Gwen Knapp of the SF Chronicle says the Thunder are making the Lakers look old: “But the 21-year-old scoring king and his mates are threatening to bring down a pillar of the old guard. Worse, they’re making Bryant look definitively old-guard, reminding viewers that those little nagging injuries tend to start dragging down all players, but especially smaller guys on the perimeter, after age 30.”
Darnell Mayberry says a win tonight is vital: ”Newsflash: what the Thunder must do tonight at 9:30 is win. Lose and it could be time to turn out the lights on this playoff party. A loss tonight would mean Oklahoma City has to win Game 6 on Friday in Oklahoma City and steal the closeout Game 7 on the Lakers’ court Sunday. It could happen. But it wouldn’t be wise to bank on it.”
Former Laker Ron Harper is calling out his former teammates: ”Ron Harper has called out the Lakers all the way from his home in New Jersey. Harper specifically called out Ron Artest, Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar, wondering when they are going to “show up” for the Lakers in the Western Conference first-round playoff series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Harper feels as if he still has ties, and allegiance, to the Lakers, with whom he won his last two NBA titles in 2000 and 2001.”
I used this video to describe my feeling before the season started and I think it’s fitting now as well. I’m so excited. I’m so… scared.
Berry Tramel says OKC’s role players have to make the flight to LA this time: ”The great Willis Reed, who served as a sensei for us NBA novices in the Hornets’ two Oklahoma City seasons, offered all kinds of wisdom about pro basketball. Including this one: Role players don’t travel. Stars are stars be they home, road or on the moon, went Reed’s theory. But the blue-collar, help-out, fill-a-niche players who are so reliable in friendly confines? Best not count on them in road games. Which brings us to the Staples Center tonight, when the Thunder seeks to knock down the staggering Lakers and set up a wild West Friday with a chance to pull an epic series upset back at the Ford Center. Could happen, if rookie James Harden disproves Willis Reed.”
The Thunder’s got OKC business booming as well: ”Business owners said the Oklahoma City Thunder’s away NBA playoff games have brought in more business than usual, but the home games have kept their restaurants and bars packed. Christopher Goree, the general manager of the five-month-old Rooster’s Bar and Restaurant, said Saturday’s Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers brought in the restaurant’s most sales ever. “Right now I’m up 35 percent from where I was last month,” Goree said. “It’s 100 percent because of the Thunder.”
A pretty spiffy homemade Thunder blankie.
Darnell Mayberry mentioned Kobe strolling out of the Ford Center puffing on a cigar as a reference to how he wasn’t overly concerned by the Thunder. Kurt Helin of Pro Basketball Talk and Laker expert has info on that: “Note to OKC fans: Kobe lighting up a cigar after a bad loss is a little cleansing ritual he has had since last postseason.”
The Thunder are setting TV rating records: “The Oklahoma City Thunder continues to set NBA ratings record in Oklahoma City during its playoff series with the Los Angeles Lakers. Game 4 on Saturday night earned a 16.0 rating on ESPN and a 4.6 on Fox Sports Oklahoma, making it the highest rated NBA game since Oklahoma City became a metered market in 1999.”
Sean Deveney of Sporting News looks for answers for the Lakers: “A pair of iffy home wins for the Lakers, followed by two convincing losses in Oklahoma City, have folks in Lakerland rightfully nervous. The team has shot poorly (41.3 percent from the field, 28.9 percent from the 3-point line and 69.1 percent from the free-throw line), has been burned by Thunder PG Russell Westbrook (21.8 points) and has gotten uneven effort from banged-up star SG Kobe Bryant. But as bad as they’ve looked at times, the Lakers are well-acquainted with postseason turmoil, and they know an assertive effort against the Thunder at home tonight could be all they need to get their fortunes turned around.”
An excellent post from FB&G that looks back to some posts and comments from last year’s series against Houston where LA faced similar circumstances. Darius also says this: “Winning Tuesday’s game will not be easy. The Lakers can’t expect the Thunder to come out, roll over, and hand them the win. The Lakers will need to execute the little things and can’t rely on the Thunder to not play well. However, if there is a team that knows what needs to be done to still win this series wouldn’t it be the one led by Phil Jackson and captained by Kobe Bryant and Derek Fisher? Guys with 20 championships between them as players and coach? History has proven that these guys know how to get it done. But with every new season, new challenges appear, and the need to prove it again arises. I think the Lakers have it in them. Tuesday is when we all get to see if I’m right.”
Ian :
Sam
“true, but remember, the thunder didn’t blow out many teams this year,and they just blew out your lake show, so i guess we can just throw out historical trends.”
All i know is the Lakers have the experience and have been in this position before. backs to the wall. This very team minus Artest has made it to the finals the last 2 years. I guess that doesn’t matter…
"This very team minus Artest" is a silly comment. Perhaps "minus Artest plus Ariza and a healthy Bryant" would be more appropriate. Oh wait...you don't have Artest anymore and Bryan isn't healthy. Silly you...
Ian :Sam“true, but remember, the thunder didn’t blow out many teams this year,and they just blew out your lake show, so i guess we can just throw out historical trends.”
All i know is the Lakers have the experience and have been in this position before. backs to the wall. This very team minus Artest has made it to the finals the last 2 years. I guess that doesn’t matter…
You're wrong, this Lakers team did not make the finals last year.
Kobe Bryant 2009 Playoffs
30.2 PPG on 56.4% TS, 5+ REB, 5+ AST, 2.5 TOV
Kobe Bryant 2010 Playoffs
24.0 PPG on 48.6% TS, 3+ REB, 4+ AST, 3 TOV
Your super efficient wing scorer is less efficient than Russell Westbrook was during the regular season. Without Kobe putting up monster numbers, like he did in last year's playoffs, the Lakers are not the same team. You're going to hope that Kobe gets back on track and shakes off these injuries.
f5alcon
"Lakers this year are not the same laker team the last 2 years, healthwise or playerwise, we are not a typical 8th seed either most are like the bulls this year 20 games behind the 1 seed. Harden over the course of the season played better on the road."
I have to admit the Thunder have been terrific this year. There is no doubting that. But they are unable to hit jump shots. I believe outside 10 feet in this series they are hitting at a 33% clip. If the Lakers play better transition defense (which they will, couldn't be worse) they will win this series. Get back on Defense and pack the paint like your Thunder are doing. Lakers win in 6.
Sam
"true, but remember, the thunder didn’t blow out many teams this year,and they just blew out your lake show, so i guess we can just throw out historical trends."
All i know is the Lakers have the experience and have been in this position before. backs to the wall. This very team minus Artest has made it to the finals the last 2 years. I guess that doesn't matter...
dork
"Ian.. hate to break it to ya but you are within one rim rattle of being down 3-1 in this series already… and that includes game two where the thunder came out flat on their face in the 1st quarter…
Now we have confidence, momentium, and are no longer goo goo eyed becuase we are in the playoffs… I think this game is going to come down to the wire."
i don't see it like that. I think the Thunder are about a half a quarter away of being down 3-1 in this series. Lakers were up almost the entire game 3. Kobe was unable to hit shots down the stretch and Durant did a great job on him.
Like I said Lakers played all season long to have homecourt. Let's be realistic. The Lakers do not need to win in the "thunderdome".
Justin
"James Harden performed significantly better on the road this season."
He did not show up in the first 2 games of this series. I admit he may have confidence. But playing behind 20,000 people on your side is a bit different than being on the road in the playoffs.
@justin
Re Tiago Splitter, it looks like Spurs FO are increasingly confident they can sign him this offseason. So we have to find alternatives.
MastrMatt :@Brew
I’m not a beetch. I’m just glad we have a team. Not trying to stir any OKC vs. Seattle crap up. I was a big Shawn Kemp fan (before he ate and impregnated everything in sight) so I was sad to see the Sonics lose that series. It was a huge upset though.
Well … I guess my second comment about not being sorry was a little bit of a dig, but oh well.
Wait, I loved the sonics, glad they lost, second comment was a dig on purpose, but I love the sonics, yep, beetch--- look at the history books bro, the team might of changed names, but is still the team that lost that playoff series, geography only matters to those stuck in it.
@Omar That is a really good idea! Why didn't I think of that before?
Omar :I’m going to be taking a nice nap so i’ll be able to stay awake for the entire game. In other news, i’m old.
I belive this is the 'Best in Quality' comment for the day.
I'm going to be taking a nice nap so i'll be able to stay awake for the entire game. In other news, i'm old.
@dork
I'm not sure what that is. I'm not much of a gamer. I'll probably mow the lawn (crap!) and then relax with a cup o' joe and look up these Euro's that the other people listed. Fortunately, my wife is as big a Thunder fan as I am, so she'll be getting some good pre-game food ready and then we'll chill out and energetically watch some Thunder dominance on 57" of pure HD beauty.
@MastrMatt
LOL oh irony I was just lookin' for something to do until the game starts also... looks like more Starcraft 2 beta!
The Timberwolves own the rights to Nikola Pekovic who is also supposed to be decent. Unlikely they would trade him but you never know with Kahn.
I guess I'm going to have to look up this Tiago Splitter fella. That'll give me something to do from when I get home until midnight or whenever the crap this game starts. Thanks yall.
@MastrMatt
Tiago splitter has his rights owned by SA, but he seems very good. Other euro bigs seem promsising, but more for stash for later value than good enough to make an impact right now. Vesley may have been that good but he's opted out of the draft.
I think we should do that with all of our picks. Get some nice bigs and have them develop overseas for a couple years. We can afford to wait and could always use some fresh legs down the road.
@MastrMatt
There have been scattered talks about Tiago Splitter (whose rights are owned by the Spurs). The Spurs can only offer Splitter a MLE-sized deal which is less than what he makes in Spain. San Antonio might want to trade his rights to a team that is able to offer him a larger contract, since it doesn't look like he'll be coming to San Antonio any time soon (they just extended Ginobili).
I'm dubious that we'd offer what it would take to get Splitter's rights. For one, he's probably the best big man in Europe and the Spurs won't want to face him as competition. It'd almost be a lot of money to commit to a guy who hasn't proven himself in American basketball.
There are many under the radar types that Presti might target. Ian Mahinmi on the Spurs was a Sam Presti / RC Buford pick and is supposed to be a talented big. Amir Johnson is someone who Presti was supposedly interested in, and he will be an unrestricted free agent. Johnson's put up decent offensive numbers.
@AC
Thanks for the clarification AC! Much appreciated!
@Sas
Yeah .. except he went to Texas. That's his only drawback. : )
@MastrMatt
An extension is what it is described as, an extension of a current contract. It does not affect the contract that already exists. So while signing KD or anyone else to an extension, when they already are under contract for the 2010-2011 season would not affect the salaries for next year
@MastrMatt
Agreed. KD's almost a feel-good movie personality anyways, right?
Does anyone know if there are any solid Euro big guys that might be available? We've all talked about Bosh (not coming), David Lee (maybe), a trade for KLove or AJ, but does anyone know about any big boys that would fit our needs in the Euro leagues that we could get? Since Presti is a SA guy, and they have quite a few ties to the clubs over seas, it wouldn't be a stretch to think he might dip into that well again, especially considering how well Serge has played.
@Sas
That's why the same scenario is the premise for a ton of movies. Might Ducks, Angels in the Outfield, The Rookie, Rookie of the Year, etc .... Everyone loves the underdog (Butler?) and likes to see the dominant team (bad guy) be brought down to the level of the everyman.
Hopefully our real-life version ends like the movies with the kids celebrating in the streets while the Hollywood big boys lick their wounds in their Olympic size hot tubs.
@Sas
Kevin Durant's contract extension will begin 2011-2012 season. He can agree to an extension this offseason, a year before his current contract expires.
Bango > Rumble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3umtw179KA&feature=player_embedded
@dork
Teams are not going to stop spending because of the labor negotitations. Even if the CBA ends up more restrictive there is no way it's going to punish teams or players who entered into a contract agreement in previous years. There will surely be provisions to prevent this.
RE: extending our players, there is room for another middle tier+ player in the $10 to $13 million range. Teams can go over the cap to sign their own free agents (as we are likely to do when we extend Kevin Durant). The cap space we have will not be around forever and is available to improve the roster. Not using it has no benefit to the team in the short or long run... we'll be able to re-sign our players regardless by exceeding the cap in the future (or by whatever mechanism is in place in a new labor deal..).
@MastrMatt
That's true. I suppose it's just like the superbowl when there's too much time and too little story to go around and so you get some overhype of things.
@Sas
The David vs Goliath storyline is quite compelling and always rallys people, even folks without a vested interest in the outcome. Most everyone likes to see the big guy go down, hence the love the Thunder are getting all over the place.
@justin
Not really espically since we don't know what the new CBA will end up doing. IMHO going nuts in the offseason would be a much larger disservice to the fans instead of looking out for the future.
@justin
I agree, but I don't think Sam will do that. He's going to do the right thing and ink KD to a max deal, so won't that increase our cap number? So far, he's made the right moves, so I'll trust him until it's time not to.
@justin
We should meet the minimum just on KD's contract extension, right?
@justin
I figured it was something like that. I suppose they've run out of "THE LAKERS ARE IN TROUBLE BECAUSE OF SOME UPSTART TEAM!" articles to write, so now we move on to the "OKC are small, small team!" articles. *sigh*
Even if we meet the mininum it'd be ridiculous if Presti does not spend any money in the offseason and goes into the regular season with a payroll in the $40 millions. It'd be a disservice to the fans...
@andrew
I think we'll meet it if we draft and sign rookies with our picks.
@Sas
He points out that we have to spend 2.1 million this summer just to meet the leagues minimum salary. That is something that I didnt know and found interesting.
@Sas
It's pretty dumb. Basically 10 paragraphs to say 'The Thunder are spending less per win than any other team'. Which is obvious because of all our young players on rookie deals...
This tidbit is amusing though: "But there's no question which of those five teams ranks first on the list -- not when Oklahoma City's highest-paid rotation player, center Nick Collison, is paid $6.2 million, while the average salary of the Lakers' 13 players is $7 million."
http://insider.espn.go.com/nba/playoffs/2010/insider/columns/story?columnist=hollinger_john&page=PERDiem-100427&action=login&appRedirect=http%3a%2f%2finsider.espn.go.com%2fnba%2fplayoffs%2f2010%2finsider%2fcolumns%2fstory%3fcolumnist%3dhollinger_john%26page%3dPERDiem-100427
ESPN Insider only article talking about (I guess. I'm not one, so I have no clue) the fact that the extremely economicly savvy Thunder are giving the Super Luxury-tax Lakers all they can handle (and more!) I'd like to see more of what he has to say (unless it's the same old, same old). Insiders, is there anything interesting that he has to say?
@dork
In fact one of the most suprising stories of the playoffs to me thus far is the Nuggets.. I mean who would have guessed they will fall THAT far w/o Karl... and to a badly injured Utah team no less..
So Kobe smokes a cigar to cleanse himself of a bad loss? I think it speaks volumes that he had one so handy.
Meh I'm starting to get sick of all of this "the thunder are huge underdogs..." crap. Is it me or am I the only one that thought we were going to win 2 games in this series minimum?
I am a fan and am getting tired of it.. Imagine what the actual players must feel like... Oh and I hope that Gasol regrets the statement game comment /giggles
@Brew
I'm not a beetch. I'm just glad we have a team. Not trying to stir any OKC vs. Seattle crap up. I was a big Shawn Kemp fan (before he ate and impregnated everything in sight) so I was sad to see the Sonics lose that series. It was a huge upset though.
Well ... I guess my second comment about not being sorry was a little bit of a dig, but oh well.
It is the best purchase I have ever made (becoming a season ticket member). I was able to buy tickets the first year and been with the team since--this years playoff ticket frenzy has just solidified my commitment to the team.
Every season ticket member knows what I am referring to.
The joy of just having to go to your acct management page and just hitting the print button....it is priceless!
Now tell me this does not get you excited.... http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/news/story?page=cspr/week1
Duncan :I didn’t go to a single Hornets game, borrowing a team just didn’t interest me. I went to about 20 games the first year the Thunder were here, absolutely fell in love with the team. I went to about 30 games this year, including both playoff games, and would have gone to more but I don’t have a lot of cash and cheap tickets weren’t always available. Looks like I’ll be going to all 42 games next year as I just signed up for season tickets.
Welcome to the family :)
I didn't go to a single Hornets game, borrowing a team just didn't interest me. I went to about 20 games the first year the Thunder were here, absolutely fell in love with the team. I went to about 30 games this year, including both playoff games, and would have gone to more but I don't have a lot of cash and cheap tickets weren't always available. Looks like I'll be going to all 42 games next year as I just signed up for season tickets.
@MastrMatt
Go Thunder! MastrMatt, youz a beetch.
The more kobe shot,the biiiger chance we get to win.He is not the one who is the king of NBA,he cannot dominate 48 mins.Let KD defend him in 4th qtr
@Omar
Yes they did, that was a great year. But they got lucky in the first rd, winning game 5 at the buzzer so best success, but not the best on paper, and we could make the finals, next rd prob get Utah and then suns/spurs, all teams we can beat
@Omar
We're a better team, relative to our conference, than that Knicks team. In terms of point differential it's one of the biggest upsets. The lockout year kind of messed stuff up though, those Knicks played themselves into shape and were far better by the end of the season (same with the Spurs in the west). I think the gap between them and Miami was actually much smaller than the numbers say.. they wouldn't have gotten to the Finals otherwise.
The Warriors over the Mavs was the biggest upset in playoff history. The Warriors had a negative point differential and the Mavs were the best team in the NBA. Plus it was a seven game series. If the Bulls were to beat the Cavs this year, that would be a similar sized upset.. so pretty big.
The Nuggets were a better team than the Warriors, but the 1994 Sonics were better than the Mavs. It's about an equal difference. I put that series as less of an upset though because it was five game series... much harder to pull off an upset in seven games like the Warriors did.
@MastrMatt
That Sonics team won 63 games, and it was a 5-game series. No one expected that Nuggets team to win a game.