Another loss at home by the hands of another white hot point guard. It was like Deja-vu from Wednesday night with the Bulls. Tonight was Deron Williams turn to be perfect from the field in the third quarter (6/6), much like Derrick Rose was in the second half two nights ago.
In tonight’s matchup, the Thunder never really seemed in control of the game at any time. They managed a one point lead at the end of the first using a 9-2 run, but the Jazz came out in the second and went on an 8-2 run of their own. Meanwhile the Thunder began to turn the ball over. Big surprise eh? This team does a lot of self inflicted damage. The Thunder entered halftime having turned the ball 12 times and closing out 2/10 shooting. In fact, we shot a measly 5/17 in the second quarter as a whole (29%), while the Jazz were putting on a pick and roll clinic and shooting 50% in the quarter.
As I mentioned, the third quarter is where Deron Williams lit fire and was an offensive force. Westbrook couldn’t stay in front of him at all. Basically all Westbrook did to defend him was to foul him, which he did on back to back plays. But first Williams stroked a couple of jumpers in Westbrook’s grill just to get him thinking shot defense, then it was all drives. It obviously got me thinking we needed to switch Thabo on him like Brooks did in against Rose on Wednesday. Brooks did, and it didn’t make any difference. Once Williams crossed up Thabo so bad that he almost fell. Thabo picked up his 4th foul and Westbrook his second and third working on Williams in the third.
Besides the Deron Williams offense clinic in the third, the Jazz also didn’t turn the ball over and won the quarter on the boards 8-10 including 4-1 on the offensive boards. The Thunder shot well in the quarter (10/17-59%) but they couldn’t get stops.
In the fourth the Thunder finally began to show some intensity. It’s not that they weren’t playing hard earlier in the game, but it just seemed like they didn’t want it badly. That all changed in the fourth when the Thunder began getting a few stops with steals and forcing turns and hammering the boards. Durant had three offensive boards in the fourth and Collison had three and the Thunder cut the lead to 4 at 96-90 on a Thabo dunk with a 1:15 to go.
The Jazz, cool as a cuke, just went about their business and the Thunder just kept fouling and sending them to the line to finish it off.
Random bullets:
- It was a medium-fast paced game tonight with 94 possessions, just about average for these two teams that both run selectively.
- Our offensive efficiency was a disappointing 100 points/100 possessions; Utah’s was 107.
- The defensive play of the night might have been when Chucky Atkins swiped Mehmet Okur across the face inadvertently and rung his bell. He left the game and never came back. He was leading the team in scoring at the time and was having a good matchup with Krstic.
- Speaking of Chucky, weren’t we told after he was acquired in the Petro trade that he was a good three point shooter? He is a career 36% threeballer but he is only 7-24 7-28 (25%) as a Thunder…er?
- I like Grant Long as the color guy. He has this demeanor whereby he doesn’t really offend. He is just sort of an even tempered positive contributor, and not a nuisance like his partner in the box. But again I have to take issue with Grant. During halftime he and Davis were talking about Westbrook’s first half numbers in glowing terms and Grant said “He’s playing with a lot of patience tonight, and he’s not turning the ball over at an alarming rate”. At that time Westbrook had four turns. Again, my college dropout math ability tells me that would extrapolate to 8 turns in a full game. Not alarming? C’mon Grant, what number of turns constitutes “alarming” to you? At least RW didn’t turn it the rest of the game.
- However, the league’s worst team at hanging on to the ball managed to turn it over 18 times-Durant was the worst culprit with 6. Those turns led to 23 Jazz points.
- I was a little disappointed in Westbrook for only getting 4 assists in 35 minutes. He really needs to look to his teammates more with the ball in his hands and not call his number as much. He was good with his own offense tonight, but he needs to look pass first for this team to really take another step forward.
- To illustrate my point above, RW used up 18 possessions, or 26% of the possessions while he was in the game, but Jeff Green used up only 14 possessions and had the same number of assists as Westbrook.
- The Jazz had 110 scoring opportunities (FGA+FTA), while the Thunder only had 100. Those 8 extra turns take the ball out of our hands and give it to them to score with.
- We sent them to the line 26 times tonight, yet only got there ourselves 14 times.
- We did wind up winning the rebound battle 46-40.
- Krstic is no Euro-wimp by any means, but Collison just absolutely “toughens up” the frontline when he comes into the game. I think he is a player every team would like to have.
The next game is Sunday on the road in Minny. Hopefully we can get that 20th win (in the third try) to equal the win total of last season.
I got the opportunity to finally get out of Loud City and as a random gift from someone to my dad (who in turn gave them to me), my little brother and I sat basically courtside last night. It was unreal.
We sat directly behind the Jazz bench and it was incredible to see the control Jerry Sloan has over his team. During timeouts he did very little coaching, but more let Carlos Boozer and Deron Williams do all the talking. It seemed like Sloan would only interject when he wanted to "confirm" something... like "Ok, so you've got 35? Good." It was really incredible.
It was also very cool to see (and hear) how much talking goes on during the game. Every defensive possession guys are yelling stuff out constantly almost in a code I couldn't understand. Definitely the most vocal defender is Thabo. He called out every screen, every back cut, every recover.
@Keith
All good points Keith. Actually I wondered about the pick and roll/pop as well. I mean heck, if you run a little two man game with Durant and Westbrook with Durant as the screener, if the team switches, he's got somebody 8 inches shorter than him guarding him and we know KD can shoot. If the team doesn't switch and fights over or under, either way, KD doesn't need much room to shoot.
And with Krstic, some games they go to the pnp well a lot with him, some games it's just not being used?
I do think that DJ White was specifically drafted for his back to the basket game and his post skills. He's gone and so we have a hole there. http://www.draftexpress.com/profile/D.J.-White-224/
You know, a lot of people have said move Green because of his skillset and position availability. I don't think that's necessary (unless some young all-star PG or F is offered). Green is a guy that seems to fit well into a role. He doesn't demand shots, and he plays a reasonably strong all-around game. His biggest problem is shot inconsistency. He's asked to should a decent load, but he's anywhere between 38 and 52% shooting from game to game. That leads me to believe he could be more efficient in limited minutes. If he knows he has to play 110% for 20 minutes instead of up and down for 40, maybe we could utilize his skills more.
One thing I always wonder is why don't we run more pick and rolls or pick and pops. Green and Krstic are practically designed for that game as big men. Of course Westbrook's shooting hurts that, but not if he's the one going to the hoop. The big problem with Green at PF isn't necessarily him, but how he's used. We don't have any bangers. We don't have anyone who is a threat in the low post. Just look at Rashard Lewis in Orlando. He's as true a SF as they come, but he was an all star (admittedly not deserved) at PF because he has Dwight Howard doing all the work inside.
@Jeff
excellent points about Green . . . I agree at some point you have to trade him - and I hate to say that because I like his style of play . . .
Here's a little draft day fantasy:
Lottery goes 1. Wash, 2. OKC, ...
OKC trades:
J. Green
Wash trades:
B. Griffin
B. Haywood (if healthy)
OKC drafts:
R. Rubio
Yeah, that'd be fun.
@Jeff
Well actually you have a point there Jeff, but it is sort of a painful one that doesn't really get talked about all that much. And that is that our "big three" are all sort of tweeners when you think about it. KD is a small forward in a skinny/big man's body. Green is a combo forward that might really be better suited to the 3. And Russell is a combo guard who can get minutes at the 1, but isn't a great point guard yet. We all hope he can develop into a good floor general, but sometimes the combo guard who they make the point guard doesn't work that well. Lots of stats and highlight plays, but never a great deal of success team wise. Westbrook is going to be a great basketball player, but at what position? Same with the other two?
I love the way Westbrook attacks the basket and gets to the foul line and battles inside for rebounds from the guard position, but he has no feel for the point guard position. He doesnt play in control and i am not sure that is something he will ever do. At some point Jeff Green is going to have to be traded because his is skill set is suited for the small forward position and either he is going to have to come off the bench where there is limited minutes because Durant plays about 40 min a game or be dealt. I think he is too good of a player to have on bench , which is why they have him in the lineup now out of position, but utltimately the Thunder will need to get a real power forward and let Green blossom at the small forward for another team.
@Jazzspin
:O)
I guess we put out one fire, but lit another.
"The defensive play of the night might have been when Chucky Atkins swiped Mehmet Okur across the face inadvertently and rung his bell." Haha, no doubt Memo was poised for a big game with 12 points in 12 minutes but that also made Williams realize he needed to shoulder the load, which he obviously did. Often D-will is best when he places it all on himself... or when we has a pg like Westbrook playing well against him as was the case.
the good think about what Ive seen is that everything that Durant does wrong on defense is able to be corrected - he hust has to put more effort on that side of the ball - if he does, then watch out NBA . . .
@Jeff
you have a right to your opinion, but when your first line after stating your opinion is " He is a dynamic story" then that doesn't really refute what I am saying . . . No one ever suggested Kyle and Thabo were better PLAYERS than Durant - we all know he's a stud on the offense. I listed in DETAIl what he did wrong in the first quarter - I never said he was cherry picking, so I really don't understand what your issue is. Just because he scores 26 a game doesn't mean he's immune from criticisim . . .
my last post was responding to Nix . . . sorry . . .
I remember that one - I know sometimes they switch - but that time they obviously didn't - that's why communication is important . . .
@Kev
I agree with you Kev, the defense was soft tonight. Not terrible, but definitely a step backwards from the Spurs game and a few of the games with Green and Durant out.
And you are right also about the offense. It hasn't been as smooth as it was in January.
Nix :
Did anyone else think Chucky was better on D-Will then Westbrook?
Also…Scott Brooks should have gotten a bit more fired up against the refs…at least a tech…I was livid at some of the offensive foul calls…granted some were good calls…but we didn’t even get make up calls…
I didn't mention it in the post game, but speaking of Chucky, one play really stood out. It was early fourth and DWill had the ball with Chucky guarding out by the three point line on the right. There were a knot of players right around the area. Deron got a weak screen from AK and he sort of handed off the ball to the screener and began to roll, and so did the little knot of players. Chucky went with them. D-Will stopped and stepped back out near the three point line, and AK flipped it back to him for the jumpshot; wide open. Chucky was guarding Weaver's man under the basket along with Weaver.
I don't necessarily think this in indicative of "all" of Chucky's defense, but he definitely didn't know how to stay with his man on that one.
I think its funny to read everyday on this site about how bad defensively Kevin Durant is. To listen to you tell it , you would think the Thunder are playing 5 against 4 on the defensive end with Durant cherry pickin and waiting for the Thunder to bring the ball back on offense. He is A dynamic scorer. He can shoot it better than Thabo and Kyle with his eyes closed. He is by no means a defensive stopper and may never be more than marginal on defense, but you have to hope he is smart enough to work on that part of his game if he wants to be one of the best in the game.
@Nix
not really - he's a little smaller than RW so he can get slip through those high picks a little easier, but DW was still effective on Atkins as well . . . the guy is (obviously) good . . .
Did anyone else think Chucky was better on D-Will then Westbrook?
Also...Scott Brooks should have gotten a bit more fired up against the refs...at least a tech...I was livid at some of the offensive foul calls...granted some were good calls...but we didn't even get make up calls...
I think you are both being a little rough on the Thunder- though I'm sure it was all meant as tough love. Deron Williams is freaking good. No shame in our rookie PG not being able to keep up at this stage in his career. Same goes for our 6'7" Swiss defensive stopper. Dude isn't supposed to be covering future hall of fame point guards. I think KD HAS looked better at the defensive end of the floor- and the team as a whole has improved tremendously on defense since Thabo joined the line-up. Our shooting has stunk over the last few games, though it seemed a little better last night. Turnovers are our biggest problem in my opinion. BOTH of those issues are absolutely going to improve as this team matures and gets used to playing with one another. I'd be curious to know if there is another team in the league that has played more different starting line-ups than the Thunder has.
Defensive Report -
The Thunder's defense was mediocre at best. Royce already mentioned the defense against Williams. Thabo didn't have his usual great defensive game even before he was switched to Williams, and he when he got in foul trouble you could tell that he wasn't being as aggressive as usual. Weaver had a decent defensive effort as he was able to run Korver off his jump shot - Korver did not attempt a jump shot when Weaver was guarding him (28 possessions).
It was comical listening to the announcers lauding Durant's improved defensive performance. They based this on the tape from the San Antonio game (which he did play decently in ) and the first quarter on Friday night. I have several issues with that:
1) They ignored the Bulls game in which he performed badly
2) The only thing he did that was noteworthy defensively( in a good way) in the first quarter vs the Jazz was when he stuffed Brewer.
3) I counted SEVEN defensive mistakes in the first quarter alone -
they included:
1) losing sight of his man defensively when the ball was on the weakside (this happened twice)
2) not blocking out -
3) going well underneath a screen (he does this often) allowing Miles to hit an easy jumper
4) being slow while he went on top of the screen - Miles then scored on a layup
5) was late in getting back out to his man - Miles hit a three
Again, that was all in the first Quarter - there were a lot more in the rest of the game. I wish he would watch tape of Thabo and Kyle on D - you can tell by their body language that they love to compete on D - you can read their faces and TELL that they get upset when they mess up defensively - Durant doesn't show that when he makes a mistake. He had a good offensive game, but he (along with everyone else) has to step it up on the other end.