Daily Thunder.com

Jeff Caplan of NBA.com: “The Thunder wanted this game badly, they said so beforehand. Last one before the break, national television showcase, a chance to notch a 40th win, but mostly to, yes, make a statement that they can go toe-to-toe with their elder, more battle-tested superstars in red and take them out. Yet on their home floor, the Thunder didn’t as much lay an egg as simply get bullied into submission by a more ferocious foe. Statement: Miami.”

Berry Tramel: “The night ended with the Thunder sipping champagne. Kevin Durant’s friend, Charlie Bell, proposed to his girlfriend on the Thunder hardwood, some 45 minutes after the Thunder-Heat showdown. Durant and his teammates celebrated with Bell when he got the answer he wanted. The same answer received by two brave romantics who, courtesy of the Thunder’s game operations, made public marriage proposals — one during a first-half timeout, another during the third-quarter Kiss Cam. So the night was not a total failure. But otherwise, this was a St. Valentine’s Day massacre.” Keep Reading…

Steve Kerr on the Thunder’s weakness: “I still want to see a more composed version of Russell Westbrook. I think the internal improvement there really starts with him, both with his offensive efficiency — there is no reason why he should shoot 41 percent; he’s just too good of a player — and there is just no reason for his tantrums. It may not kill them as a team. They are so mature that they seem to weather those emotional outbursts, but it’s not helping them. I’d like to see him just show a little better leadership and maturity, and I think that’s probably the next step for him and the team as a whole, just seeing how they can make that improvement emotionally.”

Alok Pattani of ESPN.com: “LeBron James has garnered a lot of praise for his six-game streak of scoring and shooting percentage. However, if you look at a complete statistic that takes everything a player contributes to his team over the course of a season, James actually trails Kevin Durant. The statistic is “Win Shares”, developed by Basketball Reference building off the individual offensive and defensive rating framework established by ESPN Production Analytics’ Dean Oliver. Win shares quantifies a player’s overall impact on his team’s winning – taking into account a player’s individual box-score statistics in the context of his team’s offensive and defensive performance.” Keep Reading…