Thunder at Lakers: Pregame Primer

@Snowflake
I watch a lot of Lakers basketball and that's the most complete, cohesive game I've seen out of them in a long time. Again, I gotta give the Thunder D a lot of credit because they fought for and contested everything. The D was in much better shape than I expected.

If we want to be competitive in this series, taking game 2 is going to be absolutely necessary because it will be tough to win both home games

@Sammy
I agree with a lot of what you posted, but the Lakers did not play "really really well" they played about average. I still expect the Thunder to win game 2 though

Russ looked surprisingly composed after looking really nervous and uncertain in the last couple weeks. Maybe it's playing in LA that's good for him? Wish the same thing could be said for Harden...

Positives to take away from this game:

* The defense is back. The Lakers obviously game-planned to pound it through Bynum and Gasol, and while the Lakers bigs shot well enough (a combined 13-24), OKC did an admirable job particularly in the second half of denying the entry pass and swarming the ball to forcing a kick out. If we can limit Bynum, Gasol, and Odom to a combined 39 points on 28 shots every game, we can win this series. I repeat, this series is winnable.

*Westbrook's back, too. We knew coming in that in order for this series to be competitive, RW would have to revert to form and make Derek Fisher look like a traffic cone. We all feared that he'd play like he has all of April, but it looks like Westbrook will be the huge asset we need him to be.

* Yes, the offense is a problem and the Lakers' D is something that Brooks will need to solve, but 7-24 will not happen again. That wasn't all Artest; we know KD can handle Artest because he's done it during the regular season. I chalk it up to jitters, and KD wasn't the only one. KD, Green, Harden, and Sefolosha all looked uncomfortable shooting the ball. Well, Sefolosha always looks uncomfortable shooting the ball, but you have to think KD, Green and Harden will come on eventually. They may never light it up, but shooting slightly below season averages is a pretty reasonable expectation.

* The bottom line is the Lakers played really really well tonight, the Thunder missed a ton of open looks, and we still only lost by 8. I find that remarkable.

* Game two decides if the series is competitive. I don't think it's unlikely that we steal it. KD's game one performance was, I'll admit it, more or less what I expected. But we've seen the kid grow up fast before...

@The DON

LOL you're a joke, man...

@Anonymous

Thanks for proving me right indirectly by not so much as attempting to refute those points by me

Also, thanks for paying enough attention to me that you combed through 9 pages of commentary and copied & pasted my comments

Also, I don't know why you're scared to reply to me under your real name and not with the 'anonymous' account. I promise I don't bite

@Bob

I thought Green did alright on Kobe in the fourth quarter, Kobe hit a couple tough shots and JVG even commented on the fact that Green was doing OK. Kobe came back in the game with almost 8 minutes left and he went 2-5 from the field against Jeff Green. I'll take that...

@justin

Jeff Green had a horrible game on both ends and he didnt play good defense on kobe at all.. kobe had all of his points in the second half against Green.

@The DON

I was using "hate" as a synonym for "blame" in this instance. KD was held in check because LA had no reason to guard anyone else. Obviously KD isn't great breaking down a defender or busting through a double-team, but we played into that weakness rather than away from it.

@The DON

first quarter we were down five or six and fisher hit a pair of 3s in consecutive trips and then kobe came down and hit one on the next.

there's your ballgame. We played poorly and totally got dominated size-wise and we were 2 possessions away with a couple minutes to go.

If we want to be positive, here are some positives:

We played horrific yet we were within 6 points at the end. That is amazing.

I'd give SERIOUS consideration to starting the game with Thabo on the bench and Ibaka in the game. That big lineup at the end was our best lineup, Green stank on Kobe when he got on him in the first half but I thought he played great defense at the end on him. And Ibaka, even though he didn't play that well, his length really helps us on defense.

@Stephen

KD hate? We all love KD and this team thats why we're on this site. But how the heck does that mean we are barred from commenting honestly on the games? What do you want me to say, KD played great?

I don't get all the KD hate, it's pretty clear their goal was to take KD out of the game. Westbrook stepped up but no one else did. The Lakers packed the lane, and everyone else was either afraid to shoot or not ready to shoot. We really need a secondary scoring option on the floor that can hit a jumpshot and someone that can consistently score in the post.

I can't even find the words to describe how poorly James Harden played in this game...

@dream catcher

Kevin Durant is told to shoot. That's clearly the game plan. Our guys got the ball early on wide open and didn't make shots. I don't blame KD for trying to score, but you're right it's up to him to make the right pass.

The Don... you can't split the defense when the Lakers have the lane packed. Watch the game again if you have to, there was nowhere for Kevin Durant to go on most of those plays. No player Kevin Durant's size would have scored against that kind of defense. The thing we have to do is get the Lakers to respect our other options offensively, or we lose this series. It's that easy.

Another stat to point out... Krstic didn't get his 10 pts. we're money when he does that, so maybe that should be a focus for Game 2.

justin :

The DON :@justin
LOL @ this b.s.
boo F’ing hoo, he can’t get open cause the other team is keying in on him as our #1 offensive option. Cause that sure doesn’t happen to other #1 options.
He played horrible, and if you don’ come to this obvious conclusion you’re the one that needs to watch this game instead of getting emotional over being told the truth
And if you don’t think KD was roughed up and wasn’t tough enough (tonight) to respond, then you need a new pair of eye balls

You still haven’t answered my question. If you know so much about basketball tell us what Kevin Durant (or any scorer) does against the defense he was seeing. When he’s coming off screens and seeing two defenders there, what do you suggest a scorer is supposed to do? When nobody is making shots at all, when your perimeter shooters at Thabo Sefolosha and Jeff Green how do you proceed?
This is a problem with our scheme, not Kevin Durant. Our team has to give the Lakers a reason not to pack Kevin Durant’s side of the court. Nobody is going to score consistently against that type of defense. JVG and Mark Jackson even said it all night that our supporting cast has to hit shots.
Again, get a clue before making stupid comments. Learn how to observe the context of the game before looking at ‘7-24′ from the field and freaking out.

Durant needs to find the open man more, IDC what the other guys were shooting , that's the right basketball play. Odd's favor role players making open shots than KD making contested shots with Artest on him like glue.

The sun will rise tommorrow. I think Artest makes Durant expend too much energy on the offensive end. Durant was worn out down the stretch. I would pick and roll with Durant at the 4 and try small ball. I think that our best chance.

I dont know what KD is supposed to do when he gets the ball since our offense is based around setting 2 screens for him and then having two other guys stand around outside the 3 point line with their hands in their pockets.

if he comes off the screen and he's double-teamed he needs to dish off, but what's the point? The shot clock is at 7 at that point and all we're going to get is Thabo bricking a corner 3 or green taking an ill advised jumper when he should be taking it to the rim.

Its not Durant, its not green, its not harden and its not thabo who's killing our offense... its the offensive strategy. Give the ball to KD and see what happens wasnt working today.

And for those that will moan about the refs…I think we will be really lucky if the rest of the series is officiated nearly this evenly, especially in LA. This is the playoffs and we just played the defending champs at home and they got called for a lot more fouls than we did, it was 18 to 27 discounting intentional fouls in the last minute.

I was just thinking the same myself. I was very pleasantly surprised by how the whistle was NOT swallowed for LA down the stretch (Kobe's foul on JG, Odom's 6th). Did KD turn the tables on Phil Jackson's attempt to play the refs?

@justin

you're right, KD can't (at this stage of his career) handle double teams, so to answer your question, there isn't anything KD can do when double teamed because he doesn't know how to split the defense yet....which leads to what I said originally, he isn't able to handle this kinda roughness right now at this point of his career

you are the master of deflecting things. you want to take everything away from KD and place blame where you wan to justify your biases against certain players (Jeff Green, cough cough)

Your refusal to face the FACT that KD was locked down tonight by physical D and that he was unable to respond makes you look very bad

the don - please stop posting. I can't stomach the idiocy.

Who wants to bet that KD will be shooting all day tomorrow with someone pushing him away from the basket. I'd almost be willing to put money on him going off for 40 on Tuesday.

im oddly encouraged by this game

we got nothing out of KD for the majority of the game, Harden and Green were negatives, Ibaka was basically only a hustle guy and we lost by 8 to the 1-seed defending champions on the road in our first playoff game.

from 2nd quarter on, we beat LA by 6 points. The game basically hinged on those back-to-back-to-back 3s from fisher and kobe in the first quarter.

we can steal one tuesday, i believe

Im just glade they didnt get blown out. Game 2 is our chance to steal, never thought we had a chance in Game 1.

I think this game bodes very well for OKC in this series. I think Kobe is more likely to continue to struggle in this series than Durant and despite Bynum and Gasol getting off to a hot start, we were able to defend very well.

And for those that will moan about the refs...I think we will be really lucky if the rest of the series is officiated nearly this evenly, especially in LA. This is the playoffs and we just played the defending champs at home and they got called for a lot more fouls than we did, it was 18 to 27 discounting intentional fouls in the last minute.

@ThuDer
Durant had 2 assists

The DON :@justin
LOL @ this b.s.
boo F’ing hoo, he can’t get open cause the other team is keying in on him as our #1 offensive option. Cause that sure doesn’t happen to other #1 options.
He played horrible, and if you don’ come to this obvious conclusion you’re the one that needs to watch this game instead of getting emotional over being told the truth
And if you don’t think KD was roughed up and wasn’t tough enough (tonight) to respond, then you need a new pair of eye balls

You still haven't answered my question. If you know so much about basketball tell us what Kevin Durant (or any scorer) does against the defense he was seeing. When he's coming off screens and seeing two defenders there, what do you suggest a scorer is supposed to do? When nobody is making shots at all, when your perimeter shooters at Thabo Sefolosha and Jeff Green how do you proceed?

This is a problem with our scheme, not Kevin Durant. Our team has to give the Lakers a reason not to pack Kevin Durant's side of the court. Nobody is going to score consistently against that type of defense. JVG and Mark Jackson even said it all night that our supporting cast has to hit shots.

Again, get a clue before making stupid comments. Learn how to observe the context of the game before looking at '7-24' from the field and freaking out.

Great game by the guys. They didn't back down and if they can shoot well in game 2 they could steal one before heading to loud city.

Great time for Durant to lay an egg. Did he have even one assist?

@justin
Haha justin is being optimistic don is being super pessimistic and the role reversal has come full circle.

Welp great defense pathetic freaking offense we'll see what happens later this week.

Also, we won the last three quarters of this game. We beat the Lakers for three quarters today. We lost big in the first but we came to play the rest of the game.

Like I said, the Lakers won this game in the first quarter when they hit a barrage of threes. Aside from that, it's been even.

Brooks needs to seriously re-consider our approach offensively. He had to let Russ handle the ball and do more play making. Our concerted effort to free Durant on screens all game when there are three and even four guys on his side of the court is ridiculous.

WOW! We are all starting to divide as fans... this is beautiful! I just hope that the ACTUAL TEAM doesn't point fingers like this!

@justin

LOL @ this b.s.

boo F'ing hoo, he can't get open cause the other team is keying in on him as our #1 offensive option. Cause that sure doesn't happen to other #1 options.

He played horrible, and if you don' come to this obvious conclusion you're the one that needs to watch this game instead of getting emotional over being told the truth

And if you don't think KD was roughed up and wasn't tough enough (tonight) to respond, then you need a new pair of eye balls

Anonymous :

dream catcher :

justin :

The DON :@Royce Young
yes, exposed
If you don’t see that he is completely taken out of his game with physical defense i dont know what to tell you
they’re being rough with him and he can’t respond to roughness

Give me a break. How should he respond? What is he supposed to do? You haven’t answered my question: how is Kevin Durant supposed to score when he can’t get one open look at the rim? Do you see the Lakers ignoring everyone else on the court when Durant has the ball? Do you see our bull headed coach continue to force feed him when we need others involved?
Get a clue. Watch the game. Just because he’s having a poor shooting night doesn’t mean he’s not ‘tough’. Durant’s one of like six players to shoot 60%+ TS on his volume and he just finished a year where he’s taken a huge beating, getting to the line more than anyone in the last 40 years.
Our supporting cast is why we are losing. We’re getting nothing offensively from anyone but Durant and we’ve gone away from Westbrook because as always our plan to close out games is get the ball to Durant and move out of the way.
This is Scott Brooks’ adjustment he has to make for our offense. Kevin Durant is doing all he can attempting to score on four people by himself.

you know he can pass to the open man. he doesnt always have to take a shot

and who in the hell will hit the open shot? nobody has hit anything outside of westy and kd’s free throws

its still a better play then a forced KD shot.

Make a play dont just force it to KD

Would that be a travel on Kobe?

When it's rough, it's rough

There is our offense in a nutshell. Jeff Green wide open and he travels.

Those are the plays that cost us this game.

justin :

The DON :@Royce Young
yes, exposed
If you don’t see that he is completely taken out of his game with physical defense i dont know what to tell you
they’re being rough with him and he can’t respond to roughness

Give me a break. How should he respond? What is he supposed to do? You haven’t answered my question: how is Kevin Durant supposed to score when he can’t get one open look at the rim? Do you see the Lakers ignoring everyone else on the court when Durant has the ball? Do you see our bull headed coach continue to force feed him when we need others involved?
Get a clue. Watch the game. Just because he’s having a poor shooting night doesn’t mean he’s not ‘tough’. Durant’s one of like six players to shoot 60%+ TS on his volume and he just finished a year where he’s taken a huge beating, getting to the line more than anyone in the last 40 years.
Our supporting cast is why we are losing. We’re getting nothing offensively from anyone but Durant and we’ve gone away from Westbrook because as always our plan to close out games is get the ball to Durant and move out of the way.
This is Scott Brooks’ adjustment he has to make for our offense. Kevin Durant is doing all he can attempting to score on four people by himself.

you know he can pass to the open man. he doesnt always have to take a shot

That's far from the worst non-travel call I've ever seen.

this is gonna be a long 34 secs

hey,

James Harden has been found - someone call a press conference!!!

justin :

The DON :@Royce Young
yes, exposed
If you don’t see that he is completely taken out of his game with physical defense i dont know what to tell you
they’re being rough with him and he can’t respond to roughness

Give me a break. How should he respond? What is he supposed to do? You haven’t answered my question: how is Kevin Durant supposed to score when he can’t get one open look at the rim? Do you see the Lakers ignoring everyone else on the court when Durant has the ball? Do you see our bull headed coach continue to force feed him when we need others involved?
Get a clue. Watch the game. Just because he’s having a poor shooting night doesn’t mean he’s not ‘tough’. Durant’s one of like six players to shoot 60%+ TS on his volume and he just finished a year where he’s taken a huge beating, getting to the line more than anyone in the last 40 years.
Our supporting cast is why we are losing. We’re getting nothing offensively from anyone but Durant and we’ve gone away from Westbrook because as always our plan to close out games is get the ball to Durant and move out of the way.
This is Scott Brooks’ adjustment he has to make for our offense. Kevin Durant is doing all he can attempting to score on four people by himself.

HERE HERE!!!!!

The DON :@Royce Young
yes, exposed
If you don’t see that he is completely taken out of his game with physical defense i dont know what to tell you
they’re being rough with him and he can’t respond to roughness

Give me a break. How should he respond? What is he supposed to do? You haven't answered my question: how is Kevin Durant supposed to score when he can't get one open look at the rim? Do you see the Lakers ignoring everyone else on the court when Durant has the ball? Do you see our bull headed coach continue to force feed him when we need others involved?

Get a clue. Watch the game. Just because he's having a poor shooting night doesn't mean he's not 'tough'. Durant's one of like six players to shoot 60%+ TS on his volume and he just finished a year where he's taken a huge beating, getting to the line more than anyone in the last 40 years.

Our supporting cast is why we are losing. We're getting nothing offensively from anyone but Durant and we've gone away from Westbrook because as always our plan to close out games is get the ball to Durant and move out of the way.

This is Scott Brooks' adjustment he has to make for our offense. Kevin Durant is doing all he can attempting to score on four people by himself.

Man I wish we could get to OT all their good players would foul out