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A couple days off can make anyone feel a whole lot better about going to work. The Thunder didn’t play all that well in consecutive losses to Dallas and Portland, but washed that taste out of their mouth a bit with a 109-94 dismantling of the Rockets Friday night at The Peake.
The Thunder started taking care of an overmatched Rockets early, who were playing without Kyle Lowry. Easy transition baskets, active defense, good energy and Kevin Durant taking over the third quarter made this one simple for the Thunder. Which of course is very nice because this is the first game of OKC’s back-to-back-to-back that includes another matchup with the Rockets tomorrow night in Houston.
The Thunder finished with 54 points in the paint, shot 52.5 percent from the floor, went 6-14 from deep, limited turnovers (just 11) and handed out 20 assists. It was almost a mechanical win for the Thunder, which is exactly what you’d hope to see considering they finally got a little rest and had just dropped two straight.
What really impressed me most about this game was KD’s third quarter. He scored 14 of his game-high 26 in the third and while the box score only has him with three assists, he was creating shots for teammates like I’ve never seen before. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him quite that relaxed with the ball in his hands. It helps that Chase Budinger and Chandler Parsons had absolutely no prayer of checking Durant, but he was handling and dishing and scoring with ease. Those times where OKC’s offense stalls like it did in the second half against Portland, I’d like to see Durant give a little of what he showcased tonight a shot. I know he’s passing better than ever this season, but he was really in point forward mode in this one. When he’s got all that working, he’s as dynamic an offensive player as there is in the league. It’s just about bringing every night.
This was total domination from start to finish for OKC. Cole Aldrich was the only negative Thunder player (-1), but he only played the final minute of the game. The entire starting five was a double-figure plus, the bench scored 49 points and the Thunder probably played their best game of the season start to finish. But now you’ve got to put that away real quick and get ready to do it all over again on the road against the Rockets tomorrow. Going 3-0 in this stretch would be very nice for OKC and honestly, I think it would be a tad disappointing if they didn’t do it.
NOTES:
- What did the Thunder do with their two days off? Got haircuts evidently. Looking fresh, you guys.
- Russell Westbrook was a little loose with the ball at times, but he played an overall quality game. Good shooting percentage, quality looks and he did a nice job looking to get the Thunder offense moving the ball. One thing he tried was to post a whole lot on Goran Dragic, which worked relatively well. One time, Jonny Flynn picked Westbrook’s pocket and then Westbrook came right back and posted Flynn at the 3-point line and backed him down for a bucket. I bet Ray Felton was nodding there, but that’s just Russell Westbrook.
- Thabo returned and while he didn’t make a huge impact in the box score, he was really active defensively and did a great job on Kevin Martin (13 points on 4-9 shooting).
- Daequan Cook missed his first two 3-pointers of the game, both while wearing his new glasses. Which had made Cook 0-7 with those glasses on from 3. He took them off late in the fourth and naturally, dropped a 3.
- With a game tomorrow in Houston, I thought it was a little odd that Scott Brooks stuck with Harden, Nick Collison and Nazr Mohammed so long, but I kind of think it might’ve been to give Reggie Jackson a chance to play with actual rotation guys. Basically, Jackson was playing Maynor’s spot in OKC’s second rotation. Good move by Brooks.
- James Harden is just killing it right now. He had 23 on 8-11 shooting, went 2-2 from 3 and had three assists. He’s maybe the Thunder’s second most reliable scorer right now.
- Only two guys played more than 25 minutes: Harden (26) and KD (27).
- How about that discussion between Brian Davis and Grant Long about Thabo’s All-Star potential. I had to stop and ask, “Am I really hearing this?”
- Serge Ibaka played one of his most complete games of the season and did it against a pretty good power forward in Luis Scola. Ibaka went for 11 points and nine rebounds plus three blocks.
- KD’s no-look passes are beautiful. I think that’s truly something you can chalk up to all the streetball games he’s playing.
- Durant did miss two more free throws, which is something I’m not loving.
- If Lowry plays tomorrow — he was out with a foot injury — this game with be entirely different. Westbrook won’t be able to bully Lowry and he’s a guy that has flirted with triple-doubles almost every night so far this year. So while this was easy tonight, it might not be tomorrow.
- Brian Davis Line of the Night honorable mention: “Crouching tiger, hidden rebounder.”
- Brian Davis Line of the Night: “The Rockets are playing like someone slit their wrists and put them in a warm bath.”
Next up: At the Rockets Saturday night.
westbrook's per has recovered but that gets aided greatly by his high usage. still it is only at his rookie season level of 15. win shares and adjusted +/- still have him as having well below average on impact.
offensive rating has him in the bottom 15% in the league among rotation players. but it will probably creep up, recovering from the couple of really bad games.
Great game, great report. And most importantly, "The Peake" finally has a good ring to it. Went to a game last week and referred to it as "The Ford Center" in a moment of weakness.
Loved watching Reggie come off the bench with a fire! His attitude at point is steady and directing. Unfortunately, his intense readiness to play stood in stark contras to Cole's sluggish playing time. Cole barely tried. I know we were slamming Houston and all, but I think when you only get a minute or two on the court, you play lights out the whole time.
One good thing about Cole, I think Reggie was dribbling out in the final seconds and the Rockets defender was snug on him. Cole walked over and basically started walking through the defender in a semi-moving-pick kind of way just to give Reggie some space. I liked that.
Nenad played much differently in BOS.But Doc didn't give him much time after Jermaine ONeal was back.I think that was because of his defense.
Mullens is a poor edition Nenad He cannot get minutes in thunder.But DJ is a solid player.
Celtics pulled Jeff Green's QO, making him an UFA. With him sitting a year out and struggling last season with the Celtics, he may not cost that much on the FA market. Any thoughts of bringing him back to OKC to come off the bench?
@anonymous12345 for under $3 million maybe
@anonymous12345 I think it is not a good idea for him to play in Kd's shadow again And we need to keep Russ and Harden so we cannot give him many $
Mullens is the top 10 of the league on raw FG% and even with his focus on outside shooting and weakness inside he is just outside the top 10 most efficient on TS% for big men 6-10+ who have played 100+ minutes.
But the Thunder gives up him after 139 minutes use.
People need to consider that it is easier to look good playing on a bad team. @Crow
@Air Bud true. but both white and mullens have fabulous adjusted +/- right now. and adjusted plus minus tries pretty hard to put all players on a level playing field for evaluation.
@Air Bud we;ll see where they are in march.
@Crow He's shooting 60%+ on 16-23 feet. Do you think that will continue? I don't...
@[censored] do you think he'll maintain high 40s or over 50 from there? I think he has a pretty good shot to. if he does he is one of the best outise shooting big men in the league now or ever and that can be useful in a good offense esepecially if your stars want and need an open lane for drives/ fouls
@Crow@[censored] yeah i liked mullens a lot more than reid.
@f5alcon@[censored] yeah we'll see what reid and hayward contribute. little probably.
@Crow@f5alcon@[censored] right now a 35-40 pick in 2013 might get you fab melo
@Crow@[censored] i think it was to get the roster spot for reid.
@Crow@f5alcon@[censored]
@f5alcon@[censored] it could be a decent pick with luck and if used right .
i hope it wasnt a move where the money ($1.5 mil or so) played much role
@Crow@[censored] the pick we got in return could easily get a player of similiar or better value, the bobcats are bad and even next year they will be bad, thats is probably a top 40 pick, maybe even top 35
@Crow It was obviously a mistake since he wasn't good. But it's a lower first round pick, you do not hit them all. We got Ibaka on a similar pick.
@[censored] i am not trying to make a big case for mullens but either it was a mistake to draft him or let him go for a modest price this quick
The DJ White record playing in the NBA:
rookie- played a few games at the rate of almost 20 minutes and did very well, at least on offense.
2nd yr rarely played, 8 minutes per game but did even better on offense and defense,
3rd year low minutes, weak performance, traded. Then Charlotte plays him regularly again and he goes back to doing very well.
4th season Charlotte plays him even more and he does as well or even better.
There are less than 25 bigs in the league with his TS%, Reb%, PER and Win Shares per 48 over the time he has been in the league.
They trade him and then the guy who was blocking his time. For the temporary 3rd string center.
@Crow We all knew DJ was a decent player but where would he get minutes on this team? Ibaka and Collison are blocking him, and before that Green.
@[censored] very few admitted that white was a decent player. most said he was trash
@[censored] back then
@[censored] there always was and is a way to make 10-20 minutes for him and in the future there would have been even more room
@[censored] you dont have to play 5-6 bigs a game, pick the 4-5 best for each game
@[censored] more than half the west are playing 11 man rotations.
but play mohammed and perkins 5 minutes less each and you dont even have to affect collison and ibaka though you could
@Crow@[censored] We should have not played green 40 mpg and white none, but the team post perkins trade doesnt have space for him.
@Crow Are you advocating an 11 man rotation? Or Ibaka or Collison playing more center again? Then where do you play Mullens? You can't play everybody.
@[censored]@Crow yeah he still wouldnt be getting minutes here, same with mullens he was still behind perkins aldrich and collison. It still goes back to coaching though, krstic also played better when he left, it is because we want to force players into being post centers when they are not
@f5alcon@[censored] to clarify i agree we are and should be in win now mode. bur until the trade deadline last season we weren't told that we were.
and they still sometimes act like 2-3 years from now is the real peak. it might be. which is more true should affect the decisions you make. if it is peak win now time then perkins makes sense. mohammed might. if the real peak is 2-3 years from now trading white and mullens might not have been as reasonable as if they are really to max the opportunity this season.
@f5alcon@Crow@[censored]
@Crow@[censored] We should be in win now mode, as we don't know what will happen contractwise with westbrook, harden or ibaka and we are not going to get much better skillwise. We are already favored to win the west.
@Crow@f5alcon@[censored] harden's one on one defense doesnt look bad in general so either the bad team defense is not his fault or he is bad at help defense. his personal and team defense both look way better when he is at SF instead of SG this season. Last season his personal defense was way better at SF and team defense was slightly better too.
@f5alcon@[censored] early adjusted plus minus estimate for mohammed over all minutes is currently -27 per 48 minutes but there are probably big errors scattered around this early.
harden's estimate looks terrible too. that one is probably way off but team defense is by far its worst with him on the court. he is the only bench player with a terrible team defense number. something to watch and try to understand better.
@f5alcon@[censored] mohammed with collison and harden +27, mohammed with anything less than that -15.
@f5alcon@[censored] so we are in win right now mode? if so, there are other bigger things that should have been done and should still be done this season.
@Crow@[censored] nazr, +/- is at least decent for our big men, better than perkins, so even as a temperory player he helps us in this win now mode.
@f5alcon@[censored] 16 minutes of course is very light. he probably ends up with less or well less than 500 minutes or even 200 minutes and when you play that little you don't learn that much. practice doesnt do it that much.
@Crow@f5alcon If that continues I will be shocked.
@f5alcon@[censored] there is a pretty chance aldrich works out in the role they have in mind for him but the team's counterpart point performance at center is just terrible. mullens breaking even against backups looks pretty good in comparison.
@Crow@[censored] aldrich only has 16 mins that is too little time to determine if he will actually be decent, he looked decent in preseason.
@Crow@f5alcon He was a more recent draft pick. And who knows what happens in practice. Mullens even admitted that he wasn't wanting to do what the coaching staff here wanted him to do. He didn't want to play defense, doesn't want to rebound, etc. Aldrich seems eminently more coachable, IMO. That's probably the difference.
@f5alcon@[censored] what was aldrich done to get the verdict vs mullens? this year he has put up a per of 1.5 and the second or third worst +/- on the team
If I coached Houston I would have tried Patterson on Durant some.
What were those Brian Davis' suicide comments about? What did he say?
@Jermaine
“The Rockets are playing like someone slit their wrists and put them in a warm bath.”
@Jermaine Something about a slit wrists in and bleeding out in a bathtub.