Kevin Durant has some opinions on Chris Bosh

Kd was thinking about pts and getting a And 1 not Bosh. Get over yourself. Harden has a habit of going up soft. He should have dunk that.

The problem is when you are talking to your teammate KD and telling him "You shoulda slammed that right on Bosh's head" AND BOSH IS STANDING RIGHT THERE...it's a tad bit disrespectful. Yes trash-talking is all part of the game, so don't be offended when that person whom you are talking about trash talks right back. How much of a wimp would he have been to HEAR you saying that then not say ANYTHING? Come on dude. You're a nice guy with a lot of talent...you don't need to start a beef with an established player to supposedly make a name for yourself! Bosh isn't a bully, he's a classy veteran - the least you could do is give him that respect young blood.

Kevin is a G... u just wait and see

Great, so KD is okay with getting in someones face as long as they are not as he says "one of those guys I look at and say he has a rap for talking back to guys or getting into it", or as long as he is as he says "a nice guy". Put your man pants on KD.

...Whatever

@Arbiter

This is more a function of our offense being completely transparent than an indoctrination of Kevin Durant's shooting abilities. 'Clutch', in most cases, is a misnomer. 33 FGA is way too small a sample size to be making any kind of judgments on ability.

Kevin Durant is least effective getting the ball in isolation situations behind the 3PT line and that's usually where he gets it at the end of games.

Just another in a long list of things the team doesn't execute properly.

@Arbiter
yeah though at least it wasnt a fadeaway 3 like usual.

"With about 15 seconds left in the 4th quarter and the Thunder down 2 Sunday against the Heat, Kevin Durant missed a 7-foot jumper that would have tied the game.

This is nothing new for Durant, who has missed 26 of 33 potential game-tying or go-ahead field goal attempts in the final 24 seconds of the 4th quarter or overtime over the past 3 seasons.

Not only are those 26 misses the most by any player in this situation in that span, but among the 10 NBA players who have at least 20 such FGA over the past 3 years, Durant also has the third-lowest FG pct at 21.2."

@DizzDai
he minutes adjustments are getting better, but offensive defensive subs need to happen at end of close games.

@walker

I hope Brooks is learning. I wonder sometimes.

@Mrs. Daily Thunder
It is crazy how so many people just take Justins opinion of JG and run with it.We are a good team,but we're still not going to beat the Spurs,Heat,Lakers,Magic,Mavs on a regular basis'and we do need a big man in the middle.Brooks is learning also'he gets out coached in every close game against a top level coach.

at least utah and denver and NO lost as well, so we didnt give up anything by losing

@Mark!

Brooks is becoming too much of a player's coach, IMO.

Does Brooks ever use situational lineups at the end of close games?

It seems to be common practice for coaches to swap out rebounding/defensive units with 3 point/offensive units inbetween timeouts in close games like this since play typically stops after every change of possession. I don't have a memory of Brooks doing this which seems very strange. Maybe I've forgotten an instance or two? Still feels like, by and large, he doesn't do this where many other coaches do.

As far as the rebound, I dunno. Yes, Green should have been able to seal Miller without an instance. The guy looked like half his body weight was in knee brace; it could've been Forrest Gump out there.

But I also don't hold much expectation for Green when it comes to rebounds. I blame the coaching staff for that the same way I hold the coaches responsible when any of the players' play lazy. If Harden or Ibaka play lazy, the coaches yank them faster than you can blink, even when we NEED them. But if Westbrook/Durant/Green don't give full effort, they'll still get 40 minutes. If you don't believe that has an affect on how players' play, you're kidding yourself.

It wasn't much of a surprise to me, similar to the Pau Gasol rebound (over Ibaka BTW) in the playoffs. We have a few players who I'm comfortable with taking a clutch shot on offense, but we don't have a single player who I feel confident saying they're going to get a clutch rebound. Westbrook probably heads the list, but there's only so much he can do because of his size.

So the KD and Harden convo was about Harden needing to dunk instead of just drawing the foul. KD is 100% right.

shahir :in hindsight, i would have rather cook let lebron shoot that 3

ditto

@Mrs. Daily Thunder I'm surprised no one is complaining how often he stops to tie his shoes during the game. That's probably the difference in winning and losing right there . . (tongue firmly in cheek)

in hindsight, i would have rather cook let lebron shoot that 3

Royce Young :I do find it a little funny that we all seem to be focused on the rebound Green gave up (myself included) and we give Nick Collison the pass for letting Joel Anthony get around him on the last play.

I'm more concerned with the perimeter D that allowed House's dagger 3 and stupid little dance.

justin :

David :Was Durant, even near the ball during that rebound? I honestly don’t remember.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qZ4GrnPrm0
Mike Miller just walks around Jeff Green.

I'm glad you posted that link. Green did a horrible job boxing out. KD got sucked into the paint and forgot to guard LeBron. Poor little Cook was the only person trying to play D on the perimeter. House should be fined for his antics.

Mrs. Daily Thunder :
My favorite part about this post is that there won’t be anything about Jeff Green or Scott Brooks in the comments. Victory!

Boy was I wrong. People here will find any excuse to talk bad about Jeff Green. How disappointing.

the game summed up okc perfectly --- young guys who can rise to the occasion, but really dont seem to know the weight of what's going on, meaning, they still don't play/focus consistently throughout a 24 second possession, much less an entire quarter or the game ... when they struggle shooting, they often let other parts of their game lag, or they force shots, & they haven't learned the difference between settling for shots & taking what the defense gives you....

we are guided by very young players, & bron & dwade showed the difference between veteran superstars & upcoming superstars -- particularly, as the game went on, their individual defense went up notcheS, as did their effort ...

all that said, you guys complain entirely too much!... if someone said in october that the thunder would be the 3rd seed in the west & have the 4th best record, I'd take it ... no questions asked ... with no hesitation

On a happier note, Cole got 20 pts (8-15 FGA and 4-4 FT) and 16 boards last night in 34 mins of playing time with only 2 PF. He also had 2 BS.

Is it time to free Cole yet? The more he starts to put things together in D-League, the more I want to see him try and get some boards and shoot ugly looking shots for the Thunder

@Keith

One game is way too small a sample for me to say 'hey, Green has the best shot to get this rebound'. If Russell Westbrook was 4-4 from 3PT range in the game, would you want him taking a last second three pointer to tie the game? Same kind of thing. Green had an abnormal amount of rebounds in the first half of this game (7 of his 11 rebounds) which had a much faster pace than the second half (4 of his 11 rebounds). Was the game lost in the last 20 seconds? I don't think you could say that, no. But the Thunder did have the lead, they knew they had been getting killed on the boards, and what happens? The same exact thing that had been happening all quarter.

Similarly, 0 rebounds in 9 minutes is an awfully small sample for me to say that Serge would not have been better in this game than Green down the stretch on the boards. We have 100+ games that tells us Ibaka / Collison is the way to go if we want to get rebounds, and that Green at PF is not. Jeff Green's abnormally high rebound total in the first half of the game doesn't change that. This is the same thing that bugs me when Green hits a couple three pointers early in a game and keeps shooting them, or when Russell Westbrook hits a couple tough jumpers and keeps shooting them. This team does not understand how to play the percentages in any facet of the game - either getting a good shot, getting the best personnel on the court, or whatever.

@justin
Different times in the game are not totally even, I guess I admit that. But, I stand by the idea that the game is almost never won in the last 20 seconds like it is being claimed today. It's never prudent to throw out 99% of the game and say it was all about that 1%. It's simply not true. If we shot better from the free throw line, Miami is already fouling us (a great free throw shooting team) instead of set up to take the lead on any made basket. Change any of a dozen possessions, and the end game looks completely different.

And then there is this:
Jeff Green - 11 boards in 44 minutes
Kevin Durant - 10 boards in 40 minutes
Nick Collison - 4 rebounds in 23 minutes
Nenad Krstic - 2 rebounds in 16 minutes
Serge Ibaka - 0 boards in 9 minutes

Per minute, per possession, per whatever. Of all the players qualified to be in the game to take that rebound, Jeff Green was our best rebounding throughout the game. It's not a matter of Brooks taking the wrong personnel to war with him, it's about our frontcourt stinking it up on the boards. From those numbers, Green was more likely than anyone but Durant to grab that board. Is he a poor rebounder overall? Yes. Is Ibaka generally better? Yes. But today, in this game, that wasn't the case. Green did more than what was asked, and no one else stepped up at all. You can't say one missed board by our best rebounder is the reason we lost when so many other players missed even more rebounds throughout the game.

I think Jeff Green needs a hug.

@Keith

A rebound on one of the final possessions of the game and a rebound in the second quarter are different because it's much more difficult to recover from the one that occurs in the final possessions of the game. I don't agree that the game was lost on offense and defense. Our offense played how it usually plays, and the defense was decent down the stretch of the game and kept pace. Miami's a poor rebounding team that got eight offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter where they shot 37% from the floor. I expect this team to have trouble offensively down the stretch of games, especially against a good defensive team. But I would have not expected the team to give up so many offensive rebounds to Miami.

I am far more frustrated with Scott Brooks keeping that lineup in the game while they were getting marauded on the glass. Maybe I am overreacting on Jeff Green's missed box out because I do tend to view events that occur in the first quarter / fourth quarter the same and do not subscribe to clutchness either. But it's hard not to when the same exact thing was killing the team over and over in the quarter, and nothing was being done about it.

How many rebounds did Collison lose out of bounds all game:) Greens fault

@justin
This is the same reason I don't suscribe to clutchness (or at least not to the idea that it is some super important factor). His mistake is magnified by the moment, but it's really nitpicking. The game isn't won and lost at the buzzer like that. It's lost by giving up far too easy shots to the Heat all game. It's lost by having your scoring PG shoot you out of the game all night.

If he missed that same rebound on the second quarter, no one cares. And ultimately, it's the same situation. The Heat weren't taking it easy then turning it on (if anything they also got worse as the game went on). We weren't doing that either. A missed rebound at the end of the game is the same as a missed rebound in the 2nd quarter, it still only amounts to one more try for a shot. Green isn't a good rebounder. That's not new. Harping on him, as if HE lost the game, because of one missed rebound (again, the timing doesn't truly affect the likelihood of that rebound being secured), is silly.

Collison's missed rebound cost us the game much moreso than Green, and he was having a worse rebounding game as a whole. Green didn't lose this game, and it just bothers me than any argument would be made to say he did. He's lost us games in the past, I'm not disregarding that, but this isn't one of them. Green played a better game than the team should have expected. If he is playing better than hoped, and you still lose, the focus should be on everyone else first.

Utah wish they had Eric Maynor still. hahaha

Westbrook's brick frenzy in the second quarter was especially annoying.

@Keith

There's vitriol over Green's game because he made the most egregious mistake in the biggest moment.

Yes there are things the team could have done better, I don't think anyone would deny that.

Well on a better note. Jazz are going to lose, Nuggets lose and Hornets lose today

I do find it a little strange that there is building vitriol over Green's game today. He wasn't a world beater, but he was much much better than expected. In no way was the loss his fault. Now, if you want to say Ibaka would have grabbed that board, or would have played better in general in the 4th, maybe your right. But it's not Jeff Green's fault that Ibaka was benched all game. It's not Jeff Green's fault that Westbrook could have built a house with all his bricks. It's not Jeff Green's fault that EVERY Miami starter hit 50% or more of their shots. There were a lot of things that this team could have done better in this game. But, from a comparison to past results standpoint, Green wasn't one of those things.

Oh Brooks new game plan is from the FT. From the field is overrated:)

@okc baby
Agreed, I've come to really hate Chris Paul since the Hornets left OKC. I'll be at that game, hopefully we can get the win.

I want to beat the flopper, wed. One last thing. Green is not a power forward. 23-11-2-1

Enough with this. Can't we play tomorrow? I don't really want to rehash the same crap until Wednesday

Focusing on one play is stupid. Unfair to Green. 2 doubles in a row. Keep it up Green.

Like I said before, if we were actually a contending team, I'd be very angry over a loss like this. But because we're not, and because we're still a piece or two away from doing so, losses like this just wake up the team management and get things moving behind the scenes.

Because Jeff Green gets beat Durant shouldnt get the rebound. hahaha Umm no... Obviously he wanted to get the rebound because he left one of the best NBA players wide open. If he didnt want to get the rebound he should have at least been within a couple of arm lengths so Cook could close on just House which I promise would not have made if Cook didnt have to cover both guys.

@Royce Young

Did you mean, "If it wasn't" because we're already discussing JG being the goat

Nick grabbed 2 rebounds haha

I wonder what Brook's definition of "not coming to play today" is? How did Serge not come to play? Brooks, pease, don't stymie Serge's growth like you already have Harden's. I've got an idea, we need to find someone of low moral character and have Brook's caught in a sex scandal. That way we can promote Mo Cheeks to head coach or hire Ron Adams

@David
Oh no doubt, but I can only imagine if it was Jeff Green that got beat on that we'd all have something to say.

So Green get's beat by his man, and it's Durant's fault that Miller gets the rebound? Huh?

@Royce Young

It was a bad play by Nick but the game was pretty much over at that point, we would have needed a prayer three pointer with no timeouts. And Nick was doing well boxing out the rest of the quarter.

I do find it a little funny that we all seem to be focused on the rebound Green gave up (myself included) and we give Nick Collison the pass for letting Joel Anthony get around him on the last play.

Ibaka should have been in the game no doubt. Thats not Greens fault. Thats Coaches fault

Miller pushes him as he is going towards the basket. The ball bounces towards KD and KD jumps back and Miller gets the rebound. Lebron is left wide open with House for Cook to guard both.

@justin
That was a pretty terrible box out. He got down in the stance and made the physical motion of boxing out, but he never found his man and sealed him off.