Box score (take a good look at it – it’s a good one)
You know what kind of quotes you see after a game like that?
“We just didn’t have any intensity tonight. We have to come out with better energy than that.”
“Shots just weren’t falling. Some nights that happens.”
“This one is on us – we just didn’t play with any fire tonight.”
“We got out-hustled. No excuses. That was just terrible effort on our part.”
“Give credit to the Blazers. They weren’t giving us any easy looks.”
Blah, blah, blah. I mean, what else are you supposed to say? “You know, other than the getting beat by 37 and shooting 36 percent, I thought things went pretty well.”
But let me tell you, that was a poor effort. They stunk. Big time. Sure, it was an “off night” if you want to call it that. I think a better description would be “so far off that I actually wonder if someone would hit the shot clock with a jumper night.” Oklahoma City shot just 36 percent for the game and it took a lot to get there after the Thunder shot just 23 percent in the first half. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-three percent. Eleven made field goals. Pathetic.
Here’s some numbers from the first half: Kevin Durant 2-9, eight points. Russell Westbrook 1-8, seven points. Jeff Green 3-7, nine points. Nenad Krstic 1-7, two points. And it’s not like it really picked up in the second half. after 35 first half points, OKC put up 37 in the second for a whopping 72 points. Too bad Portland had 107. You know how many points the leading man for OKC had? Thirteen. Thirteen points. The Thunder had three guys in double figures. As a result of all that *stellar shooting, Brian Davis probably said some variation of his little “lid on the basket” cliche 2,000 times. It got pretty old pretty fast.
(Here’s some suggestions next time OKC shoots 23 percent in a half for Davis so that he doesn’t drive the “lid on the basket” saying into the ground more than he did tonight: “What’s the code to get into that vault!?!” “Somebody forgot to put the toilet seat up!” “Are these guys shooting with their eyes closed?” “Somebody get the cover off the bucket.” “Somebody get the blanket off the bed!” (I don’t even know what that one means.) “Is that just me or is there some sort of protective devise over Oklahoma City’s basket? Amirite? Hai-five?” Just anything other than “Somebody get the lid off the basket!” It got so bad that after every missed shot I immediately hit mute. I couldn’t take it anymore. I digress.)
Not many times this year I’ve seen the Thunder play with that lack of effort. They were flatfooted, lazy on help defense and just didn’t play with any fight. It was embarrassing to watch them. An example: With about four minutes left in the third, OKC played solid defense for 24 seconds and Steve Blake had to hoist a challenged floater that had no chance. Nenad Krstic watched it hit the rim and lazily went after it as LaMarcus Aldridge grabbed the rebound and flushed it back home. I actually rewound four times watching his incredible lack of effort. It was actually impressive in a crash-and-burn sort of way. Not to single out Krstic though, because it’s not like anyone else did any better. Nobody closed out on shooters. Nobody hit the glass hard. Nick Collison even looked lazy. Nick Collison!
The Blazers outrebounded OKC 57-32 tonight. That’s a 25 rebound difference. That’s incredible. While obviously a lot of that has to do with the Thunder’s porous effort, more of that has to do with OKC giving Portland 47 rebounding opportunities. When you shoot just 36 percent, the other guy is going to get some boards. But then again, the Blazers had 21 offensive rebounds. Heck, Westbrook led the Thunder with eight rebounds. The next closest guy was KD with five. That’s. Not. Good.
Let’s take a moment to look at something positive. Shaun Livingston everyone! In 22 minutes, he scored 10 points on 5-6 shooting and dished out one assist. Kind of hard to get more than that when you’re teammates couldn’t hit water if they fell out of a boat in the ocean. But he looked relatively healthy. At times it seemed like he was favoring his right side a bit, but I wonder if that’s more of a confidence thing than pain or discomfort. He moved well and clearly had solid control of the game when he was on the floor. His offensive game is silky smooth. He didn’t look quick and didn’t have any fast bursts like Westbrook, but he easily got in the lane and scored. So far, I like what I see.
I know Portland is hot right now. I get that. They hit every open look, grabbed every rebound and played great defense. But come on – blown out by 35 on your home court? Sheesh. I actually started rooting for the Blazers to score 100 because the Thunder’s won 14 straight when they hold their opponent to under 100 points. But they got there. Thanks Portland.
How about Nicolas Batum – he was a +37 tonight. Holy crap! The Thunder starters were -25, -26, -33, -30 and -21. LaMarcus Aldridge had 35 points and 18 rebounds. I don’t really have anything to add to that, but just wanted to get those things in here because they’re pretty wild.
There’s not much more to say than that stunk. It’s not like it was turnovers – OKC just turned it 12 times. The Thunder just could not make a shot. Definitely give credit to the Blazers though because OKC had a lot of tough looks. But seriously, that was bad. I don’t know if it was a lack of focus, an over-confidence after the Spurs win or what, but that was some seriously uninspired basketball. And it wasn’t just an “off shooting night.” It was an “off intensity and desire to compete night.” After shots weren’t falling early it almost seemed like they collectively said, “Screw it, this ain’t working. Let’s go home and play XBOX.”
I’m disappointed because it’s been a long time since the team’s played like that. I said in the pre-game, “Last time the Thunder beat the Spurs, they responded with a flat, uninspired performance against the Bulls. Do that again, and we may be taking a trip down P.J. Carlesimo lane with a home blowout loss.” And that’s exactly what it was. It was a Carlesimo butt kicking like we watched for the first three weeks of the season. I realize that happens some nights, but it doesn’t make it any less frustrating. This was the NBA version of a 16 vs. a 1-seed. Portland was UCONN and we were Robert Morris. In other words, it didn’t go well.
A day off to let that one soak in and the OKC is back in action at home against Indiana Sunday night. Can’t wait.
Sure joe, that would be great - just let me know specifically what you would like . . .
Agreed Kev, if you are interested, we could definitely link to your defensive spreadsheets/system. Or perhaps work on getting a post up which breaks it down. Maybe even a tab or something. The end of the season is coming up and we want to keep interesting content on the site.
@Kev
That's fantastic stats, I would love to know how do you categorize each action in detail.
You really should write a blog on that spread sheet you did. It is something I have not seen anybody done in anywhere.
nice jo.
As bad as that game was, I have to say having 10 NBA mascots in the Ford Center at one time was wildly entertaining...If not for them, I would have left much earlier.
hey Joe and Dave: thanks for the kind words . . .
@Joe
Livingston mostly guarded the two (Fernandez) in the first and the three (Outlaw) in the second half . . .
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now about Green. Aldridge plays the 4; he plays outside; but he also plays some inside. The kid had EIGHTEEN rebounds - Green had FOUR. Your power forward, even in 28 minutes, should get more than four rebounds. Green has trouble blocking out bigger guys. He's not really that aggressive defesnively. ALdridge was all over the place, and he looks like he's more than two inches taller than Green - he shot over him at will. I know the average 4 isnt 6-11, but if you're shorter than your opponent, and you arent as aggressive as your opponent, then there's an issue. For the record, Green is less than mediocre defending the three as well.
@Vega
I say I agree.
I say we forget this game ever happened.
@Kev
A Kev - great analysis of the defense, especially Livingston's which was impressive. A note: Batum was doing exactly what the 3 does in the Blazer offense. You probably saw Outlaw, when he was playing small forward, do just that. Batum has been incredibly efficient from there the last half-dozen games. Other than that, his role is to defend the other team's primary scorer. We like him A LOT. He's playing on a bum ankle as well which is limiting his lift.
But congrats on picking up Livingston - his debut promised much.
@Kev
Your the man Kev!
It's good to hear that Livingston can hold his own defensively. Is he defending the 1, 2 or 3?
I didn't get to see the game but when you say that Aldridge destroyed Green and solidified the fact that Green is playing out of position, I assume you mean that he should be at the three. Considering that most of Aldridge's work comes from outside (he sort of plays like a three), shouldn't Green have been effective on him? Would a big like Collison have guarded Aldridge better? Curious.
Hey Colin, how are those Rat City Roller Girls doing?
I was shocked to find myself leaving after the third. First time I've ever left before the game was over. Guess I'll chalk it up to me not wanting to be there any more than most of the players.
Defensive Dissertation
1) It was great to watch a great defensive player (Thabo) go up against a superstar (Roy). Thabo held is own. In addition to the three steals and two blocks, he also racked up two other deflections and five “contests” (a hand in face while being close to the defender. In my defensive scoring system he had a good game, but it was below average if you compare it to Thabo’s performance in the last ten games. Roy was able to trick him two or three times by faking a cut one way around a screen, but instead cutting the other way and getting an easy look. In the last ten games, Roy has easily been the toughest off guard for Thabo to guard. Roy moved a lot more than even Kobe did in our last matchup against the Lakers.
I have to bring up one of Thabo’s bad plays to show how sometimes, even when you think you are making the right play – you get burned. Midway through the 3rd quarter, in transition defense, Durant (who had been guarding Nicholas Batum) picked up Roy – that left Thabo with Batum. Batum had barely touched the ball all night. More often than not, he just stood on the weak side eating popcorn and watching Roy and Aldridge go to work. Maybe this is standard MO for Portland (Batum’s usage rate is half of Roy’s – shocker). Anyway, I bet that Thabo knows this already, and he played way off him, he’s never been this far from his man (out of rotation) in the last ten games. The ball gets rotated; Roy loses the ball, but regains it and kicks it out to Batum who is patiently waiting for a wide open three. Thabo doesn’t attempt to run out or anything. Of course Batum swishes it. Still, I liked watching Thabo play in the 4th quarter. Anybody can step up defensively in a close game. But, outside of the aforementioned play, Thabo was giving his all until the final horn. Gotta love it.
2) Royce has already talked about Livingston’s offense. I like his defensive game. His performance didn’t rate out as well as Thabo’s, but in 52 possessions I had him down for zero mistakes (examples of mistakes: going well underneath a screen, over helping, giving up a step in penetration without getting picked, failing to close out, being tardy around a screen, jogging back in transition and giving up a basket, etc.). That’s an awesome stat considering Thabo has not achieved that feat in the last ten. Shaun also had two deflections and two what I call “supercontests” (not a block or deflection, but getting right in the opponents face on a shot and making the shooter throw up a prayer). His extraordinary length and aggressiveness allows him to do that. I can’t wait until Sunday to see if any trends start to develop.
3) Green and Westbrook again failed to show up defensively. Aldridge just destroyed Green, and cemented the fact that Green is playing out of position. Westbrook guarded the other team’s off guard seven times. He had four mistakes in those seven possessions (two of the four mistakes were him giving up penetration easily). That is just horrible. Also, one of RW’s strengths, offensive rebounding, also makes him a liability on the other end. For example, it is great when he gets in there and gives the Thunder extra chances to score. However, at times he overdoes it. When the other team gets the rebound, he will still try and swipe at the ball and regain possession. This stunt is not rare, you see this all the time in games. The problem is that it’s usually a post doing the swiping. This is okay because those two can matchup down the court. RW creates a defensive imbalance because while he’s down there grappling with a big guy, his man is in transition. What happens then is that one of our bigs has to matchup outside with a guard, leaving the middle wide open. RW compounds the problem because he almost never uses his jets to race back on defense. For the sake of team defense, this flaw in his game needs to be corrected in the offseason.
Mostly, I was just regretting paying money to watch that game. However, I though Shaun had an excellent game. His only turnover was on a miss communication with Malik. He was the only guy on the team who could hit his shot. He played defense, forcing one shooter to hit the side of the backboard. Just a nice, overall, in-control game from Shaun.
I also think he was the only one who actually cared about the game.
I do have to say though, I did see RW give effort on the glass. And he went to the bucket hard, as usual. So that was positive. One day, when he learns how to finish at the bucket, he'll be great.
(Changed because I deleted the moron's comment. That way it doesn't look like you're calling John a moron. - Admin)
@Joe
Yeah, that's how I watched the game. My feed was a little grainy / choppy so maybe that's why I thought White was doing well on the boards, I couldn't recognize him!
Nice, thanks Kev. After the game was over (of course) I found a link on the D league website where you can watch the game live.....
Maybe next time.
66ers report -
Actually, White was not that good on the boards - he had seven boards - four were offensive and three of those were attempted tip ins - come on, if you're 6-9 you should be able to get more than 3 defensive rebounds in 36 minutes of action. I didn't see the aggressiveness from White that you need at THAT level to warrant time in the NBA. He was very good at jump shots, as he put in at least four of those from 15 to 19 feet. Sadly, he did very little post up work. In fact, he got the ball in the post TWICE all game. The first time he turned and faced immediately after catching it (he hit a jumper from about 12). The last time he fumbled the ball after starting to dribble, and almost turned it over in the process. He offered little defensive resistance inside all night, so (based off of one game I know) it doesn't look promising.
Weaver looked okay at the point. He registered 11 assists, but when you play in a game in which transition and rotating defense is almost non existent, you can rack up the assists if you are a willing passer (which he is). He did okay at ball handling, even though he had two bad passes out of traps. With Livingston on hand, I don't think he will be seeing the point with the Thunder anytime soon. Still, it was fun to see him take his "demotion" in stride - he was in a good mood the whole game, and even gave a fist pound to all the statisticans before gametime.
clap clap clap-clap-clap, Bring back Wea-ver! clap clap clap-clap-clap
No seriously, I know it's not just one guy that makes the difference, just interesting that both Weaver and White scored over 20 with great shooting %'s on a night when the Thunder couldn't hit anything. If rebounding is the issue (which it really hasn't been most of the year), White can definitely help with that, he looked good tonight.
Yuck!