NBA Playbook breaks down the Thunder last several possessions as well: “Tony Allen gets into Durant’s body, so when the screen comes he is able to fit between the screener and Durant. This allows him to stay attached to Durant and keep him from making the catch initially and puts him in a good position to defend the pick and pop. Eventually, Durant gets the basketball and is forced to take a tough step-back jumper. In addition to letting himself get pushed around a little too much, Durant has a tendency not to cut sharply off of screens. Normally this doesn’t hurt him because his size allows him to shoot over defenders, but when he is trying to curl off for a three, he is making it harder on himself.”
Darnell Mayberry on if the Thunder’s been rattled: “Kevin Durant scoffed at the suggestion. Really, it wasn’t even a suggestion. It was a question. Clearly, though, Durant was stunned and perhaps even annoyed that it was even being asked. Has the Oklahoma City Thunder’s confidence, swagger or belief been shaken? That’s right. That was a point-blank question posed to Durant, the Thunder’s co-captain, at Sunday’s practice. It seemed a little premature.”
Fran Blinebury of NBA.com: “He was tuned in as clear and crisp as satellite radio when coach Lionel Hollins gave Mayo the job of defending Russell Westbrook, who had torched the Grizzlies and Mike Conley for 13 points in the third quarter when the Thunder were threatening to run away and hide with an unrelenting double-digit lead. Mayo stuck to Westbrook like white on rice. He fought over screens and through them. He was in Westbrook’s face every time he tried to turn a corner, practically inside his uniform each time he attempted a shot. In the fourth quarter and overtime, Westbrook went just 1-for-7 from the field and scored only four points.”
KD on Mother’s Day: “If it wasn’t Mother’s Day, I’d be ready to play right now,” Durant said after Sunday’s practice. “But my mom is here, and she’s taking a lot of pressure off me.”
A fun Russell Westbrook cartoon.
Serge Ibaka’s ankle is OK and he’ll start Game 4.
Derrick Rose took 32 shots and had a bad game yesterday. Charles Barkley wasn’t afraid to criticize Rose for the same reasons people have ripped Westbrook. Also, I broke down the last few minutes for the Bulls and they were certainly similar to the Thunder.
If you missed it, either Memphis or OKC’s next opponent is the Mavericks.
The Grizzlies won’t change their starting five for Game 4: “O.J. Mayo started the second half for Memphis in its comeback win over Oklahoma City in Game 3, but Grizzlies coach Lionel Hollins says he’ll begin Game 4 with his regular starting five. Sam Young, who began the third quarter on the bench but helped ignite the rally with a thunderous dunk, will remain the starter at shooting guard.”
I completely agree w AHGG. Being an OSU fan I have followed TA from day 1. Getting aggressive and throwing a cheap shot or two might work w some players (like the Denver players), but it will have the complete opposite effect on Tony. He wants you to play a different game and get inside your head, so if you throw a cheap shot he will know he's doing his job. I think the best thing to do is, and I hate this, start to flop a lot and try to get some fouls on him. Getting some cheap fouls called on him will frustrate him much more than giving him a forearm shiver.
So Adrian Wojnarowski just said on Rome is Burning that there are major locker room issues between KD and Westbrook....
Enough with comparing Westbrook to Rose. It's not fair to either player.
@walrusmuse
Gotcha. Aggressive countering is not the way to take Allen out of the equation, as I said, knowing from watching him all season, he feeds off of that competition and prides himself in being a defensive specialist. TA is very capable of huge defensive lapses, but that usually comes from early foul trouble, forcing him to play softer. They call him "Trick or Treat Tony" for a reason. If he make a few layups or jumpers in a row, he will put forth less effort on the defensive end, wanting to be more involved offensively. We will see how he responds tonight to the media attention he got for his defense on KD last game. I wouldnt be at all surprised if he comes out overconfident and gets into early foul trouble.
clarkem :@AllHeartGritGrind
Typing a lot of words doesn’t change 44 to 23… Just sayin. We haven’t blamed the loss on refs. We should have won. We might think its a factor but that is all.
this kinda gets more to the point I was making. Def not the refs game, that almost never happens (though we have a loss last year to the Jazz to point to on that count). I am curious to hear though how TA responds to aggressive countering, or how he seems to have all year.
And rest assured, KD can get smothered by a lot of great defenders, Artest, Afflalo, etc. but he finds a way through the fouling. Because "inside Durant's jersey" is about as apt a description as one can find of the "defense" folks often ascribe to his defenders. He'll find a way, hopefully tonight.
I think we're going to see KD from game 5 of the Denver series tonight. The only time TA isn't a monkey wrench in our offense is when he's sitting on the bench. KD's going to exploit that tonight.
No matter what happens tonight, The Thunders best days are ahead of them!
cdub00 :I know that KD and RW have something to prove and Sef needs more minutes in their if Mayo is going to keep playing that many minutes. Harden just can’t seem to stay with him, IMO. We need to get back to the things that won us 50 something games. Big game tonight, win this one and we are back in control. Lose this one, and its almost lights out and nighty night.
I'm not going to get into it again, but if you think giving Sef MORE minutes is the answer, you haven't been watching. Our defense is fine, we need JH to score. We need a secondary ball handler to take the pressure off of RW. Brooks needs to man up and call plays for JH, specifically PnRs. Harden scored or assisted on 3 baskets in OT on 3 opportunities. He has to have the ball to be effective. See Manu Ginobli.
I hope to God Brooks doesn't give us more Sef. If he does, we are doomed. Mayo may have scored on JH, but he'd do the same to Sef. Watching Tony Allen makes me remember what Sef used to do. Sef does not play defense like he did last year and JH is not a drop-off defensively. Give it up to Mayo for playing well.
clarkem :@AllHeartGritGrind
Typing a lot of words doesn’t change 44 to 23… Just sayin. We haven’t blamed the loss on refs. We should have won. We might think its a factor but that is all.
@clarkem
+1
Carma for ya
Interesting: whenever the bulls played before we have (game three before our game three for example)
And their opponent won so did we. And when won against our opponent they did as well. Welp Atlanta won
So hopefully we will too.
But seriously, we have been good all year at coming back from a loss. I think we take this one!
@AllHeartGritGrind
Typing a lot of words doesn't change 44 to 23... Just sayin. We haven't blamed the loss on refs. We should have won. We might think its a factor but that is all.
walrusmuse :
I guess i should also caveat that KD has to do this while making it only a normal foul, not a Bynum clothesline. Although, immaturely, I kinda want that. No I dont. But I do. I dont want Allen hurt (I wouldnt wish that on the most hated player), to be sure, but I do want him scared.
Telling you right now, since you probably haven't been following Grizz ball all season, Tony Allen is certifiably insane (both in a good and bad way). Normal flow-of-the-game rules don't apply to him. He takes absolute pride in his 1-on-1 defense, and getting pushed down by Durant would just a) give Durant a pointless foul, and b) make Tony's #1, life-or-death mission to keep KD from scoring, with or without fouling out. Not at all saying Durant couldn't score on him. I'm just saying that KD wouldn't be sending any messages. He would be adding fuel to the Tony Allen fire. Also, to those of you insinuating that the Grizz are getting away with too many fouls, see game #2. You guys came out and punched us in the mouth from tipoff to buzzer, repeatedly shoving, slapping, jabbing, bumping, etc. and the refs let 'em play. This is physical playoff basketball. The team that asserts themselves physically (not like the Lakers did) has the best chance of winning in this series. For every cheap foul you think you see called on your boys against randolph, look at the ones not called. It has gone both ways all series long, for both teams.
http://yfrog.com/z/h4zhxeej another quick NBA cartoon
If KD goes for 40+ tonight, we win by 10 points.
Is it just me, or does Lionel Hollins (sp?) seem to be a better coach than Goerge Karl? Never thought I would be saying that about a month ago.
Six pts from cook would be great. thats all we need from him to makes.
Cook has been AWOL in the playoffs no? I think we are a much better team when he hits a couple of shots
my totally early morning (seattle time) inane predictions for tonight:
Russ plays timid, but moves the ball well and creates more space for...
KD goes for 40+, but starts cold.
Harden plays a solid but not amazing game: 15/5/2steals
Ibaka comes up big-double double and 4+ blocks
Cook or Maynor or even Nick contribute offensively. one of them.
Mayo did most of his damage on Harden when he got caught on too much hedging or help in the paint, or a screen. But i still think the offensive advantage is worth it. one more bucket would have meant no overtime. of course, so would one less three from mem.
I also think the Memphis gameplan of denying Maynor the ball was just genius. It disrupted our change of pace tat normally gives us a good lead or back into a game. It force Russ to get back out too early and killed our 4th qt offense.
I ask this, because as a big man (in normal world, I'm 6'5, 200lbs so, scrawny actually with no hops) when I was growing up, my coaches encouraged me to get swipers off me at a rebound (usually defensive) with my elbows and arms, If i had the ball, they reasoned I could clean off the gnats with my elbows. If anyone wanted to get in the way of those, so be it. Is there something like that for a shooting guard or forward to do?
I don't care who plays, just want us to win. It wasn't any one players fault, just straight up BAD TEAM OFFENSE after the 3rd quarter. I don't think playing Harden more minutes in the 4th would solve that.
@walrusmuse
I have been saying that for the longest! He needs to either drop his elbow into him or step on some feet or post his guy at the top of the key and back him down to his sweet spot. Either way KD needs to get more physical when he gets the ball. If that calls for KD just to throw his guy to the ground then so-be-it!
I guess i should also caveat that KD has to do this while making it only a normal foul, not a Bynum clothesline. Although, immaturely, I kinda want that. No I dont. But I do. I dont want Allen hurt (I wouldnt wish that on the most hated player), to be sure, but I do want him scared.
@gr8ball83
Yes, I also noticed that Harden couldn't guard me and thus OJ's big scoring night. It seemed that OJ was open off of screen's ALL NIGHT when Harden was on him. Harden is good when he is hitting his shots but gets too timid and plays bad defense in spurts when playing with the starters IMO.
@walrusmuse
I think KD has got to learn to assert himself and be physical right back like he did in miami in march, he didn't shy away from lebron one bit in that game. If the ref calls an offensive foul, then so be it, but you can't let him just drape all over you. Give the refs a reason to stand up for you...
@walrusmuse
The rip move will do it. Was VERY surprised KD didn't do it in that 4th quarter...he had his chances.
On the topic of Tony Allen's off the ball D on KD: I know KD wouldn't do it but wouldn't it benefit him to point it out in the media that they are holding/grabbing him? If he pointed it out, the refs would have to take some notice of it.
so here's a serious question:
is it at all wise for KD to give Allen a little knock to the ground on one of the 50 posessions where Allen basically hugs KD for the entire play-just to let him know he's not Allen's plaything? If KD isn't getting those fouls called (when Allen fouls him almost incessantly-and I'm not blaming refs for anything, just saying they are very selective at times: someone breathes wrong on Randolph he's at the line) he's gotta get Allen on his heels somehow. I hate dirty basketball, but no one effs with KD and escapes my ire.
@cdub00
Sef's help defense is just great but i really dont like his man to man vs Mayo. He tends to sagg off too much( which is great vs Sam(no shot)Young) but no so good on Mayo. I think we need to sub to Harden in on Mayo and Sef on Young. We Cannot allow anymore lame ass dunks on our big men. I'd preffer a Hard Andrew Bynum (not that bad) over allow that crap to happen again.
gr8ball83 :@cdub00I dunno if you noticed, but we scored 93 points in an overtime game. I think we need Harden’s offense.
Yeah that was the worst 4th qt meltdown I've have seen since the Blazers' 2000WCF meltdown to the L@kers in the 4th. I have been on the loosing side of both of those...The pain wont go away lol
@cdub00
I dunno if you noticed, but we scored 93 points in an overtime game. I think we need Harden's offense.
I know that KD and RW have something to prove and Sef needs more minutes in their if Mayo is going to keep playing that many minutes. Harden just can't seem to stay with him, IMO. We need to get back to the things that won us 50 something games. Big game tonight, win this one and we are back in control. Lose this one, and its almost lights out and nighty night.
I believe this is a must win today!
I think that KD is embarrased with his poor 4th qt
I know the Thunder will use the same gameplan as Sat
I think Harden will play 30+ mins and Brooks got a wake-up call
I also know that we will win this series in six.
I'm surprise Barkley kinda of, in a strange way didn't bash any of our players, and showed us some love. I think it does get on the players nerves when they are asked those questions. We're fans so the first thing we do when we lose is get a little upset, angry, and some may panic. It'll rattle our cages, but as professionals i don't it does theirs.