't work, because they can use small ball to completely obliterate Kanter on D. OKC also does a poor job switching, and Memphis also does a poor job punishing does bad switches. They're just not equipped to beat the Thunder the way these teams are built.

As a Thunder fan I'm not afraid of any team sans GSW and Spurs. And I think with the way Spurs are playing this year, OKC is a good matchup for them as well.

Against GSW though? 300+ scores in REGULATION are possible there, and the only team who can keep up with the Thunder on offense while being MILES AHEAD defensively is GSW.

To sum it up, I'd love a Memphis matchup in the first round. I think even without HCA OKC stands a good chance against the Spurs. Against GSW, I can't see OKC winning even 2 games against them, let alone 4. Too many matchup problems.

[Pillendreher]

Of course putting Kanter on Cousins isn't the way to go, but I'm just saying defensive lapses aren't all on Kanter. Russell loses his man almost everytime he has to guard in a PnR and that puts us into a bad situation every time. That's worse than Kanter giving up 2-3 buckets per game.

I really don't understand why you're still hung up on Russ bring a bad defender. I'm not seeing it and
The stats don't back it up.

Oh, I see it very much. Russ still doesn't go over screen and mostly ends up standing behind the opposing player. And if that doesn't happen, he just switches, which isn''t always the way to go.
By him doing those things, our defense is already scrambling and in a suboptimal position. Now I'm not saying Russ is per se bad, but that really hurts our PnR coverage.

And yeah, the stats may not cover this, but that certainly does have something to do with the fact that Westbrook is out there with our best defenders at every position. You can switch an Ibaka to a guard and get away with it, but it's not always the way to go.

[bondom34]

Of course putting Kanter on Cousins isn't the way to go, but I'm just saying defensive lapses aren't all on Kanter. Russell loses his man almost everytime he has to guard in a PnR and that puts us into a bad situation every time. That's worse than Kanter giving up 2-3 buckets per game.

I really don't understand why you're still hung up on Russ bring a bad defender. I'm not seeing it and
The stats don't back it up.

Oh, I see it very much. Russ still doesn't go over screen and mostly ends up standing behind the opposing player. And if that doesn't happen, he just switches, which isn''t always the way to go.
By him doing those things, our defense is already scrambling and in a suboptimal position. Now I'm not saying Russ is per se bad, but that really hurts our PnR coverage.

And yeah, the stats may not cover this, but that certainly does have something to do with the fact that Westbrook is out there with our best defenders at every position. You can switch an Ibaka to a guard and get away with it, but it's not always the way to go.

He plays with Kanter and Dion constantly. He's been really good defensively this season, better than KD a lot of games.