vs. 
Oklahoma City Thunder (9-34, 3-17 road) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (9-32, 4-18 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 101.7 (29th), Clippers: 100.5 (30th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 108.9 (19th), Clippers: 108.2 (17th)
Pace: Thunder: 93.9 (6th), Clippers: 91.3 (15th)
Here’s something that sucks: The Clippers have nine wins this year. And 22 percent of their wins have been against OKC. So far, the Clips are 2-0 against the Thunder, with both games being played at the Ford Center. Maybe we just need a change of scenery seeing that the Clips have the worst home record in the league. Now the first matchup the Clips won 108-98, but that doesn’t count because that was with P.J. The second, the Thunder just flat out stunk and came out incredibly flat in the first quarter and lost by 10.
Now since we know the entire nation will be watching, we’ve got to hope we show up in the first quarter. For some reason, I have a little of the same feeling I did before the Minny game after OKC beat the Knicks the night before. Now obviously, the Thunder’s has a day to rest and the Clippers aren’t hot like the Wolves were, but still Kevin Durant played 45 minutes and Russell Westbrook logged 39 two nights ago. Let’s hope we don’t see another case of the jello legs.
While the game is on the road, to me, there’s not a whole of excuse to not come with a win. The Clippers will be possibly be without Zach Randolph and Marcus Camby on the blocks (Clips Nation feels like Camby will play). On top of that, the Clips will be missing Baron Davis, Mike Taylor, Jason Hart and Chris Kaman. Quite honestly, I have no idea how they’re going to field a team tonight. Maybe they can call up Michael Olowokandi and Eric Piatkowski and see what they’re doing tonight.
One player OKC needs to watch is Steve Novak. The sharpshooter from Marquette can fill it up. He’s deadly from downtown and is so tall he can get his shot almost any time. Durant will likely draw him when he’s on the floor which is good, because KD can match Novak’s length.
OKC should have the edge inside as the Clips are missing basically everyone on the blocks. DeAndre Jordan had a career night against the Lakers with 23 and 12, but still Nick Collison, Nenad Krstic and Co. should be able to handle the boards and dominate inside.
The goal was to come back 1-1 from this West Coast trip. Mission already accomplished. But hopefully the Thunder don’t settle. This isn’t like in Little League where you’re in the title game and you think, “Hey! No matter what, I get a trophy!” The Thunder need to come out hungry tonight because if not, the Clips can and will beat them. We’ve seen OKC come out flat before against an injury riddled team (See: Golden State) and get embarrassed. The Thunder better come to play or it will happen again. They aren’t good enough to go through the motions and beat a team. I’m sure Scott Brooks has told them this.
Joe :
Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s good that our expectations have been raised. I just want to keep a steady perspective. These types of losses hurt. If the Clippers a D-league team, they have a couple of big league players that showed up last night, which is about one more than we did.
Exactly! Are our players as good as they played against Detroit, bad as they played against the Clippers, or do their stats just look good because they're a crappy team and those stats have to come from somewhere. I remember in Vancouver when Raheem looked good, but he was really nothing more than a role player.
Joe :
It’s funny how much our expectations have been raised. A month ago, we were talking about how we are almost over the hump, showing improvement, and we were all really glad that our team was competitive. Now we lose a close game on the road and we are mad and frustrated. :O)
We're frustrated because we lost to a d-league team tonight, it feels like a huge step backwards.
Don't get me wrong, I think it's good that our expectations have been raised. I just want to keep a steady perspective. These types of losses hurt. If the Clippers a D-league team, they have a couple of big league players that showed up last night, which is about one more than we did.
Bowen should be retired soon. If San Antonio doesn't hire him as assistant Presti should.
It's funny how much our expectations have been raised. A month ago, we were talking about how we are almost over the hump, showing improvement, and we were all really glad that our team was competitive. Now we lose a close game on the road and we are mad and frustrated. :O)
@Crow
Bill Laimbeer? Dennis Rodman?
Hire a flop coach. Durant should be able to sell getting roughed up by those bad PFs some. Stand on box, catch his breath instead of running around on the perimeter. No hand to hand combat. Simply move his feet and extend to impair the vision of any jumpshooting PF, what most of them do these days. Somebody starts to torch him of course call it off but I'd think they could expand him from his current about 7% of time at PF to 20% PF next season if they wanted to play his better numbers there.
They probably won't though for fear of injury. Might be right. Maybe in a few years.
This was disappointing... Watson drives me up a wall... How can a guy be so good and so bad at the same time?... Green had an off night too... and we still have the most untimely turnovers... and they led to alot of points for the Clippers.
I'm REALLY angry right now, so I'm kinda typing purely from my emotions. But this feels like we've regressed to pre "new years eve Thunder".
Durant's rebounding in January is double what it was in February. Right now Durant's second skill (and stars need to have at least 2 in my book) is rebounding, not assists and not defense.
Durant at PF is looming as an ever larger long-term prospect. Match up to that will ya.
Durant scores 46 and grabs 15 rebounds and has the second worst +/- on the team? A lot of that is on Presti and Brooks for not having the right players around him, I think. But Durant must be doing some non-boxscore stuff well below average too. He'll probably figured it out more. Hope the bosses do too.
TERRIBLE coaching job by Brooks tonight. Collison played the worst game I have ever seen him play- and for some reason Coach refused to even look at Wilcox or Smith- and gave him significantly more minutes that Krstic. Weaver was playing decent defense and shooting 50% from the field- so we put in Earl "the turnover machine" Watson to finish? No way we should have lost this one- and I'm thinking this one's on E.
Its funny how guys like Mike D'Antoni and Donnie Nelson, who have been in the league for a long time, believe they can win by outscoring the opposition and playing minimal defense? Are they crazy or am i crazy? Tell me the last NBA champ that didnt play stellar defense?
I don't even like to watch that run and gun style of basketball. It is just really uninteresting to me. It's like watching a football team that does nothing but throw long bombs, or a baseball player that only swings for the fence and won't try for base hits. I really really hate Nellies style. In all fairness, Dantonis Phoenix teams were actually a bit above average defensively. He's having a tougher time with New York. Nelson just is a freak. He is a crazy eye for offensive talent, but he is so lacking in defensive coaching it's pathetic.
You are right about importance of system Joe. And I'd say a good system comes from a good defensive coach (head or assistant) and a defensive star or anchor. Will see how strong Adams is. Weztbrook might be the star "bulldog". Not the last best defender but rather the first relentless one.
I think at least half of it is the system. Case in point, Ray Allen. Crow, you and I watched all of his games as Sonic fans. Dude could play defense when he wanted to, but on the whole, he didn't really emphasize it. His defensive rating from 04-06 was 112,116, 112.....pretty bad. Now on the Celts, his defensive rating this year and last is 103 and 104. Did he suddenly learn defense? I think it was suddenly emphasized and a system was in place. It was and is the culture to play defense in Boston.
How about Maurice Williams. 114 his last year with Milwaukee, now 104 with Cleveland.
How about Luke Ridnour, 106 now with the Bucks from 112 with Seattle.
Both Green and Durant's DR are lower than last year, and I expect them to go down some more. If you use on/off court numbers, then you have to factor in who it is that comes in and out for them. Mason is a stout defender. If he comes in for Durant, his defense will suffer by comparison.
Lots of good food for thought Crow. I love the discussion.
I love how fans around here consistently talk about winning titles. I'll be happy if we get to a point where we are consistently in the playoffs!
No top 8 team in the playoffs last season had a starter as bad on team defensive rating as Durant. No champion in last 10 years had one either.
That has to change at some point. Green was supposed to help Durant on that issue. Presti's draft pick of Green gave every indication he thought Green would help on defense but he doesn't when paired with Durant. Pretty consistently terrible for 8 months of basketball and much worse together than apart.
But maybe that is changing. Time will tell.
okcnba and Brian you both make good points I agree with.
But "building a team that competes annually at a hi-level" is mostly set goal setting, though it is strategically different from build toward a peak competitive team in their window strategy of say Boston right now.
You still need a on the court design. Players in roles at positions that fit together and have synergy. I can see Presti's salary cap strategy. I don't yet see enough of the on court design yet. But maybe by next season or the one after.
When it was Durant-Green at SG-SF I called it "Operation Big Wing. If it is Durant-Green at SF-PF it is radically different, maybe "Operation Basketball Player" or even "Operation Offense" or with Westbrook in the core now maybe "Operation Dribble-Drive". If they got Griffin does it revert to Spurs Model, do they build their offense around him as aircraft carrier instead of Durant? On what basis is playing fast validated by the last season and a half? When he picked Kristic was he signaling movement toward slower, half court? Or just adding an option, a matchup piece? What is the design?
I think crow meant that players like Duncan, Parker and Ginobli that can fit that type of role, not play up to the hall of fame standards of Duncan and Co. I think once Presti sees how his team develops over the years, he will come up with his own formula for winning. He's a bright guy, he got this job in his early thirties unlike many other GMs. He knows what he's doing.
When Presti says he wants to "build a spurs model", he's talking about building a team that competes annually at a hi-level. I don't think he's saying he wants Duncan, Parker, and Ginobili with other last names cause he's smart enough to know they don't exist.
Compared to players 6=7 to 6-9 who played at least 500 minutes so far Durant is 27th on assists per minute out of 84. http://www.basketball-reference.com/fc/tiny.cgi?id=1xFIS
Top third. Not bad for a SF, but just a 1/2 assist better than average so not that big a deal. Would be (was) terrible for a SG.
Durant to date certainly does not fit a Spurs design. Mixed case whether Presti is actually building in that direction. He may talk that way more than he actually builds that way. Durant in Spurs design terms is sort of a super (on offense) Finley. Maybe Westbrook is Parker. Still need a Duncan. If Durant doesn't fit that design in the future what other design is Presti going to use? I'd suggest looking at the build around Carmelo Nuggets- vet PG, strong defense SG. bigs who can score inside and defend inside, more 3 point shooting. And I'd argue the Nuggets would be better off trading Carmelo.
If the one player we need to watch out for is Steve Novak, I feel pretty good about this game...What is the Clips' starting lineup right now? I can only think of four guys...
I hate to oversimplify things, but it would make sense that team stats paint a poor picture of the guy who gets the most minutes on a 9-34 ball club.
Good questions though. Just a couple of my thoughts...
1. Does Durant break plays and make them 1 on 1’s too much?
I've wondered how often the intent of the play is to set up an isolation. I do notice they motion often to get a different defender to switch to Durant.
4. If teammates are open does he see them, does he pass to them, does he pass to them well at the right time?
At times, I wished he wouldn't pass. I'd like to see him hit that rhythm and call for the ball. Other times, he tries to do too much and ends up turning the ball over. I forget the game we lost where he blamed the loss on himself. Two turnovers in the final minute and a half, one off a dribble and one trying to pass to Nick in a crowd. However, he gets a lot of assists in comparison to the other 3's in the league.
The wayback machine hasn't been updated recent enough to get the exact info.
nothing new to me but another award Durant got last season
http://blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami/2008/05/12/my-first-annual-nba-no-defense-team-starring-nash-carmelo-and-al-jefferson/
I think both Durant and Green were at -13 to -15 at some point under PJ so to go to -9 and -7 respectively for season according to 82 games right now on one page (not the same mark as one of their other pages) they both must have improved a good deal. Probably better than -5 recently. Encouraging to be sure but still an issue.
Because for the first 2/3s of what we've seen from this team, there was very little about the offense that was working. To me, based purely on perception, the offense looks much better with Durant in it, than without. Usually when Durant does go into a 1 on 1 offense, is as much the rest of the team standing around and watching him as it is him calling them off.
Whole season. And yeah that would be worth seeing. In the past I'd save such data to be able to calculate if there was improvement but I let go a fair amount. I might be able to get to it after the fact if I worked at it.
Crow are those stats of the team being worse with Durant on the floor than without him for the whole season or just a specific time frame (i.e. the last 11 games?). If it's for the whole season than I'd be interested in seeing what they are since New Years Eve.
To expand further on something I put in an "old" thread:
Why does the team do so poorly with Durant on the court?
Durant probably plays against starters heavily, maybe the most heavily so that is probably some of it. But it is not the end of the story. They still have a problem when, where and with who to play with Durant.
The offense is a tenth of a point worse with him than without and the defense is 11.3 points worse with compared to without. SF is better but maybe more time with the subs would be better too. But if Presti is building around Durant, that part isn’t working so far. The other parts are working far better without him than with.
What is Durant doing wrong and what are Presti and Brooks doing wrong?
Durant
1. Does Durant break plays and make them 1 on 1's too much?
2. If the play isn't for him does he do is his job- serve as decoy, clear space, set picks, set up for rebound, protect the backcourt, facilitate ball reversal, etc.?
3. Does he fight thru picks, always go under, doesn't switch period, doesn't call them out for others or what?
4. If teammates are open does he see them, does he pass to them, does he pass to them well at the right time?
5. Does he feed the post well, does he doing anything meaningful immediately after?
Presti and Brooks
1. Where are the passers to get the ball to Durant in the right spots? Vets who know what the right spots are? Passers who know when not to pass to Durant and when to get it back?
2. Where are the plays that give Durant effective options if his shot isn't there?
3. Exactly how was Green supposed to compliment Durant and where is the proof? Is Green mainly just a #2 scorer and is he really the right kind of #2 scorer with Durant?
4. Who is tutoring Durant on defense and why wasn't more progress been made?
5. Are they aware of how weak the team is with Durant on the court and what have done to fix it?
Time to return the favor boys. Payback's a witch, injuries or not!
Let's see if they've developed that "killer instinct" to put away a wounded prey...(too dramatic...I thought it might be)
The Clippers are missing their FOUR best players (Kaman, Z-Bo, BD and Camby). Good chance for the Thunder to steal one on the road.