vs. 
Houston Rockets (22-20, 7-14 road) vs. OKC Thunder (32-9, 18-2 home)
TV: FS OK (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: 7:00 CT
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 109.1 (2nd), Rockets– 105.0 (11th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.5 (13th), Rockets – 105.2 (19th)
Pace: Thunder – 93.5 (5th), Rockets – 91.9 (12th)
View from the enemy: Red 94
Not gonna like, kind of sick of the Thunder playing the Rockets. The Thunder have played them three times in what seems like the past three weeks. Two came on consecutive nights, and a third was one of the uglier losses of the season. Not that the Rockets are bad or anything. In fact, if the season magically ended today, Oklahoma City would play them in the first round. So maybe we should all get used to this matchup, huh?
Houston coming in: The Rockets lost in Cleveland on Sunday.
Three Big Things
1. Samuel Dalembert. One thing that really hurt OKC in the last matchup was Dalembert on the offensive glass. He cleaned up, providing the Rockets a number of extra possessions. He’s an active rebounder and really finds his value in that. OKC has to keep him off the boards.
2. Turnovers. They were a problem last time. Less of them, please.
3. No Kyle Lowry. OKC is 2-0 against Houston without Lowry, 0-1 when they have him. He’s out again tonight with a bacterial infection. So automatic win, right?
Tip at 7:00 CT. Go … just Go.
thunder wont get far in the playoffs playing like tonght
this was without a doubt the most disgusting loss of the season thus far.. the team as a whole completely checked out of the game with 3 minutes left to play, thinking they had the win in the bag.. i am sick, check that, i am beyond sick and tired of this team being unable to maintain any kind of lead because they back of their intensity as soon as they feel its safe to slack off.. Brooks is continuing to prove that this team is winning despite him, and not because of him, and is still managing to pull of some of the most useless lineups available in our 10 man roster.. this was just uncontrollable stupidity at its finest, and this team is out of "wake up" calls and "off games".. now it is just getting down to straight up awful play, and poor decision making by a team that isn't learning from its mistakes or making an effort to improve upon them. Next game in Denver is a death trap, and these boys had better grow into men in a short time or we may be staring down a significant losing streak very soon.. as always Thunder Up.. now would someone please give me something to be positive about?.
The Thunder will go as far as the Brooks Brothers take us...Westbrook and Coach Brooks that is.....
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/03/thunder-lose-a-stunner-at-home-to-the-rockets-104-103/
hopefully the magic beat the spurs tomorrow, and rose and lebron get in a fistfight and get suspended the rest of the season.
this whole month we have looked sloppy and lazy and have 3 losses, it is like we think we can always win late in the game, and most of the time we can but it is catching up to us more and more.
@f5alcon Predictability is why we are losing we are so predictable
@Lost Ones @f5alcon Switched it up tonight, it was working...
@Remify @f5alcon yea in the 4th qt im talking about 1-3 shouldn't even been starters in the game for the 4th.
I know this was an awful game and an awful loss, but some of you are taking this way too far. One loss like this and all you can do is criticize the team, thats not what I think a fan should do.
@RussianThunder Welcome. You must be new around here. :)
@ThunderChick2010
Have been reading the boards for awhile now, just finally made an actual account to comment. Am not Russian, but am here for a semester
@Remify
No sorry haha
@ThunderChick2010 @RussianThunder if we go on a losing streak, some of the really negative ones might die.
@RussianThunder So you're not Russian? Damn.
@RussianThunder Again, welcome. Everyone will be in a much better mood after the next win. Well, except for a few . . .
@ThunderChick2010 @RussianThunder lol, yeah it could be worse, we could be th eknicks and boo the team during the game
@f5alcon @ThunderChick2010 @RussianThunder lol.... knicks are terrible fans
@RussianThunder RussianThunder? In Soviet Russia, Thunder roots for you.
I speak Russian.. maybe we can have some friendly conversations.
So do we all agree that no matter who we have on the court, the main problem comes from coaching? I mean there were a TON I MEAN A TON of coaching mistakes made during the game, and the blame can fall ont he players too for being lazy. I mean Harden didn't put his hands up on Lee but besides that if not for him i think we would have lost to double digits. I mean honestly Russ? KD wtf man if you were dizzy from the hit you took when you fell down go to the bench i rather you not take awful shots if your half out of it, not only for the games sake but for your health too. I mean obviously we start the game sluggish, i mean you look at the Bulls game yesturday and their coach was on their ass all the time. Our coach won't even lift a finger against Westbrook. We're playing like whimps, the other day when we played Charlotte they were tossing us around the floor. I mean even Perkins seems to have gotten soft. Wheres that fire and intensity. Either Presti offers Ron Adams a good contract he can refuse to be an assistant or even head coach, or its time to move on from Brooks. The rest of the league might not see it but we do. I mean sh't do we have to go back to last seasons playoffs where we won some games just based on talent. Our players carried Brooks. Yes his first two seasons he did a great job, keep the dude as an assistant, i just don't think as a head coach he can get it done. Bring in SVG, if Dwight leaves he leaves too, we need someone to roughen our boys.
By the way, can we get Westbrook some anger management or something. This routine of his is getting a might old. The guy's 23. Tonight was military night in the arena. There were 23 & 24 year old guys in the arena who've put everything on the line in Iraq and Afghanistan for several years of their lives overlapping with Russ' NBA career. Time to grow up son. Can't act the fool forever.
@Old Man Game Anger Holds no age, Im sure you would have had no problem with Durant getting mad like he did with griffin, Bradley etc. its part of basketball. Did you watch basketball in the 90s? it was alot worse then it is now.
@Lost Ones Not in that situation. He can't get T'ed up there. Cannot happen.
@Old Man Game oops i meant gotten injured damn phone
@Old Man Game If he would have gotten , what would have been your reaction from.
hey guys atleast we don't have Dwight Howard saying you have to keep me til the end of the year so we have a shot at winning it all and what happens after the season doesn't matter
@OBoymuzik they could be durant in 4 years if scott brooks is the coach.
power rankings of bad tonight from really bad to least bad
1.Russ-cmon man
2. Serge-dunk the ball
3.KD-thats the best shot you could get???
4.Harden- just because you were awesome the rest of the quarter doesn't keep you off the list for leaving Lee wide open
@OBoymuzik No way is KD not tied with westbrook
@Lost Ones my bad i was ranking in the last 2:00, not the whole game
The thing is, Presti made the right moves while he had the ammo to build the roster and get the team to this point - but now he's out of ammo. He can't do anything to improve the team now without changing the coach and/or moving part of the core. I can see why he might let this group go through the playoffs this year and then see what changes need to be made this summer. But I can't see this group of players and this coach winning a title together. Westbrook's extension kicks in next year, which should make it easier to get value back at that point.
I wonder if any teams need a Top 5 scorer and a 2X All-Star guard?
I think Ibaka is our best and most logical trade piece. Many of the struggles this team has seem more a result of poor execution, poor focus, and poor coaching than anything. i.e. there's no reason that the 2009-10 team should be better defensively relative to league average than our team now, but that is the case. Despite our current team having what would seem to be more defensive oriented talent. The difference between the two is Ron Adams leaving and (IMO) a shortfall in terms of focus that stems from the team unable to deal with heightened expectations properly. It's easier to focus on the little things when you're clawing your way to the top, and harder when you've already tasted some success. The team needs to grow up and it starts with the coaching staff, not the front office.
@justin_mia justin, you're always on point - but you lost me here. How is Ibaka our best trade piece? He only makes $1.3 million this year, and only $2.2 million next year. It would be next to impossible to get any reasonable return value from trading that piece - who else in the league contributes so much for so little salary?
@Lost Ones @justin_mia Depends what you bring back, doesn't it?
@courtsense @justin_mia trading westbrook after the extension would = bye bye durant bye bye free agents coming here you dont dont do that to your star players.
@justin_mia This is the same reason they can't trade Westbrook now before his extension kicks in - at only $5 million per, they can't get value back. But when his extension kicks in, they can bring back about $15 million in value.
@courtsense @justin_mia we'd have to package ibaka and perkins
@courtsense I don't want any changes to this roster until we see it with a different coaching staff. I'm not ready to believe that we've seen even close to the best this group can muster.
@Old Man Game @courtsense Its not the groups fault , its primarily our coaching staffs fault. soon westbrook caught that tech scott brooks should have called a timeout and let him cool off and explain our gameplan. but instead he chose to let his most erratic player go out there unconscious with a already unconscious durant its just plain inexcusable.
@courtsense this seems pretty accurate, though I'm always a little hopeful for the surprise gumption he showed at trades last year. but there's prob not much to go on right now.
No post game thread thats now pissed Royce is.
@Remify In Soviet Russia, postgame thread is not allowed after comrades lose.
@Remify westbrook got him sad
No one wants to say it, but If one our of 3 of our guys have a bad series in the playoffs 9 out of 10 times we are losing because we dont have a inside presence.
damn phone if one of the 3 of our guys*
at least miami, portland, memphis, lost
@f5alcon and Miami will play against Bulls next game
@f5alcon but lakers are looking good.
and with our upcoming schedule this could easily turn into a 5 game losing streak
@f5alcon It just might if we dont make a move before the deadline.
@Lost Ones i doubt we do, hopefully when thabo comes it helps, cook should be benched, he is the worst 3 point specialist in the league.
@walrusmuse @f5alcon yea that's practice they all can hit like 40 in a row haha.
@Lost Ones @f5alcon yeah, but at least some D will be there. here's hoping that 3 didn't go too far away. DM said he was draining em the other day...but that was shootaround.
@walrusmuse @f5alcon idk if thabo will be the same player we say, he obviously probably lost his 3pt shot.
@f5alcon @Lost Ones i keep forgetting with Thabo coming back at least it's something of a shake up. not much, but anything is better than stasis at this point.
@f5alcon the thing is cook was terrible before last season and had a random spark now hes back to trash.