vs. 
Charlotte Bobcats (35-43, 12-25 road) vs. Thunder (21-57, 14-26 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 7:00 CST
Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.0 (29th), Charlotte: 105.1 (27th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.8 (20th), Charlotte: 106.0 (7th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.5 (8th), Charlotte: 88.3 (27th)
You know a good way to close out a home season? With a win. Call me crazy, but that’s what I’d like to see.
Especially because this is arguably OKC’s best remaining chance to win. After this game the Thunder hits the road for three against Milwaukee, Portland and the Clippers. And OKC’s 7-30 on the road. So if you don’t win tonight, you could be looking at ending the season on an eight-game losing streak with losses in 13 of the last 15. Oh, and also closing out with seven straight losses at home. I’m not really a fan of that.
But the Bobcats have a lot to play for tonight. They are scratching and clawing (get it?) to get into the playoffs. They are three games back of Detroit for the eighth spot, but in order to get there, they’re going to have to win on the road. And Charlotte is not so good away from home. They’re 12-25 on the road and have lost five of seven. A loss tonight could all but kill the Bobcats so you can expect them to come out with fire and intensity.
The last (and only) meeting back on Dec. 3, the Bobcats won 103-97 in a game that was tight throughout. No quarter was separated by more than three points. Emeka Okafor was dominant with 25 and 13 as OKC really had no answer. But that was pre-Nenad Krstic! Well, alright, but still. In that game, nine guys from OKC played and five of those are either not with the team anymore or haven’t played in a month. The Bobcats had Jason Richardson that night, but now have Boris Diaw, Raja Bell and Vlad Radmonovich. So it’s kind of a whole new game. The Thunder shot 54 percent in that game, but were outrebounded by 11, missed 10 free throws and turned it over 18 times. OKC’s had a little bit of a hold on the turnovers lately and have rebounded the last couple months extremely well.
Gerald Wallace vs. Kevin Durant is an interesting matchup because they’re both long, athletic and can score from everywhere. Wallace prefers to drive rather than shoot and KD is the opposite. Wallace scored 21 last time and KD had 24 on 9-12 shooting. I think we could actually see Thabo see some time on Wallace. Wallace leads the team in scoring at almost 19 a game, but they have six guys that score in double-figures. That’s pretty good distribution.
Tip at 7:00 CST and evidently fans ae supposed to wear blue as some kind of sendoff or something. Whatever. Go Blue.
Westbrook does not have the ballhandling skills of a pure point- he could mask that problem if he wouldnt dribble into double and triple teams on at an alarming rate . . .
Westbrook gets assists at about 5-10% better than average PG.
With all the videotape crew he should have a pretty long reel of passes and drives that he shouldn't try. this season was practice. But eventually he'll need to clean it up.
Westbrook's 9 turnovers ties league high this season with 3 others including Rondo. Kidd has highest game turnovers of last 20+ years at 14 and he he has 2 more of the worst 7, turning it 12 times. Looks like Westbrook is one of the league leaders in big turnover games (5 or more). Happen a bit over 20% of the time. He has 4 another 25% of the time. 3 about 20% of time, 2 or less about 25% of the time. Looks like Westbrook turnovers it over about 50% more per minute than the average PG.
Great defense! Held the Bobcats to only 33% shooting, and got 10 blocks to go along with 10 steals. Weaver had a great game, getting 3 blocks and 4 steals to go along with a solid shooting night. Westbrook was amazing if you turn a blind eye to the turnovers, and only superb if you don't. KD and Uncle Jeff each did excellently on the boards, getting four more each than their season averages. Nice effort tonight guys!
See what happens when you play with energy?!
@Bernard
Yes you did. And I'm glad you did.
totally called it 8-)
Thabo's fro was flipping sweet. And Russ had nine turns. Wow.
Speaking of turnovers...if Russell had gotten ten TOs, would that hhave counted as a triple double?
yes it is. we are going to be AMAZING... once we get a handle on the turn overs :)
Thabo's afro is AWESOME.
somehow I have a feeling that we might actually win this one.
Go Thunder!
@Joe
I think Thabo might be able to handle him some. If you put Green on him, then you've got KD guarding Diaw I don't know... kind of pick your poison. I actually think KD does a decent job man-to-man, on-the-ball. His problem is he gets lost in motion.
And Rumbles Twitter is twitter.com/rumblethebison
what's rumble's twitter address? haha
No way would I let Durant try and guard Wallace. Put Green on him. If Green get's in foul trouble, we have more Power forwards and tweeners.
@Ryan
I follow him too. And I will also be wearing blue tonight - although it will be Cubbie blue. But blue nonetheless.
@Royce
Ol' Rumble was promoting it big time on his Twitter (Yeah, so what I follow Rumble on Twitter). Needless to say, I'll be wearing my blue tonight.
@Ryan
So it would cut itself! Wooooo!
And I have no problem with the blue... I was just saying they've really been promoting it for some reason.
C'mon... don't be so apathetic about the color blue and the act of wearing it. Next, you're gonna wish your lawn was emo.