Daily Thunder.com Peace, Love and Thunderstanding: Can Ya Dig It

When the Thunder have only one shot to take, obviously they look for Kevin Durant to take that shot. He’s, at minimum, the second best player in the NBA right now, and according to the rankings the league’s best scorer. Unfortunately, every team the Thunder plays knows he’s option 1 and 1A and therefore do everything in their power to deny him the ball. In the end, he either gets the ball somewhere close to half court where he still has to take the shot with a hand in his face. And if that doesn’t work, Russell Westbrook or Thabo Sefolosha, who aren’t exactly snipers in the easiest of circumstances, wind up taking the games biggest shot.

Not surprisingly, the Thunder are 7-10 in games decided by three points or less.

Maybe Scott Brooks should be drawing up plays to put the game in the hands of option #22…mainly because Jeff Green has actually proved he will come through. Last season, he banked home a win against Golden State. This season, with bigger stakes, he has had even bigger moments. Who can forget Green’s performance against the Hawks on Martin Luther King Day? His clutch dunk and incredible block sealed the victory over one of the Eastern Conference’s best teams on their home floor. Soon after, it was another huge defensive play by Green that saved the Thunder from an embarrassing defeat against Minnesota.

When the pressure is on, Uncle Jeff is the man you can count on. That was never clearer than Tuesday night in Utah. Even after Kevin Durant shot the team back into the game, it was Green who drilled the three pointer that tied it in regulation. Then, with five seconds left in OT, Green banked home a runner to give the team a (brief) one point lead. I was so pumped I re-wrote a classic song in his honor. Check it out after the jump.

Who’s the 6’9″ guy in the post

that hits the shots when needed most?

Green!

You’re damn right!

When the games on the line

who blocks the shot from behind?

Green!

Can ya dig it?

During overtime with only five ticks

who banks it in in front of all the chicks?

Green!

Right on…

That Green is a clutch mutha–

(Boy shut yo mouth)

But I’m talkin’ bout Green

(Then we can dig it)

He makes a nightly contribution

that gets overlooked by even the biggest fan

(Jeff Green)

8 comments

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duff

lyrics of furry......i love jeffy lube

Alan

We definitely need better plays for these last-possession, final-seconds situations. I love the fact that we have multiple threats in the clutch.

Related puzzlement: We all know Durant is a beast. But I don't understand why, in the Utah game, both of the last-play sequences were drawn up to have Durant getting the ball and shooting (way) out beyond the 3-point arc--when a higher-percentage 2-point shot would have won the game in both situations.

thunder tim

good thoughts! What I'd like to see in situations where it's like 10 seconds or so, is have RW or JH drive the ball and kick out to Durant or Green. Durant's handles are not really all that good when he's beyond the arc and the seconds are ticking down. Why not let someone with better handles move the ball around and have him move w/out the ball to get in position? Seems worth a shot at least. (see what I did there?) :)

Gunnar Þór

I've been thinking about that sneaky alley oop as well since no one will give a damn about ibaka in the game at that time. our inbound plays always seem to have only one option, durant and nothing else no matter where he gets it, 1b seems to be just get it to someone no matter where he is. we need to have 3-4 options on that play. Durant tries to hard sometimes to free him up in impossible situations instead of trying to get someone else free instead. If the first option for durant ain't working, i'd like him to play a decoy for either harden or green for the corner three

Crow

The stats do show Green hitting his clutch shots above 50% this season, better than Durant, though Green has faced less pressure and less than half as many attempts.

I'd be fine with Green as 1B or even the 1A option you were going for, given the way Durant is covered, especially if they used the 1A option in a way to try to sneak Durant free in some clever, less obvious and less obvious to stop way.

hurricane_season

we need an alley oop inbound to SERGE with green/durant/collison running screens/picks for him before the ball is in motion.

something i dreamt up after utah. i think it could work.

Boots

Agreed that Green is a great clutch player on our team, and I literally was talking to a buddy last night about this. I think the thought process that we HAVE to give it to Durant isn't the best way to go.

The other players I mentioned that I think could be a clutch shooter for us; Westbrook and Maynor

Rhett

Nice. Gotta see Black Dynamite if you haven't already.
http://www.blackdynamitemovie.com/

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The Mid-Afternoon Milk Mustache, featuring the stupidest article of the year | Stacheketball, an NBA Blog says:

April 8, 2010 at 5:35 pm

[...] The Handlebar: The Thunder’s struggles in crunch time have been well publicized this season. Royce Young suggests that they start looking past option 1 (Kevin Durant) and option 1a (Kevin Durant) to Jeff “Shaft” Green. [Daily Thunder] [...]

Peace, Love and Thunderstanding: Can Ya Dig It

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