With other events unfolding the way they did in the state of Oklahoma, it was only fitting the Thunder joined in with their own overtime game.
And evidently that’s what the Thunder needed. Total fourth quarter output: 13 points. Total overtime output: 18 points.
I can’t decide if that’s really great, or really terrible. Either way, the bottom line is that the Thunder bounced back from a tough loss in Boston to top Philadelphia in overtime, 116-109.
It was one of those games where OKC led for most of it, going up by 10 then watching the lead dwindle to two, then going back up by eight, then watching it tighten back up. There was just a killshot missing, at least until the Thunder started making everything in overtime. In regulation, OKC was 2-16 from 3. In overtime, 4-5. According to an advanced statistic I just made up in my head, that’s a winning OT formula.
Truthfully though, there wasn’t a whole lot fixed or changed from the disappointing loss to the Celtics. The bench was still mostly non-existent — Kevin Martin finished with six points on 2-of-9 shooting, but did hit a big OT 3 — and the game came down to mostly Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant being awesome. As I said last night, that’s often a pretty strong strategy. Those two guys can win the Thunder a whole lot of games exclusively on their own. But that’s not the Thunder at their highest level.
KD had a season-high 37 and Westbrook finished with 30 and nine assists. Both were spectacular. And don’t forget Serge Ibaka too, who is becoming the consistent third scorer OKC needs (18 on 8-12 with nine boards). Between those three, the Thunder cane get enough most nights. But the fourth quarter revealed a whole lot that the excellent overtime session tried to hide. Martin was frozen out completely again, Westbrook and Durant took turns trying to score every possession and the ball stopped moving almost entirely.
That’s also known as, typical crunchtime Thunder offense. Except one ball-handler has been removed from the equation so instead of taking turns between Westbrook, Durant and Harden, it’s Westbrook and Durant trying to do it all while three other guys stand around with their arms up. That said, there were some very correct passes made to Thabo in the fourth, but he missed a couple very good looks from 3. Those drops (or land in the hands of Martin instead) and the fourth quarter execution doesn’t look as yucky.
Credit to Scott Brooks though with his lineup choices late. For virtually the final 17 minutes, Brooks went with maybe his two best lineups: Westbrook, Martin, Thabo, Durant and Ibaka and the same first four but Nick Collison in place of Ibaka. That group was able to finally dig in a bit defensively as they switched screens and held their own on the boards. The idea behind that small lineup is that it’s a more dynamic offensive unit. But really, it seems that it may be OKC’s best defensive group, assuming the matchups fit.
Also, Brooks’ solution to solving the second unit issue? Just don’t ever take Kevin Durant out. He played 50 of the 53. It’s a sound strategy, but I’m thinking it’s probably not really a sustainable one.
It’s been eight paragraphs though and I’ve failed to mention how good of a win this really was. OKC has built a strong trend of bouncing back, now having done it successfully in all four tries this season. It wasn’t a crisp performance by any stretch and there were moments with the usual hair-pulling, but winning is winning. And the Thunder have proven for a few years now that getting it done is really all that matters. Which is something they’re pretty good at, no matter how it looks.
NOTES:
- The Thunder solved their bench woes tonight with a simple solution: Just let Nick Collison take over. That’s what I’ve been saying since forever!
- Huge edge for OKC at the free throw line. The Thunder went 32-of-37 from the stripe compared to just 12-of-17 for Philly.
- I think the 76ers had about 28 fouls called on them in the third quarter. If you’re a 76er fan and are complaining about the officiating right now, I’m not going to stop you.
- Russ, KD and Thabo got into it a bit in the fourth quarter. Westbrook told KD to quit passing it. KD told Thabo to start shooting it. Or something like that.
- Nick Collison was balling in the first half, as much as Nick Collison balls.
- Seriously though, look at the production Collison had in his 21 minutes. Fourteen points, five boards and some excellent defense. I’m not ready to advocate for this yet, but I wonder what full time Collison as OKC’s starting center would look like. There are some matchups he’d struggle with for sure, but have a strong, sizable backup and play it all by ear a bit. Brooks is obviously married to his starting five and isn’t one to think outside the box, but the point is winning games. Not winning games your way.
- Sometimes it appears that Martin is too focused on trying to draw fouls. Instead of taking a good look, he’s trying to create contact and makes his shot more difficult than it should be.
- Martin rarely forces anything, so it was definitely noticeable when he fired up a pretty rash 3 about mid-way through the fourth. You could see his frustration. Mostly probably coming from the fact he wasn’t scoring but I’m sure some of it was in his lack of involvement. The guy is a scorer, but he has to be included in the offense. He’s not the kind of player that’s going to demand touches and go take the ball from Durant or Westbrook because you’d have to be insane to do that. He does have to assert himself though, which is why I really didn’t completely hate the forced shot.
- Westbrook splitting a double team is maybe my favorite thing. Or one of them. Ranks very highly in my favorite things power rankings.
- Serge Ibaka: Nine rebounds, eight offensive. As a team, OKC piled up 18 offensive boards. The Thunder rebounded 37 percent of their misses tonight. That’s good.
- Only 12 turnovers for OKC. Statistically speaking from a team perspective, outside of 3-point shooting, the Thunder put together a pretty winning formula. More scoring distribution is preferred and better defense, but overall, it was pretty good.
- The Thunder’s defense was very average tonight, but some of that was bad luck I think. The 76ers are one of the worst shooting teams in the league and they had players knocking down some pretty contested shots. For whatever reason, Jason Richardson, who couldn’t miss, only played 18 minutes.
- First time in 43 games Ibaka didn’t have a block.
- Maybe not do the Hyundai Drive of the Game after four minutes. Because sometimes, there are better drives that happen the next 43.
- Westbrook’s ability to hang in the air and just flip the ball on the rim is majestic. It looks like he’s playing basketball in the Matrix.
- Between Spencer Hawes and Andrew Bynum, the Sixers are leading the league in hairstyles.
- Major issue this season: OKC’s 3-point bench celebrations. Hasheem Thabeet standing up by himself just isn’t good enough. Make a trade or something Presti.
- Totally forgot about that annoying Sixers fan with the blue hat and white goatee. That guy’s the worst/best.
- If you’re an Oklahoman it was impossible to ignore the football game that preceding the Thunder tonight, but I couldn’t help but appreciate the symbolism of it all. OU and OSU wrap up a Bedlam for the ages and immediately after, are on the same team as they all root for the Thunder. I can’t be the only one that thinks that is cool.
- Brian Davis Line of the Night: “The Thunder are doing things.”
Next up: Monday at home against the Bobcats.
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/11/tgr-82-so-far-so-good/#respond
I hope you guys like moving
http://www.dailythunder.com/2012/11/report-kd-fights-back-against-durantula-lawsuit/
Jeremy Lin was never good. It was all just hot shooting mixed with very high, unsustainable FTA. Lin shot below league average everywhere last season except mid range where he shot 43%, a percentage anchored by his torrid February where he made 55% of those shots. In March he only made 30% of them. Lin has never been a great shooter even in college where he had one 40% three point season and was mediocre otherwise. He can't shoot threes. He made 55% of his shots at the rim lats year which is bad. He was turnover prone when asked to run the offense. The only thing that saved him was that he got to the line a lot, and now he's not even doing that.
All that, AND he can't defend anyone. He's a backup, maybe an okay starter at best
Lin DrawF% last year was 15.5% higher than Durant, Westbrook, Carmelo...
This year it's 8.6%. Teams realize you just keep him out of the paint (not hard since he's slow) and you're golden.
Meanwhile, Harden is maintaining 20%+ DrawF that he carried last year which is very high and very unusual.
@justin_mia and he can't go left
@justin_mia but he's Chinese- American. That alone is worth millions to a franchise
@justin_mia see MSG stock before, during, and after Linsanity
I'm not as on top of all this as some regular commenters, but some patterns do seem to be developing:
1. Maynor is struggling to recover from his injury. He seems a step slower (especially on defense) and his shots aren't falling. He also seems a little mentally out of it (maybe he was the closest to Harden or other bench compadres?).
2. Reggie Jackson is not good enough to substitute for a struggling Maynor.
3. Perk, who is fantastic at stifling big centers (thought he did great on Jordan from the Clips), seems to have less value than ever other than this one strength. Which considering the other faults of this team, may not be a big enough strength.
4. Thunder must be planning a decent sized move considering the 66ers move and the fact they only have 12 players.
5. The times the Rookies have been on the floor has been pretty unimpressive which is really disappointing (especially PJIII).
6. They have gotten no better at end-of-game plays and that is infuriating. Brooks lack of imagination or willingness to experiment is frustrating. Sixers could not stop Westbrook from getting in the lane, so Brooks has him throw the ball in to Durant, who in addition to not being able to bench 185lbs, can't get away from a defender in these types of situations. Yes, he's the best scorer in the league and can shoot some cold-blooded shots, but how many times do we have to see him unable to get free before Brooks tries some other in-bounds play?
7. Hasheem has looked like a "Thunder system" positive product thus far.
8. The Bench looks "hurrible" when Martin's shot isn't following, other than Collison going off, there seems to be no back up plan.
9. Other than KD and Russ playing a ton when it's a close game.
10. Byron Mullens ends up being the big goofy looking white guy we should have kept for our bench. (JK...I think).
And maybe I'm projecting, but thus far this season has seemed more like a "slog" than the consistently fun, exciting events before now. I thought a lot of what made the Thunder successful was "ThunderU" and how much the players seemed to enjoy each other. As Royce has pointed out, bench celebrations are down in quantity and quality by some 50-80%. It will be interesting to see how that plays out through the season. Of course, now that they've somewhat "made it", stress ensues as opposed to hope. That's a lot of quotation marks.
@chuckbeesy You have to mature to win. Focusing on goofiness like bench celebrations is not what wins championships. Lebron got it this past year. Maybe KD and Co will get it this year.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tjHSxNm0p94
@Legendary_Dork @chuckbeesy It impressed me too. Russell is the only player on the team that I think consistently plays with the same desire that Lebron played with in last year's playoffs. KD can, but doesn't enough. I don't think they have the same influence on the other guys that the Miami big three had last year, either. Thunder U may have been fun, but it didn't win. Maybe they grew up some this year. I hope they did/do.
@senseandsenescence Maybe true. Though the ThunderU model was working pretty well up to that point.
@senseandsenescence @chuckbeesy that was one of the few times i had a large amount of respect for lebron
@chuckbeesy kinda funny, most of those bench players that were celebrating didnt play all that well *minus ivey id argue* . thats all they were there for really :(
@Legendary_Dork @chuckbeesy Yeah, it seems like Jones and Lamb aren't quite as happy being the team mascot as Cole was. That said Lamb did have that awesome belly flop after Russ' dunk in the Golden State game.
@Legendary_Dork Which is why I always held out hope they'd sign me :)
@chuckbeesy number 2: how do you know? jackson hasnt been given full reign to take over the second unit
3: i wouldnt hate perk so much if we werent paying him a gazillion dollars, and even his big man defense has slipped
5: they get tossed in with line ups they havent practiced with and should be in with DURANT or russ
6: i do agree that brooks plays just say *play with your heart* written on the black board
7: 20000000% agree
8: thats a coaching thing that needs to be addressed
10: no..just..no
@Legendary_Dork I don't know, between preseason and when Jackson was in last year and a little this year, it seems like his only strength is longer than average arms. Just doesn't seem to be all that good at basketball.
@chuckbeesy @Legendary_Dork Jackson is definitely ready to replace hurt Maynor. The bench barely lost actual production last year and only suffered in the eye test department with Jackson at the helm. And this year, Maynor has given us negative production, so how is Jackson worse?
@chuckbeesy he was starting to gain some confidence last year before we threw him on the bench for dfish. Right now though, his stats are better if not equal to maynors injured self. I just would like to see brooks break away from his norm and try something different.
@chuckbeesy Liggins and Orton being assigned to the 66ers does not free up roster spots. The Thunder still have 14 guys on the roster while they are assigned there.
Perkins has value outside of defending big centers. His passing has been pretty good, and it is arguable that he is the anchor of a defense that started out strong and is still league average after a pretty poor stretch of games.
It continues to amuse me that people want to see the rookies play meaningful minutes and also want the team to consistently dominate opponents. You can't have both.
@senseandsenescence @chuckbeesy im not saying let lamb and pj3 come out and play freaking 30 mins a game, but they NEED to get nba experience and play with the starters. both of those guys have a ton of plus side to them. even liggins. id like to think that orton could be good as well
@Legendary_Dork @senseandsenescence @chuckbeesy I don't understand why people have any hope for him. He was barely an NCAA player despite having a huge size advantage at his position, he had no NBA-ready skills, and yet we think he can be an NBA player? I'm befuddled. Even scrubs like Thabeet and Lazar played well in college
@Old Man Game i said COULD BE :P .
@Legendary_Dork Orton's got a long way to go. I watched the 66ers a bit the other day. Kid's got a lot of work to do if he's going to stick in this league.
@senseandsenescence Didn't know that about the roster spots (obviously). Still seems like they will make some kind of pick up.
Haven't been able to watch as many games this year, but while I have seen some good passing from Perk, I feel like the majority of his possessions have left me more with extra heartburn than delight at his decisions. Pretty tough to have someone that inept with the ball when you only get to have 5 players on the floor.
I don't necessarily want the rookies to get meaningful minutes unless they deserve them. Nor do I expect constant domination. Think I just got caught up in the hype. And we have a lot of rookies, so that none of them getting too much playing time means a pretty small rotation.
@senseandsenescence @chuckbeesy Well, you give the rookies small but consistent minutes and hope it pays off in the end. As your lineup recaps have shown, there are several players earning rotation minutes already who are usually a net minus as is and we're still 10-4 so who says we wouldn't still be winning so long as the rookies used prudently.
@Old Man Game @chuckbeesy We would still win games. Lost Ones and others want us to walk over everyone. The only consistent negatives have been Maynor and Perkins.
@chuckbeesy I like "hurrible" even more than "turrible" Hadn't seen that but it works.
I know I'm extremely late on this but @FF_Pickups can you please enlighten me on how MKG, especialy on our team, playing KD's position, for a coach that doesn't play rookies and also is extremely below average at coaching team defense, would make us a great defensive team?
@TonyMitchellForPresident13
"I know I'm extremely late on this but @FF_Pickups can you please enlighten me on how MKG, especialy on our team, playing KD's position, for a coach that doesn't play rookies and also is extremely below average at coaching team defense, would make us a great defensive team?"
That's a great critism of my idea. To be honest, I don't have a lot of confidence in Brooks. We'll obviously never know but I'll try to defend my position. I think we would be a worse regular season team with MKG than Martin, that's my opinion. But I think in the playoffs, when teams go small, rotations shrink and you just put your best 5 out there and say 'let's play', we would play KD at the 4 a lot and MKG at the 3, with MKG drawing the better offensive player to defend.
Would it shock me if Brooks ended up playing Perkins and benching MKG, no. But Martin is going to have trouble being on the floor against Miami. The way that DWade and LeBron get the benefit of the whistle, Westbrook and KD are going to be at risk of being in constant foul trouble or Martin is going to have to be on the bench.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 Maybe the biggest thing that I keep not mentioning is that MKG is 4 years on a rookie contract while KMart is far more expensive. MKG allows us to keep more pieces around Ibaka-KD-Westbrook than does KMart.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @FF_Pickups MKG is a hustle guy every team needs. We already have one just like him - Thabo Sefolosha. Thabo doesn't have the same pedigree and may be less skilled (especially in the handle department), but that's about what MKG would be worth to this team. Perimeter defense these days is so much more about team defense than individuals anyway. Very few perimeter defenders can stand out and 'carry' a defense on their own with all the rule changes in the last 8-9 seasons. The days of Bruce Bowen stifling his matchup every game are pretty much over.
@justin_mia "MKG is a hustle guy every team needs. We already have one just like him - Thabo Sefolosha. Thabo doesn't have the same pedigree and may be less skilled (especially in the handle department), but that's about what MKG would be worth to this team. "
Let's see, uber-high lotttery pick who is known for athleticism, motor, competiveness, work ethic and D but poor shooter who lacks NBA level basketball skill placed into the Thunder organization. Was I talking about MKG or RW? MKG is going to be a LOT better than you are portraying.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @FF_Pickups I wanna know this too because unless KD's playing 30 minutes a game at the 4, Brooks all of a sudden learns a Ron Adams Phylosophy of defense, and Our front-court being strong enough to bang down low against the bigger Forwards, and Centers of the league it seems rather difficult to work.
ouch
"Sources said reserve guard Shaun Livingston often outplayed Lin in October. Sensing Livingston might get waived at the end of camp due to financial concerns, several Rockets players and coaches pleaded with management to keep him. A point guard controversy could've arrived if Livingston stuck around, but he was waived Oct. 29." Yahoo
@OBoy Jones III Should've kept somebody around, because they obviously do not trust/like Lin down in Houston. Probably 'cause he suuuuucks.
@duhsweetness @OBoy Jones III harden is the headliner now and can bring the ball up. i see lin getting booted eventually
@Legendary_Dork Should be pretty fun to watch Westbrook hang 40 on Lin this week.
@duhsweetness russ made him question his basketball skills. like literally. after that one game lin was like..whaa...what the F#%# just happen...im so confizzled lol
@Legendary_Dork The bigger issue is that Lin can't play defense. On anybody.
@OBoy Jones III I like Livingston and wanted us to sign him because he is a big PG and could move Russ off the ball, and even after his catastrophic leg injury is decently athletic.
Another guy I wouldn't mind seeing on a 10 day is Chris Douglas Roberts. He dropped 31 on Liggins the other day and played at Memphis under Cal who produces great NBA guards.
@Perk90X But why would we re-sign a guy who played poorly for us when he was 3 years younger?
@Perk90X He's played 4 games this season for the worst team in the league, and I can't find a shred of evidence that makes him better than Maynor. Even with Maynor playing as poorly as he is right now.
@duhsweetness because he's better than the backups we have now
@Perk90X Still doesn't answer why we'd sign a 27 year old point guard who hasn't done ANYTHING since his horrific injury and was awful for this team (for parts of his 4th/5th seasons).
@duhsweetness He came straight out of high school so delayed development is to be expected
@OBoy Jones III
I know this was aimed at Lin, but I always liked Livingston. Where is he now?
@guy on a buffalo Wizards backup PG with John Wall hurt.
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @OBoy @guy I'm salty because a couple of my homies still have all their issues ... Mines long gone
@PJthe3 bka ... @TonyMitchellForPresident13 @OBoy @guy SLAM actually was the only reading material my mother could get me to do when I was a kid. Ahhh the memories!
@TonyMitchellForPresident13 @OBoy Jones III @guy on a buffalo I remember copping slams first ever edition the grandmomma one.... I just was trying to jog my homies memory to the old "Blitz" magazine, a football one in the same mold as slam .. He didn't remember it tho
@OBoy Jones III @guy on a buffalo I feel so old. I remember reading articles in Slam's "Punks" section about Livingston when he was in high school...
@guy on a buffalo might be cut or out of the rotation when Wall comes back.
@OBoy Jones III Shame. Especially considering Lin's contract hurts their rebuilding chances more than anybody else's on the team, and he also is probably the worst player in their starting 5.