George Karl: “I think all season long everybody in basketball thought Oklahoma City was the best team in the west, but were they mature enough to show that? I think last night, I think everybody right now, I think it’s going to be a San Antonio-Oklahoma City thing. San Antonio is playing with so much flow and rhythm and rhythmatic offense and their defense is not great but it is solid. It’s still a pretty good defensive team. Their offense is so in flow right now I love watching San Antonio play. And this is the time of year where there’s a separation and I’m not ready to sign the contract but I’m pretty sure Oklahoma City is a higher degree than everybody else right now, along with, probably, San Antonio. … I’m very prejudiced toward the west. I’ll be honest with you, I think there’s four or five teams in the West that can beat Miami.”
Brian Kamenetzky of ESPN LA on adjustments: “Cohesion for the pick and roll defense. Too often Russell Westbrook was able to turn the corner and step into a mid-range jumper without being bothered. Same with Kevin Durant. The Lakers have to apply more pressure higher on the floor, and more importantly need to make sure everyone is on the same page in his coverages. Clearly that wasn’t the case Monday night. Westbrook, Durant, and particularly James Harden are all elite level scorers handling the ball on the pick and roll, and will require elite level defense in response. It’s not simply a question of playing the Kobe Bryant-on-Westbrook card. They tried that in Game 1, and it wasn’t effective because the overall coverages weren’t good.”
Kobe says he doesn’t take charges: “I learned from my predecessors,” Bryant said. “(Scottie) Pippen had a (messed) up back taking charges. (Larry) Bird had a (messed) up back taking charges. I said, ‘I’m not taking charges.’ I figured that … out at an early age.”
Trey Kerby of TBJ on OKC being gym rats: “But now since Scott Brooks put it in my head, I’m having a hard time imagining the Thunder doing normal person stuff in their downtime. Like, I can’t picture Serge Ibaka going to the store and buying soup or Thabo Sefolosha popping in to a Barnes and Noble to look at some magazines. That kind of stuff has to happen, I’m sure, but it’s really weird to think of the Thunder doing it instead of playing basketball. For now, I’m just going to assume Derek Fisher runs all their errands like the dad that he is. That makes the most sense to me, so I’m running with it.”
President Obama likes the Thunder as a title contender.
Something I stumbled across today: Most random Thunder player in their short history: Chucky Atkins.
Berry Tramel on Westbrook: “I don’t know if Westbrook’s look is fashion statement or faux pas. But I do know this. It’s a disguise. Camouflage. A mask designed to make us think Superman really is mild-mannered Clark Kent. Or maybe to offer a clue that Westbrook, a dragonslayer of a ballplayer, really does have an alter ego. A clue that there’s a little bit of Urkel in him.”
Metta World Peace wanted Scott Brooks as his coach.
Trey Kerby of TBJ on Westbrook’s fashion: “Not to mention, you have to appreciate a guy who confidently picks out a shirt he likes, buttons it all the way up to his neck and then just nonchalantly tosses off an “I’ve been knowing how to dress for a while” like he’s not wearing a shirt our moms would buy for us when we were six. That’s bold. This is the pull-up jumper with 20 seconds left on the shot clock and Kevin Durant wide-open of explaining clothing decisions. It’s like he thinks he’s Kanye West or something.”
Mark Medina of the L.A. Times on defending Westbrook: “The Lakers’ hope that Westbrook would miss his shots backfired. From the beginning they allowed Westbrook to get in a rhythm by granting him open looks. That only bolstered his confidence and, more important, made it more difficult for the Lakers to absorb all the other problems that plagued them.”
David Roth of the Wall Street Journal: “The Lakers have won a lot of playoff games, and Kobe Bryant in the playoffs is, well, Kobe Bryant in the playoffs. But with Bryant himself acknowledging Oklahoma City’s athletic superiority in his post-game comments—and with that 29-point thumping still fresh in the memory—it’s easy to believe that this series could mark a turning point for the Thunder. For all the narrative catharsis and revenge related to that endlessly replayed elbow, the Thunder sure seemed to be serving notice on Monday that the real thumping will involve basketball, and is just getting started.”
I hope we don't have too much rust or rest. I forget which it is. ESPN saying lakers must win this one. I hope we come out with same intensity as Monday night and not let our foot off the gas! Thunderup!
i liked westbrook's shirt. not really the glasses
@atxhorn The crazy part is that a shirt like that costs $200
@blueRAP @atxhorn it was $115
@loplopol @blueRAP ralph lauren is expensive shit
Manny Pacquiao will still continue to be a global Icon, whether he made a terrible comment on gays or not. He's not a Amercan to begin with, so Stephen A Smiths comment on the matter don't really hit right on. People gay people will still buy his fights, to either see him fight and get beaten. Manny is in roots to his religion. He said what he thought, doesn't really mean he's going to get a caravan of Mercs and go off and kill homosexuals. Boxers like Mayweather and Pacqquiao make more money in one fight with not only the PPV's purchased, tickets purchased, promotion, merchandise, ect then baseball players would in a year. I'm pretty sure Pacquiao's wallet won't hurt so much because he lost a small fraction of fans in the boxing world.
Im positive perk will play hip or no hip
@Lost Ones He does have both hips. :)
@ThunderChick2010 @Lost Ones Perk: I only need one hip to defend Gasol and Bynum, the bunch of pansies.
@ou_sas @ThunderChick2010 @Lost Ones He didn't say pansies...
If KP really can't play tonight, i expect to see Cole play some. Did everyone forget that game against L.A. here at OKC a few days after the trade deadline last year? We didn't even have Nazr yet, at the end of the game we put Cole on Gasol who had been killing us, and he made Gasol struggle for EVERYTHING. Its like what @FREE_COLE all that energy and length does pay off.
@ElMexiThunder Energy, Youth, Length. He doesn't have the game instincts yet but the dude can do some great things. Give him 10 minutes a game, I think he'd get something like 6.5 rebounds/gm maybe a block. Still foul prone but I'm ok with that for the most part. Once he figures out game pace, that'll go away
@ElMexiThunder @FREE_COLE Cole Aldridge potential stat line - 0 points, 6 minutes, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks, 6 personal fouls.
@Tronchaser @ElMexiThunder @FREE_COLE Nice! a foul a minute
@Tronchaser @ElMexiThunder @FREE_COLE Good game
Rhode "Still no decision on Kendrick Perkins (hip) vs. Lakers tonight."
@OBoymuzik Nazee did a good job in Game 1 though
@ILikePancakes i would still rather have perk available even if nazr has to play more minutes than normal
The Kendrick Perkins vs. Russell Westbrook post-up watch ended up in a landslide. Perkins is at .55 PPP on post ups for the season and Westbrook is at .77 PPP.
ok local sports guys...stop talking about Bynum and Gasols HUUUUUGE game vs denver in game 7....23 points and 17 rebounds is cool but most of those points are off of offensive rebounds because they had 6ft 6 Faried guarding Gasol
@OBoymuzik Faried made them earn those boards, which makes it more impressive...
@FREE_COLE @OBoymuzik
Yeah...but it isn't like those points or rebounds carry over to this series. I'm sure DC has hit 5 threes in a row before. That doesn't have much bearing on what's actually happening. Potential to do well is not the same as doing well.
@FREE_COLE but if you don't let them get those boards they don't have the rebounds AND the points
i'm just hearing alot of well gasol didn't show up in game one, which might be partially true but denver had to go small to get back in the game and then they stayed small when gasol came back in...what did they get 20 offensive boards in the 2nd half?
@OBoymuzik Yeah but even small, Faried killed them in the other games. Pau just stepped huge there. It was a one game thing that really shouldn't be mentioned though. If he played at that intensity all the time, the Lakers wouldn't lose
Either Artest using " so many fine women here, and fine women don't need make up" is describing how good our crowd is, and that a city doesn't need to be flashy to be great.
Or he'sseriously high and i'm just a dumbass.
@ElMexiThunder I didn't know there was many fine woman there i cant hate artest for that statement
@Lost Ones
Hey now, i say this from the heart. There are more gorgeous women.. White women here then in San Antonio.
@ElMexiThunder We did ok, played ok, Park-ass, ok, um gibberish gibberish Ronartest.com, ok, Park-ass, blibber flibber, did ok. Better not to waste time reading into what he says, he strikes me as a little light on the mood stabilizers at this point.
@ElMexiThunder or it's his way to say "I hooked up with a girl last night and it could be your sister"
@diddoff
Or brother.... I'm just saying we don't really know what Artest perfers.
I thought he was talking about the Thunder Girls--until he mentioned no make-up.
RT: @ZachLowe_SI: How different was Wade's hit on Collison from Jason Smith's on Blake Griffin, for which NBA suspended Smith 2 games?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMLnOTewYGg
I would like your thoughts. Of course, Wade didn't go into the stands and start waving his arms at the crowd.
@Jooseppi THE HELL WAS THAT. and NO SUSPENSION. thats straight up bullshit. Its cause its Dwade, IN miami, and hes a poster boy. screw that. that was flagrant and had intent. id of clothesline him if i was trailing behind him >.>
@Jooseppi First time I have seen that. Whoever was trailing that play, Granger I think, should have planted Wade when he saw that blatant cheap shot. It might seem like a hockey move, but that hit BS. He needed a Perk like message to Dirk after he elbowed Ibaka after the inadvertent hit on the shot.
@Jooseppi Posterchild vs nobody, Regular Season vs Playoffs, altercation afterwards vs no alteration at all... these are the only differences, I see and they're pretty weak. lol
http://gif.mocksession.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/CHARLES-BARKLEY-SHAKE-WEIGHT.gif
@ILikePancakes I like the part when his eye's open "Guys my career might be dieing"
Did Barkley praise the Spurs last night? Because... um... they shot jumpers THE FREAKING WHOLE GAME!
@diddoff ball movement jumpers vs iso jumpers. Justin posted some numbers on where they take their shots in another thread too. It's entirely different
@FREE_COLE Open shots are open shots to me. And I doubt that Chuck or Shaq ever look at iso vs. ball movement.
They see Duncan vs Durant and see one of the best post players in history and a "pure" shooter.
@diddoff And I think that his not saying it doesn't matter. Barkley is knowledgable enough to notice the difference, this is just you not thinking Barkley/Shaq are good and me thinking Chuck is fairly good
@FREE_COLE I get the difference between OKC and SAS (and I got I before). But that's still not was he is saying.
He is critiquing jumpshooting. He's critiquing it with this word everytime someone asks him about us and everytime someone asked him about the Mavs last year.
I wouldn't care if he's talking trash about ISOs or ball movement because that's like we're actually playing, but he never even mentioned it.
@diddoff @FREE_COLE Open shots aren't open shots. Most players shoot higher percentages when they have their feet set and are assisted.
@diddoff Oh no. They are a jump shooting team. Chuck's critiques generally focus on how we don't get easy shots. The Spurs get easy shots. How many non transition open 3s do we get? Not many where it is in the hands of a good 3 shooter. The spurs? 1st in 3FG% I believe. He's not critiquing jump shooting, he's critiquing how and where they get the shots
@FREE_COLE You're saying the Spurs aren't a "jumshooting" team in Chuck's definition because they move the ball better?
@diddoff Disagree. Chuck might have some weird points occasionally but he isn't wrong about his points about us. We are a jumpshooting team but we happen to be talented enough to work with it. And an Iso jumper is inherently not open. We get good shots. The Spurs get better shots.
1500 likes for DT on Facebook... Welcome to the bigtime Mr Royce.
via Mike Sherman from the Oklahoman " OKC Thunder GM Sam Presti named to NBA competition committee. What cause/rule change world you have him Champion?
@tydude add at least 2 feet of depth to the baseline under the basket to enhance driving opportunities, add at least one foot or two to the no charge zone, cut back on both charge / blocks calls by raising the standards for each, don't call mild handchecking or mild rebounding contact, cut timeouts some in the first half, change offensive 3 secs to 5 secs, allow one foot in the paint with no penalty, etc.
@tydude Something should be done about flopping. Even soccer has penalties for it.
@justin_mia @tydude Euro basketball has a kind of a flop warning similar to delay of game in the NBA. Don't know if someone ever got a technical off it.
@Ozarkhick @ElMexiThunder @diddoff @justin_mia @tydude I like it. But it's waaay to easy for the league.
@ElMexiThunder @diddoff @justin_mia @tydude I think the best way to handle it was like that time in the Clippers Grizz series when Paul flopped, the ref ignored it, then when he complained, he got hit for the Tech. The other solution is to have the referees treat floppers like a "boy who cried wolf" and reduce the benefit of the doubt they get overall on all calls.
@diddoff @justin_mia @tydude
Yeah in soccer if you dive, or flop enoug you'l be punished for it. At this rate Paul and Griffin lead the league in Flops, and Flops attempted.
@tydude The flopping is out of control. And I've always hated the double technical.
@tydude The ridiculous charge call immediately after catching the ball where the defender moves in as you are catching it.
@Jooseppi @tydude I was always under the impression that that was already a rule that just NEVER gets called.
@Jooseppi @tydude
Similarly, I don't like when they call charges where the offensive player passes it off and then runs into the defender without the ball.
@tydude One year suspension for chronic floppers
@Percolate @tydude better get that one done before CP3 is the president of the Players Association
@OBoymuzik @Percolate @tydude i hope they find that paul was in cahoots with billy hunter and he gets the boot.