Sensing it slipping away quickly in the third quarter, new Suns coach Lindsey Hunter tried to make an adjustment.
He put six players on the floor. Unfortunately, that’s not allowed.
But that’s the kind of night it was for the Suns. I think this says it all: At two different points in the second half I looked up the career highs for both Kendrick Perkins and Thabo Sefolosha.
Think about that. Keep Reading…
vs. 
TV: FSOK (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 – 112.5 (1st), Suns– 102.6 (25th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.2 (8th), Suns – 107.3 (24th)
Pace: Thunder – 93.4 (8th), Suns – 92.3 (9th)
View from the enemy: Valley of the Suns
Tonight’s the first part of a little home and home with the Suns, a team playing moderately better after making a coaching change recently. The Thunder are also playing more than moderately better, at least in their last two home games, blowouts over the Mavs and Warriors. Keep Reading…
Darnell Mayberry with a trade thought: “O’Neal for Maynor works straight up, and the beauty of that swap is that it actually would save the Thunder nearly $1.5 million by shedding Maynor’s $2.33 million from the books. Another idea is for the Thunder to try to get P.J. Tucker in that package as well. Tucker is a bulldog defender, and, if nothing else, he’s another body the Thunder could throw at LeBron James in a potential Finals rematch. And because Tucker is making the league minimum, the Thunder still would be saving about $700,000 even in that two-for-one swap.”
Kevin Pelton of ESPN Insider simulating the West playoff seeding: “With the Los Angeles Clippers slumping, it has become a familiar two-team race for home-court advantage throughout the West playoffs, with San Antonio once again claiming the role of favorite. Oklahoma City actually has the slightly better point differential thus far (plus-8.8 points per game versus plus-8.5), but when we account for schedule, the Spurs move just ahead of the Thunder. Naturally, that means San Antonio has the easier slate the rest of the way. Add in the Spurs’ current 1.5-game lead in the standings and they land the No. 1 seed in 63 percent of simulations.” Keep Reading…
The Thunder will be well represented Sunday night at All-Star Weekend, but other than that, it’ll be a pretty light trip for OKC’s superstars.
No one in the 3-point contest. No one in the dunk contest. No one even in the Skills Challenge or rookie game. Instead, the only extra thing a Thunder player is doing is the Shooting Stars Challenge, which of course is the lamest thing of the entire All-Star Weekend.
The format is a little different this time around as the teams are split into the East and West. Russell Westbrook will join James Harden, Maya Moore, Tina Thompson, Sam Cassell and Robert Horry on the West team. The East is Chris Bosh, Brook Lopez, Swin Cash, Tamika Catchings, Mugsy Bogues and Dominique Wilkins.
Westbrook is also slated to coach in the celebrity game, opposite of Harden.
There was some speculation Westbrook might dunk this year but he’s not. But chin up you guys, he’s gonna toss some halfcourters with Bob Horry and Tina Thompson!
The Shooting Stars thing is part of All-Star Saturday night, an all-inclusive skills showcase, which happens Feb. 16 at the Toyota Center in Houston and will be televised live by TNT at 7 p.m. CT.
Darnell Mayberry: “Westbrook must have selective memory because he said doesn’t think Stephen Curry “really did too much last time.” That was in response to a question I asked about whether Curry’s performance in the last meeting fueled Westbrook tonight. Westbrook being Westbrook, he dismissed the notion, almost defiantly. But between Curry’s team-high 31 points in that game, and Westbrook having arguably his worst game of the year, it’s natural to believe one was related to the other.”
From Elias: “The Warriors lost to the Thunder by 21 points on Wednesday after taking a 31 point beating by Houston the previous night. Golden State is the first team at least 10 games over .500 to lose games by 20-or-more points on consecutive nights since the Warriors did it on April 1st and 2nd in 2008 (entered the streak with a 45-28 record).” Keep Reading…
As yet another sellout crowd waited for its cue to be seated, Russell Westbrook set the tone with the Thunder’s very first bucket. Turning down a good shot for a better shot, Westbrook made a quick, correct read drawing a defender to make an extra pass to Serge Ibaka who splashed from 18 feet.
Simple, effective, smart offense.
It was the first assist of 29, but more than that, a play that accurately sums up the way the Thunder played Wednesday against the Warriors. Oklahoma City’s offense was unselfish and unfiltered, as the ball ping-ponged around routinely hitting multiple players’ hands before a shot went up. No single guy stood out in the assist column, which I think illustrates the point even better. Westbrook had five, Kevin Durant and Serge Ibaka four, Kendrick Perkins and Thabo each with two. Reggie Jackson had six, Kevin Martin four.
“It was one of our best passing games,” Scott Brooks said. Keep Reading…
vs.
TV: FSOK (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 – 112.4 (1st), Warriors– 106.9 (10th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 103.4 (8th), Warriors – 105.8 (16th)
Pace: Thunder – 93.2 (8th), Mavs – 93.9 (7th)
View from the enemy: Warriors World
A chance to win consecutive games for the Thunder. That normally is a major “so what?” statement, but it’s actually been a while. Part of the problem is that the Thunder haven’t played consecutive games at home for a couple weeks. They get a good Warriors team tonight, but for OKC, that shouldn’t matter on its home floor. Keep Reading…
New stats show off Durant and Westbrook’s offensive brilliance
Rocky Widner/NBAE/Getty Images
STATS LLC has the new player tracking technology called “SportVU” which essentially places a camera high in the arena to track player movements and plays, right down to how many times they dribble, how many times they touch the ball, which hand they dribble most with, how often they jog, how often they sprint and how many times they bite on their finger nails (OK, I made that last one up — I think).
It’s incredible stuff.
Fifteen teams in the league use the SportVU technology, the Thunder being one of them. It’s mostly private data that the teams use for their own benefit, but STATS has been releasing a little here and there to give people a taste of it all. And heavens me, if you’re a stathead, it’s cause for a new pair of pants. Keep Reading…