John Hollinger of ESPN.com: “For all those shortcomings, however, Denver can walk away feeling good in a lot of other ways. Durant and Westbrook combined for 72 points, the Nuggets missed 12 foul shots and shot 4-of-16 on 3s, and defensive ace Arron Afflalo — who might prove even more useful against Westbrook than against Durant — didn’t play; despite that, Denver lost by four on the road. That’s a pretty respectable result.”
Rob Mahoney for SI: “As good as Durant and Russell Westbrook were in this game (and they were brilliant), Oklahoma City’s victory relied heavily on contributions both obvious and subtle from three of the Thunder’s lesser-known players. Nick Collison finished with just two points and a single rebound, but he registered the game’s highest plus-minus rating and was a crucial part of three separate Thunder runs. His defense, screen-setting, and passing continue to be important commodities for Oklahoma City, and yet his impact will forever be eclipsed by the more obvious contributions of Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins.”
From Elias: “Kevin Durant scored 41 points and Russell Westbrook added 31 in the Thunder’s four-point win over the Nuggets. Oklahoma City became the third team in NBA history to have one player score more than 40 points and another player chip in more than 30 in its playoff opener. The others teams to begin the playoffs in that fashion were the Philadelphia Warriors in 1962 (43 points for Paul Arizin and 32 for Wilt Chamberlain vs. Syracuse) and the Celtics in 1973 (54 points for John Havlicek and 34 for Jo Jo White vs. Atlanta).”
Henry Abbott tries to solve the controversial play from last night with the D-League.
Game 1 recap from Thunderground Radio.
Darnell Mayberry: “Can’t say that the Thunder’s fourth-quarter offense was all that impressive in this one. And after 82 games, it shouldn’t have come as a shock. Go back and watch this one over and compare the Thunder’s offense to the Nuggets. When Denver made its 9-0 run, there was cutting, screening and ball movement. At the other end, the Thunder was standing around and trying to force it to one of their go-to guys. That little stretch almost cost the Thunder this game.”
What a picture of Russell Westbrook.
The only Thunder fan in Iceland is writing for a sports site there. If you can read Icelandic, you’ll enjoy this.
Berry Tramel on Denver’s big mismatch: “But on a couple of Durant’s four straight shots in the third quarter, the Nuggets had Raymond Felton guarding Durant. Yep. I am not making this up. The Nuggets’ 6-foot-1 point guard. Later, when Denver coach George Karl commiserated about a defeat that could have gone the Nuggets’ way, he talked about making adjustments. Talked about stiffening up on Durant and Russell Westbrook, too, and making this a seven-game series.”
Marc Spears of Yahoo! Sports: “Perkins had yet to see the replay and wasn’t willing to speculate that the officials had missed the call. He does think the Nuggets already received a break of their own when Westbrook was called for basket interference midway through the second quarter. “I saw it come off the rim and got a hand on it,” Perkins said. “They didn’t call it, so it must not have [happened]. Just go on and play. I didn’t question it.” The controversial finish only added to the intrigue of a series that’s seemingly becoming more testy between the teams by the day. Before Sunday’s game, Karl said he thinks his Nuggets will beat the Thunder.”
Matt Moore of CBSSports.com looks at the play with the rulebook.
What I wrote for CBSSports.com about the game.
Congrats to Bryan who won the Game 1 contest. We’ll probably be doing more coming soon.
Let's go get 'em in game 2! Let's give 'em something to talk about!
watched the game in the Thunder Rewards Zone. Which is a silly name for Reno Ave. It was pretty awesome, also free, and a decent screen to watch on. They kept the TNT feed for about 2 minutes before giving us BD and GL, who seemed a bit more mature than normal, but not by much.
Lots of fun, even outside the arena. Crazy ass game.
The hush outside was pretty intense for the first quarter, as it was remarkably scary.
However-If the game was going to be close, I am more glad it was close after a big comeback, than if we just left it close the whole time. It's a big friggin wakeup call to the starters especially, but a good sign of how non-panicky we stayed most of the game. I really think we've seen growth there, and not just chuck-a-J frustration anymore.
I do think we got really fortunate-JH and Serge had pretty mediocre to bad games, no one besides Maynor really lit up from the bench, and Cook was pretty underused. Sef wasn't terrible despite what anyone here says, but he didn't offer anything on offense as usual. (they did guard him out at the top of the key i noticed, however).
Anyone saying we "stole" the game due to luck or leaning on KD and Russ makes no sense. KD and Russ earned every one of those 72 points, and they happened to be what worked. I do think it is good news that we can win without JH or Serge or anyone really helping out. It means when the odd game comes that they don't help, we don't lose it. Big heady win, IMHO.
Everytime Karl or a Nug spouts cocky comments I get ready for game 2, where I will be inside.
It aint easy being a hater
@gr8ball83
I'm a hater against all who use numbers instead of letters to get a point across or be creative. there is no room for creativity in the world of sports blogs, thats ridiculous. ;)
@DavyTheWise
whatever, you're just h8ting, 8 doesn't end in t, hahahaha
gr8ball83 :@okc
baby
h8ters gonna h8te! hahahahahaha
lol... technically shouldn't it be h8ers. since 8 already ends in a 't'?
@okc baby
h8ters gonna h8te! hahahahahaha
okc baby :
cdub00 :
gr8ball83 :@cdub00yeah
It must be hard proven the h8ters wrong every game.
yeah Harden tries real hard to proove to you he can play good D
cdub00 :
gr8ball83 :@cdub00yeah the reason is Harden does more than play defense, he can actually be effective on the offensive side. He was not good in Game 1, which is why it was such a close game. If he plays more like himself we win pretty easily.
I agree with that. Harden is much better offensive player…but can’t take away Sef’s defensive effectiveness. I hope for the Thunder’s sake that Sef plays lock down D and Harden doesn’t miss another shot the rest of the playoffs (fingers crossed) !
It must be hard proven the h8ters wrong every game. :)
Harden did struggle last night, but he didn't give up. He did affect the game in other ways, but we need him to play up to par.
I thought Maynor was huge, huge, huge last night. He didn't play much, and it's hard to blame Brooks for that - Russ was a beast in the first half, but that kid is really calm under pressure.
I thought the pressure got to Serge. I haven't seen him miss that many open jumpers in a long time.
Everyone is pointing out the lack of contributions from Serge and James, and rightfully so, but I think an underrated point is that our entire frontcourt (Perk, Ibaka, Collison and Nazr) played 97 minutes and scored 11 points with 14 rebounds. That's really poor. We'll need at least double the amount of points, and closer to 20 rebounds from our frontcourt going forward.
I think the fact that we try to play a slower pace against denver hurts hardens offense. but i also don't think he will be 0-4 from three often (which of course is terrible)
Harden is strong on the runouts and bringing the ball up behid the defense before they get set. We just aren't looking to do that against denver because we don't want to play that way against so many talented guards and wings. I still think Harden is much more effective than thabo against Denver, but i think both are less effective than against other teams.
I also think denvers strategy in Game one was to limit what everyone who's not an all star could do. It was somewhat effective, but i see them doubling them more in game two which should open up some space for Harden, Ibaka, Nazr, Collison, and Cook.
All that said, i hope harden (and everyone else) can get something going. We will need him to.
justin :
cdub00 :
gr8ball83 :@cdub00Who considers Thabo a top 10 defender in the NBA THIS year? Maybe last year, definitely not this year.
Darnell Mayberry for one…and MANY others. Have you ever heard Harden’t Defense mentioned like Thabo’s? I haven’t. There is a reason for that. He is improving but he is simply not there yet. He had maybe the worst game of any player on our team last night.
This is patently false… Harden missed some three pointers but was otherwise playing well. 4 assists, a steal, two blocks. He played good defense. He needs the ball in his hands more off the dribble, IMO. Only one non spot up attempt from Harden in the game (it went in).
We’ve given you the #’s which pretty much tell the story (Thabo is mediocre defensively off the ball, elite on the ball). In a game where Thabo rarely defended on the ball, much less on the roller in a PnR, where is his value defensively?
Defensive ability and what not can't always be "measured". Sef has defensive ability partly due to his inordinate wingspan to height ratio that allow him to play lock down "on the ball" perimeter Defense. He is also notoriously tough and fights through screens better than most players in the league. He also seems to know how to better keep scorers from getting to "their spots" and trying to mitigate the best player on the other team and is usually pretty effective at that. Its no secret that we don't bring in Harden for his defensive prowess, and scoring as much as Cook did last night with 5 times the minutes that Cook had tells the story. Harden has to be better. Sef did what was expected...Harden didn't.
lol at using Darnell Mayberry as a legitmization of your argument that Thabo is a top NBA player.
I just love how some people in the media, like Hollingers article, keep acting as if Denver is the better team and we have just gotten lucky over the past THREE games in two weeks. It all about how the Denver gave up opportunities and the refs screwed them. Every time they give us something (Durant had an awesome night), then they take something away (if it wasnt for Denvers lack of execution down the stretch we would have lost). I agree we could have lost that game easily by the way we were playing, but we didnt, we found a way to win. If anything, that should be HUGE cause for concern for Denver. For 45 min they played about as good as they can, and they still lost. Yet all these articles have this Denver slant, like they were the favorites??
Can anybody re-emphasize to me what Karl meant when he told perk he worries about him... Did he just mean the way he plays?
@justin
Thabo's "in-bounding ability" = Jeff's "clutchness"?
Maybe Thunder fans just have a tendency to irrationally lust over mediocre players? The Church of Thabo is reminiscent of the Church of Jeff Green.
@justin
roller should be handler.
cdub00 :
gr8ball83 :@cdub00Who considers Thabo a top 10 defender in the NBA THIS year? Maybe last year, definitely not this year.
Darnell Mayberry for one…and MANY others. Have you ever heard Harden’t Defense mentioned like Thabo’s? I haven’t. There is a reason for that. He is improving but he is simply not there yet. He had maybe the worst game of any player on our team last night.
This is patently false... Harden missed some three pointers but was otherwise playing well. 4 assists, a steal, two blocks. He played good defense. He needs the ball in his hands more off the dribble, IMO. Only one non spot up attempt from Harden in the game (it went in).
We've given you the #'s which pretty much tell the story (Thabo is mediocre defensively off the ball, elite on the ball). In a game where Thabo rarely defended on the ball, much less on the roller in a PnR, where is his value defensively?
gr8ball83 :@cdub00yeah the reason is Harden does more than play defense, he can actually be effective on the offensive side. He was not good in Game 1, which is why it was such a close game. If he plays more like himself we win pretty easily.
I agree with that. Harden is much better offensive player...but can't take away Sef's defensive effectiveness. I hope for the Thunder's sake that Sef plays lock down D and Harden doesn't miss another shot the rest of the playoffs (fingers crossed) ! :)
Thabo didnt have lockdown D down the stretch. ahhaha Thabo will still be mention defensively by the NBA
@cdub00
yeah the reason is Harden does more than play defense, he can actually be effective on the offensive side. He was not good in Game 1, which is why it was such a close game. If he plays more like himself we win pretty easily.
gr8ball83 :@cdub00Who considers Thabo a top 10 defender in the NBA THIS year? Maybe last year, definitely not this year.
Darnell Mayberry for one...and MANY others. Have you ever heard Harden't Defense mentioned like Thabo's? I haven't. There is a reason for that. He is improving but he is simply not there yet. He had maybe the worst game of any player on our team last night.
andrew :@cdub00We will see about that when the All defense teams are named. Thabo will not be on them.
Does that mean he is not better than Harden defensively? lol
And I hope all of the folks out there with a Harden Bro-Mance can atleast man up enough to admit he had a HORRIBLE game. He has to be better if we want to make a serious run.
*down the stretch
Stupid Mac likes to highlight and delete who rows of text for no reason..... ugh
I want my PC back lol
Seems to me like Thabo actually helped out on D quite a bit down the Thunder got all those stops right in a row.
I like George Karl but he has been doing a lot of talking the last week or so. Definitely seems like he's trying to get into guys' heads and get them off their game.
Game 2 can't get here soon enough.
@cdub00
Who considers Thabo a top 10 defender in the NBA THIS year? Maybe last year, definitely not this year.
Upon receiving the DPOY award, Dwight thanked his teammates for always letting the men by them and forcing him to block shots and pick up fouls. Uh, that's not normally how award acceptance press conferences go.
@cdub00
We will see about that when the All defense teams are named. Thabo will not be on them.
**Harden
andrew :When is the last game you thought “Damn Thabo is a good defender?” Last year’s playoffs? My eyes tell me James Harden is a better defender than Thabo.
Ibaka will hit some jumpers next game which should definitely help our starter’s offense.
Perkins was truly awful last night.
HAHAHA...one word brother...OPTOMETRIST. Call one. Sef is considered top 10 defender in NBA....Barden is far from it.
Royce just posted KD's amazing spinning twirling baseline layup
SWEET
Gunni Thor :@innocent bystander
damn, still learning on this WordPress stuff after Royce made us sign in but my last comment was referred to your best fan
Gunni Thor :@innocent bystander
damn, still learning on this WordPress stuff after Royce made us sign in but my last comment was referred to your best fan
Gunni Thor :@innocent bystander
damn, still learning on this WordPress stuff after Royce made us sign in but my last comment was referred to your best fan
im the best fan enough said!!! :)
Cook should have came in for harden
Cook did step up with the 2 minutes he got. Starters have to share the ball. Also its good to see Maynor assess his team and realize he had to be the guy last night. Defense has to improve alot.
@innocent bystander
damn, still learning on this Wordpress stuff after Royce made us sign in but my last comment was referred to your best fan ;)
We won Denver 3 times this month,their bench depth cannot help them.In playoff you need a star who can score 40+ more than some decent role players
innocent bystander :
Gunni Thor :@Royce
What do you mean by only Thunder fan in Iceland?
I'm not sure if this one hurt even more ;)
probably a typo — he must have meant “best” fan in Iceland
i think Thabo played a minute or two too much.
@thelaughingman
reminds me of doc holliday in Tombstone. "No, i'm sure, i hate 'im"
I can just see Perk... "i'm your huckleberry"
lol i crack myself up sometimes.
@anonymous
i remember reading something similar to that, but the numbers we're bigger than 0-10 but i think it was smaller.
Gunni Thor :@Royce
What do you mean by only Thunder fan in Iceland?
probably a typo -- he must have meant "best" fan in Iceland
:)
I saw that Hlynur commented in the last thread, and that interview of his was a couple of years old. I wonder if he's had a chance to make it over from Iceland yet to see our beloved Thunder.
Anyone have video of the 'other' goal tending call?
KD played 43 mins and I think he took Cook's time.But I really hope he get some mins from thabo
I'm glad there are still descent people in the world!! The basket interference in the 2nd quarter!??! Nene holding down Perk when he was trying to get the rebound (on both sides!!). I want the Thunder to obliterate this whining team. I was never a fan of Karl and didn't think much of him. No I hate him and his stupid band of whiners!! Calling us cocky and then blaming the game on 1 call. Nah man, take that somewhere else. They got away with WAY more stuff. If only I could video-edit I'd make a compilation and send it to ESPN and every other Nugget fan and show them the damned tape. Thunder Your Balls Up Nuggs.
@Royce
What do you mean by only Thunder fan in Iceland? :(
I read somewhere that Karl is 0-10 in series where he loses game 1