2016 Playoffs Round 1: OKC Thunder vs. Dallas Mavericks

[bondom34]

What did Presti do to make Durant miss those shots and Cam not play last night again, because I get Donovan, but if we're back with the conspiracies I'm lost.

[Pillendreher]

lost ones on DT just pointed me to this piece on Donovan and Payne after his breakout game:

http://newsok.com/article/5469652

"Could it have been done sooner? Maybe, maybe not. But I thought D.J. while he was out there did a nice job for us," Donovan said. "... and I trust D.J. It's a long year. Still have a lot of games left, a lot of things that can happen.

"The one thing that's important, I would caution everybody, that it's one game. And I know he played good last game, but he's gonna have his ups and downs, too. I'm prepared to see him go through those struggles. He's a rookie and he's gonna have some experiences like that. But he did a great job tonight. I was really happy for him personally because of the effort he's put into us."

God damn him, this might be on Presti as well.

[Zagor]

****ing Billy Donovan. I get it. Durant was very bad etc.
But why were they forcing him so much? Instead, Billy should have tried with pick n' pop of Russ - Ibaka, and more rim attacking by Russ.

Why is this man head coach of Thunder? He is on the level of Casey and Wittman.

[KD35Brah]

You know what makes losing by one even more frustrating in hindsight?

I can think of three times where Durant was obviously fouled last night and the ref swallowed his whistle. That back-to-back possession set where he got raked across the arm on a shot attempt with no foul call then got body checked by Mejri (who didn't stay vertical at all) with no foul call were very crucial in hindsight. Not only did Durant miss a dozen or so open shots he makes 60%+ of the time, the refs didn't do him any favors, either.

Durant was fouled on the last shot by Anderson too

https://streamable.com/zxzu

The refs were terrible last night, Durant was getting hacked left and right, even the announcers were bringing it up. That play where he drove to the left side of the rim and Anderson just slammed down his elbow to send him to the line was ridiculous, Anderson was surprised himself that the ref didn't blow the whistle.

[itzmrgigglez]

I also don't understand why Kanter was on the wing for a decent amount of offensive positions.

They pass it to him twice.

Why is our center no matter how much is an offensive beast he is taking 2 3pt attempts in his second playoff game of his career?
Now if that was Payne, it would be different

[cpower]

OKC still has this series in their bag. Durant had an off game, that's it. sometimes you just gotta trust your best player to make some difficult shots.

[Pillendreher]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/anthonyVslater/status/722475494625513472[/tweet]

Never change Steven.

[Andre Roberstan]

I also don't understand why Kanter was on the wing for a decent amount of offensive positions.

They pass it to him twice.

Why is our center no matter how much is an offensive beast he is taking 2 3pt attempts in his second playoff game of his career?
Now if that was Payne, it would be different

To not crowd the paint?

If it's every play, sure, be mad about it. But as part of a designed play every now and then it's fine.

[Andre Roberstan]

One positive: Morrow played twice as many minutes as Singler, and instead of going small and putting Singler at the 4 when Ibaka got in foul trouble, Donovan just played Collison more.

But no-PG lineups were collectively -5 per PopcornMachine. Also Dion got the bulk of 4th-quarter minutes at SG over Morrow or Roberson, which I think is a massive mistake, especially considering how much they were overloading on KD. You either need a shooter or a cutter.

[Bergmaniac]

I also don't understand why Kanter was on the wing for a decent amount of offensive positions.

They pass it to him twice.

Why is our center no matter how much is an offensive beast he is taking 2 3pt attempts in his second playoff game of his career?
Now if that was Payne, it would be different

Kanter shot 47.6% from three this regular season. Only 21 attempts, but still...He shot over 35% the previous season too.

[Mick75]

Terrible loss and a terrible night for KD. But I really liked Stevens effort! Man I was jumping in front of the TV because I thought he got the game winning tip in...yeah but still a very bad game for us. Now shake it off an blow the Mavs out of their own arena!
Thunder Up!

[NaturalThunder]

You know what makes losing by one even more frustrating in hindsight?

I can think of three times where Durant was obviously fouled last night and the ref swallowed his whistle. That back-to-back possession set where he got raked across the arm on a shot attempt with no foul call then got body checked by Mejri (who didn't stay vertical at all) with no foul call were very crucial in hindsight. Not only did Durant miss a dozen or so open shots he makes 60%+ of the time, the refs didn't do him any favors, either.

Durant was fouled on the last shot by Anderson too

https://streamable.com/zxzu

The refs were terrible last night, Durant was getting hacked left and right, even the announcers were bringing it up. That play where he drove to the left side of the rim and Anderson just slammed down his elbow to send him to the line was ridiculous, Anderson was surprised himself that the ref didn't blow the whistle.

Thanks for the link. I admittedly and ashamedly turned the game off after the Mavs went up 85-81. I was already on the verge of a rage fit and watching until the bitter end may have pushed me over the top, but yeah, it looked like Durant got fouled there, too, although I'm more ok with the ref letting that one go especially in that situation. But there were two or three times even the announcers last night talked about how they couldn't believe the refs didn't call a foul when Durant was shooting and/or driving. It's usually at least a semi-questionable/headscratching no-call if it's obvious enough for the commentators to talk about it.

I also didn't realize the Adams tip-in was that close. Since it was waved off and there was very little to no griping on here about the refs waving it off after the fact, I just assumed it was pretty obvious the tip didn't count.

[Pillendreher]

Re the fouls: Let's be real. If Durant hits only a couple more of his shots and gets the really obvious calls, this is another 20 point blowout.
This really was the worst case scenario and we still almost win the game.

Many issues got exposed, but it's not like we got outplayed.

[OkcMagic]

OKC have the worst fanbase of all teams.. you guys blame Presti for Durant missing shots? You blame Donavon for Westbrook trying to do the right thing and get his guy going? Putting enough trust in Durant on his off night for the game winners? Can you guys please find a new team to follow this summer because I done had it up to here with yall constant bitching and complaining. Hell, I seen you guys bitching in game 1...the game where we whooped dallas ass by 38 points. Could the team be better? Sure, but that doesn't call for Presti to get fired for taking chances on guys like Dion and Singler who btw if both played to their potential, yall would be singing the tunes of praise towards Presti.

[Pillendreher]

Post of the year. Full of ****, yet still entertaining.

[bondom34]

OKC have the worst fanbase of all teams.. you guys blame Presti for Durant missing shots? You blame Donavon for Westbrook trying to do the right thing and get his guy going? Putting enough trust in Durant on his off night for the game winners? Can you guys please find a new team to follow this summer because I done had it up to here with yall constant bitching and complaining. Hell, I seen you guys bitching in game 1...the game where we whooped dallas ass by 38 points. Could the team be better? Sure, but that doesn't call for Presti to get fired for taking chances on guys like Dion and Singler who btw if both played to their potential, yall would be singing the tunes of praise towards Presti.

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

Well this didn't happen.

Who's ready for another 30 point blowout? I know you guys love to depressed but this is our year

Nor did this.

[OkcMagic]

OKC have the worst fanbase of all teams.. you guys blame Presti for Durant missing shots? You blame Donavon for Westbrook trying to do the right thing and get his guy going? Putting enough trust in Durant on his off night for the game winners? Can you guys please find a new team to follow this summer because I done had it up to here with yall constant bitching and complaining. Hell, I seen you guys bitching in game 1...the game where we whooped dallas ass by 38 points. Could the team be better? Sure, but that doesn't call for Presti to get fired for taking chances on guys like Dion and Singler who btw if both played to their potential, yall would be singing the tunes of praise towards Presti.

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

Well this didn't happen.

Who's ready for another 30 point blowout? I know you guys love to depressed but this is our year

Nor did this.

Okay and we're still winning a championship this year so one game does not matter in the long run of things... I wonder if this is how Warriors felt after losing that one game against the Pelicans last year

[bondom34]

OKC have the worst fanbase of all teams.. you guys blame Presti for Durant missing shots? You blame Donavon for Westbrook trying to do the right thing and get his guy going? Putting enough trust in Durant on his off night for the game winners? Can you guys please find a new team to follow this summer because I done had it up to here with yall constant bitching and complaining. Hell, I seen you guys bitching in game 1...the game where we whooped dallas ass by 38 points. Could the team be better? Sure, but that doesn't call for Presti to get fired for taking chances on guys like Dion and Singler who btw if both played to their potential, yall would be singing the tunes of praise towards Presti.

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

Well this didn't happen.

Who's ready for another 30 point blowout? I know you guys love to depressed but this is our year

Nor did this.

Okay and we're still winning a championship this year so one game does not matter in the long run of things... I wonder if this is how Warriors felt after losing that one game against the Pelicans last year

As a 1 seed with 65 wins, probably not.

[OkcMagic]

Well this didn't happen.



Nor did this.

Okay and we're still winning a championship this year so one game does not matter in the long run of things... I wonder if this is how Warriors felt after losing that one game against the Pelicans last year

As a 1 seed with 65 wins, probably not.

You missed the point of my tweet... They didnt care because they had championship aspirations... unlike you fake ass fans

[bondom34]

Okay and we're still winning a championship this year so one game does not matter in the long run of things... I wonder if this is how Warriors felt after losing that one game against the Pelicans last year

As a 1 seed with 65 wins, probably not.

You missed the point of my tweet... They didnt care because they had championship aspirations... unlike you fake ass fans

There's a difference between a fan and a blind homer. We all want this team to win, but blindly saying everything is great isn't true.