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Tuesday Bolts – 4.9.13

by Royce Young on April 9, 2013 at 10:38 am 136 Comments

BoltsLogoNew1Rob Mahoney of SI.com: “Interestingly enough, the Thunder have opened themselves up for just such a strategic turn in accepting Martin’s contributions in exchange for Harden’s — not to mention the addition of the utterly stagnant Derek Fisher to replace more useful offensive players. Westbrook and Durant make for one of the most potent shot creating duos in the league, but should an opponent manage to lock down Durant with any measure of success, it could throw Oklahoma City’s offense off-balance enough to make every game of a potential series winnable. As prolific as the Thunder are, the absence of a third playmaker — and their dependence on individual dribble-driving rather than team-wide ball movement — makes them susceptible to pressure-heavy schemes. If an opponent keys in on Durant and/or Westbrook in the same way that the Thunder once focused on Parker, OKC becomes an imminently beatable opponent.”

Henry Abbott of TrueHoop on minutes: “Sitting them can cost you a lead, or a game. But evidently it also comes with the serious upside of increasing your likelihood of winning a title, which is why it’s no surprise to see top players resting this time of year. (The bigger surprise is that NBA rules force teams to gin up tales of injuries to justify good medium-term planning.) In Vegas, the top three contending teams at the moment, in order, are the Heat, Thunder and Spurs. The Heat have played their top players a lot, but not a crazy amount. The Thunder, thanks largely to Durant’s crazy minutes, might be the league’s most flagrant violators. The Spurs, meanwhile … forget three thousand minutes. They barely have any players over two thousand. That doesn’t mean they’ll make it past the Thunder or Heat, but if minutes matter, it does mean the coaches have done what they can to maximize success.” Keep Reading…

Player Power Rankings: Final five

by Royce Young on April 8, 2013 at 2:12 pm 739 Comments
thunderspurs1

Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images

WEEK 1 | WEEK 2 | WEEK 4 | WEEK 5 | WEEK 6| WEEK 7 | WEEK 8 | WEEK 9 | WEEK 10 |WEEK 11 | WEEK 12 | WEEK 13 | WEEK 14 | WEEK 15 | WEEK 16 | WEEK 17 | WEEK 18 | WEEK 19 | WEEK 20 | WEEK 21 | WEEK 22

In about 80 hours, the Thunder went 2-1 against the Spurs, Pacers and Knicks. They took down San Antonio by closing out extremely well the final five minutes. They used a massive 25-8 fourth quarter to cruise over the Pacers a night later. And then they fell short in crunchtime as the backbones of the two previous wins — defense and rebounding — went mysteriously missing.

Me? I’m actually kind of encouraged by last week. It could’ve very easily been a 1-2 week, or even 0-3. Those were three big time games, with really challenging circumstances. Keep Reading…

Monday Bolts – 4.8.13

by Royce Young on April 8, 2013 at 10:05 am 228 Comments

BoltsLogoNew1Seth Rosenthal of Posting and Toasting: “Melo hit his first two shots, but had an otherwise dreadful first quarter. Serge Ibaka funneled his drives toward help defense, then used the split second afforded by the arriving help and Melo’s pump fakes to recover and swat things. Then Melo picked up a second foul and departed, as mentioned above. The statute of limitations on that foul trouble permitted a return a few minutes into the second, at which point Melo commenced cooking soup. He hit threes off the catch, he hit twos off the bounce, and he rumbled into the paint for finishes, sometimes after a few extra attempts. All that work in the paint was most impressive. Melo didn’t draw a shooting foul in this game. Not one! All four of his free throws came on last-ditch intentional fouls in the final seconds. He spent the whole night bulling through contact to tip the ball back and back and back at the rim until it obeyed him, rarely wasting any effort to grouse about the non-calls. In darker times, I feel like Melo might’ve snapped and let the lack of calls affect his performance, but this is April Melo and April Melo is unflappable. He won’t flap.”

Jim Cavan of Knickerblogger with a song: “Cough-ups caused the foes to start the third ablaze, Another gear the Thunder found, but hey, nice try!, How I loathe Russ’s smugness, let me count the ways, Collison’s blood could likely make a Kleenex cry, Late the Bockers won by taking back the trenches, Nineteen OREBs on the day, nine by Melo’s strength, While New York held down the battle of the benches, Kidd’s head, Earl’s touch, and Copeland’s driving length, Shump slinked, Pablo panicked, and Novak hit a pair, While Reggie Jackson’s driving kept the contest close, Kevin Martin’s hoists all the day rang true and fair. And Derek Fisher’s flesh rot flopped into the nose” Keep Reading…

Knicks stay hot and cool the Thunder, 125-120

by Royce Young on April 7, 2013 at 4:31 pm 627 Comments

BOX SCORE

Giving up 125 points? Bad. Allowing at least 29 points in all four quarters? Bad. Giving up 19 offensive rebounds? Bad. Allowing 15 3-pointers? Bad. Getting outscored 15-9 after taking a one-point lead with four minutes left, at home? Really bad.

But you know what, it’s really not that bad of a loss, honestly. (That is, unless you’re one of those people that lives and dies game to game over an 82-game schedule.)

Here’s the quick and dirty of it: The Thunder lost a great, fun game. They had their chances to win it and failed to finish. The Knicks hit some very big shots — most notably, that J.R. Smith miracle with 56 seconds left — and the Thunder couldn’t keep up. The Knicks executed their gameplan to near perfection, getting a massive game from Carmelo Anthony, getting a non-idiotic scoring night from J.R. Smith, by hitting 15-of-34 from 3 and by crushing the offensive glass. The Knicks played the way they dream of playing, and the Thunder couldn’t ever find an answer to it. Keep Reading…

Knicks vs. Thunder: Pregame Primer

by Royce Young on April 7, 2013 at 9:51 am 994 Comments

ny-knicks vs. okc-thunder

Knicks (49-26, 21-16 road) vs. Thunder (56-20, 33-5 home)

TV: ABC
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 12:00 CT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 112.4 (2nd), Knicks– 110.6 (3rd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.4 (4th), Knicks – 105.9 (16th)
Pace: Thunder – 93.4 (8th), Knicks – 89.6 (26th)

View from the enemy: Knickerblogger

OK, so yeah, getting a win is the most important thing. The Thunder having more points than the Knicks, not one Thunder player having more than one Knicks player, is the biggest part about the game. But come on, it wouldn’t be so bad for KD to get his AND for the Thunder to win, now would it? Keep Reading…

Saturday Morning Cartoons: Sasha Fierce

by Royce Young on April 6, 2013 at 10:50 am 481 Comments

Happy weekend. Thank you for your support of Daily Thunder. The Playoffs are coming.

Here’s a wonderful behind-the-scenes video of Russell “Sasha Fierce” Westbrook’s ESPN the Mag photo shoot. It’s fun, but all I can think of is how horribly awkward I would feel if I were in that position. The posing part of taking pictures, especially in front of lots of people, is really uncomfortable.

Also, after the jump, bonus cartoon with a new Levi’s commercial featuring Sasha and Clyde Frazier. Keep Reading…

Thunder power past the Pacers, 97-75

by Royce Young on April 5, 2013 at 10:33 pm 320 Comments

BOX SCORE

The thinking was, coming off a big game the night before, that included arriving at a new destination at 4:30 in the morning, that the Thunder would wear down in the latter stages of tonight’s game against the Pacers.

Nope.

Behind a 25-8 fourth quarter domination that featured the Pacers going just 2-of-18 from the floor, the Thunder not only cruised to an excellent road win against one of the East’s best teams, but did it in dominating fashion. To follow up last night’s takedown of the Spurs with a destruction of the East’s second/third best team, on the road, is pretty darn impressive. Keep Reading…

Thunder at Pacers: Pregame Primer

by Royce Young on April 5, 2013 at 5:23 pm 799 Comments

okc-thunder vs. i pacers

Thunder (55-20, 22-15 road) at Pacers (48-27, 29-8 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CT

Offensive Rating: Thunder – 112.3 (2nd), Pacers– 104.6 (19th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 102.6 (5th), Pacers – 98.9 (1st)
Pace: Thunder – 93.6 (8th), Pacers – 90.1 (25th)

View from the enemy: 8 Points, 9 Seconds

Considering the circumstances, this might just be the Thunder’s most challenging game of the season. Just some 20 hours ago, they were putting the finishing touches on a big win against the Spurs. Then they hopped on a plane, lost an hour crossing timezones and ended up in Indianapolis around 4 a.m And to make it all that much more difficult, they’re playing the rugged Pacers, maybe the toughest most physical team in the league. Keep Reading…

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