vs. 
OKC Thunder (12-6, 6-2 road) at New Jersey Nets (6-12, 4-4 home)
TV: FSOK (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 754)
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 6:00 CT
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 108.6 (10th), Nets – 104.9 (22nd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 109.2 (20th), Nets – 109.1 (21st)
Pace: Thunder – 93.1 (14th), Nets – 88.4 (30th)
View from the enemy: Nets Are Scorching
UPDATE: Kevin Durant is sitting out tonight’s game with a sore knee.
It’s a new month for the Thunder, so how about starting it off just right. The Thunder starts a stretch of games finally against some lesser opponents. But that doesn’t mean we can expect a big winning streak here. It begins with a game in New Jersey, a team that has played well at home and a group that has talent sprinkled throughout the roster.
New Jersey coming in: The Nets have lost three of four, but did beat the Blazers a few nights ago. They’ve been beaten soundly by most good teams and have hung tough or beaten average to mediocre groups.
THE MATCHUPS
It’s a new month for Kevin Durant too. He had a less than stellar November, but now hopefully that’s behind him and he can get going. Travis Outlaw is New Jersey’s small forward, a player that’s not known as a big defender. Stephen Graham sees time too though, and he’s a guy that has played pretty well on KD in the past.
Devin Harris is out for this one, so Russell Westbrook will be going against Jordan Farmar. It seems like we get a UCLA point guard matchup like all the time now, doesn’t it? But Russ has a big advantage in basically every area on Farmar except outside shooting.
Brook Lopez obviously gives the Nets an advantage inside but he’s been pretty inconsistent this season. So with the Nenad Krstic-Nick Collison- Serge Ibaka combo, OKC might be just fine. Especially since Kris Humphries is the other starter. Humphries is a nice glue guy player that plays very hard, but he’s not a huge offensive talent.
No reason to not be optimistic about this one. OKC’s played well on the road and coming off the big win over the Hornets, it would be a shame to have a letdown against the Nets.
Tip at 6:00 CT. Go Thunder Up.
There's something not right . . . if OKC can win like this without Durant. You'd think they'd then be incredibly better . . . with him.
But they're not.
So, either there's a coaching problem . . . or a personnel fit problem.
How is Presti going to resolve this?
@Joshua G
Here's My thoughts on the KD is a natural PF theory.
All great players tend to have a higher skill level then seems normal for their position. especially when it comes to handling the ball. I think that Kevin Garnet is KD's best NBA comparison except KD is a better shooter.
At the time he was drafted KD was 6'9 with really long arms and was a good shooter so people assumed he was a SG. Despite playing mostly SF and PF in college. As of right now he is 6'11 ish. which combined with his long arms gives him prototypical length for the PF position. KD already plays a good portion of his time at PF just like he did in turkey. the problem he cant guard strong big guys like a gasol or even a jefferson/milsap. However if this team had a Strong defensive C who could guard the other teams best big then KD's rebounding, shooting, length on the weak side and handles make him a good mismatch as opposed to currently where our interior of Kristic/Green/Durant is overpowered.
Combine this with Ibaka's strength at guarding PF's and if a team ever went strong we could sub him in for either KD or Green and make it work.
Not be be negative, but our big men are really bad. Krstic looks much worse this year than last, and Collison hasn't looked very good either so far. We are, at the very least, a rotational big man away from being contenders.
his leap from second to third is like first year to second year wade almost. sort of. if he keeps it up. his ft% seems to be coming back down to earth a bit, but his fta is not.
If Westbrook and Durant refine their offensive games to work together I don't know how anybody defends it. Just have westbrook cut to the basket at the same time Durant is coming off a screen. Westbrook either hits the close basket/draws the foul, or dumps it off the Durant for the easy jumper. They could run that 50 times a game and it would still be effective.
If we can get kd and russ playing well at the same time, there's no reason we can't take anyone in the league on a given night
Think of the leap that Westy made from the first year to the second...
And apparently from the second year to the third so far...
Scary.
Russ proved that, given enough time, The Law of Russell Westbrook Outplaying UCLA Point Guards will hold true.
Westbrook is unbelievable. I actually cannot believe what he's doing. Durant made a huge leap last year, but I believed it. Am I dreaming?
@justin
My mouth goes agape when I see his season stats enough as it is.
@Joshua G
Some people believe Durant could be a true 4 with some work. Also, Durant has greater ability to play his game at other positions than Green seems to.
RW last five: 28.4PPG on 55% TS, 9.6AST, 7.0 REB
Glad we didn't put any more stress on KD's knee by playing him tonight.
jdstorm :
qrex :
justin :@Ozark
i am not surprised green had a good game playing sf
That’s the problem. Correct?
Just Imagine how good we would be if we had a Defensive Center and Could afford to play KD at PF
Why do people want to move Durant out of his natural position. He's not a 2-guard, and he's not a PF. It would be stupid to mess with Durant's most successful spot on the floor just to get someone else to improve. Durant is the centerpiece on this team. You build the team around him, not him around the rest of the team.
@Ozark
That makes far too much sense, sir.
Why did Green all of a sudden feel like passing? He was really good at setting people up for easy buckets but when Durant's there he never let's go of the ball. It just feels like the ball moves around better in general when Durant's out of the game though.
@Anonymous
stay classy. you are correct. green had a good game.
This game will knock RW's TS% from 56.1 to 55.5
When Westbrook moved to Oklahoma, Chuck Norris moved out because he no longer felt manly...
@jdstorm
made my day.
Nullum :
Oddly enough, both Westbrook and Green had a neutral +/- for the game. I did not expect to see that when I went to look at the boxscore.
Probably because it was a close game and they were on the floor for most of the game...
Rockets about to knock off the Lakers. It makes the loss a bit more palatable.
That Anthony Morrow is an unbelievable shooter. He sure would look good in Thunder blue.
Oddly enough, both Westbrook and Green had a neutral +/- for the game. I did not expect to see that when I went to look at the boxscore.
Everyone realizes Green was playing PF for the last 20-25 minutes of the game right?
Adam :
The Nets play-by-by guys are fantastic.
I agree with that. Obviously they focused on the Nets, but I think they're used to appreciating good players on other teams since their team has been so terrible lately. They made honest and fairly unbiased assessments of most if not all of the officials' calls.
qrex :
justin :@Ozark
i am not surprised green had a good game playing sf
That’s the problem. Correct?
Just Imagine how good we would be if we had a Defensive Center and Could afford to play KD at PF
@justin
You need to see it for a crazy put-back dunk Westy had in the first half. After all the big plays, Westbrook would beat his chest and scream. He's the only guy that little who can pull that off and not look ridiculous.
@Chas
Indeed.. man, oh man.
Russell Wwestbrook doesn't jump. he kicks the earth down
If I'm not mistaken Russ should be around 24.5 ppg. That should be 5th best in the league.
justin :@Ozark
i am not surprised green had a good game playing sf
That's the problem. Correct?
@Ozark
i am not surprised green had a good game playing sf
This is the type of game that just makes you feel sorry for Green that he can't play his natural position here.
@jdstorm
the thing is serge ibaka aka stone hands
justin :@Ozark
in fairness to me i didn’t get to see it, i’m annoyed
I suggest you find a way to view it. You will become the biggest Green nut-hugger on this board. You will also notice a lot of people wear grey shirts in New Jersey, and never move.
@Osano-Whoa
The Thunder are the fantastic 4. Staring
Kevin " Mr Fantastic" Durant
Russell " the human torch" Westbrook
Jeff "The Invisible" Green and
we re still looking for " The Thing" to play Center
The Nets play-by-by guys are fantastic.
@Sammy
That's fantastic. Shalom Farmar!
@Ozark
in fairness to me i didn't get to see it, i'm annoyed
DJ White was terrible in the few minutes he got. Krstic was atrocious the first half, and never got it going offensively in the second but his D down the stretch on Lopez (that very long long stretch) was quite nice. I think it's interesting Nick only got 23 minutes. He's continuing his slow start; he looked pretty slow on some rotations.
Is it bad that our top 3 rebounders were all guards?
@gr8ball83
Everyone agrees that Uncle Jeff is a 3
justin :
russ’ line is going to lower his ts a bunch
Only you would give a crap about that after the game he played.
Anybody gonna hate on Green after this game or wait a couple days...?
On the one hand, Russ had 9 assists at the end of regulation and ended the game with 9.
On the other hand, Russ just won a game of 21 playing 1 on 5.
humbert humbert :
so after durant comes back, who is the going to take the game winning shot? russ looks like that guy right now.
Green. Always Green. Not on iso.
russ' line is going to lower his ts a bunch :(
so after durant comes back, who is the going to take the game winning shot? russ looks like that guy right now.
I dig the international love for the Thunder.