Daily Thunder.com

Berry Tramel says trade for J.J. Barea: “So good, I think the Thunder should trade for him. The Thunder needs a backup point guard. More than that, the Thunder needs some bench strength. The Thunder bench, which has been such a strength for going on three years, has withered. Beyond Kevin Martin and Nick Collison, not much there. Hasheem Thabeet is OK as the No. 4 big man, but Eric Maynor’s return from reconstructive knee surgery has been painfully slow. He’s a shadow of his former self. Sophomore Reggie Jackson shows flashes but hasn’t progressed to where the Thunder can count on him come playoff time. Barea would fill the void. He’s a whisp of a point guard. Not a great facilitator, but OK. An excellent driver and scorer. Circle K would find himself open on the wing often with Barea in the game.”

KD on his technicals: “They should give me a reward for how many calls I think are good,” Durant said. “But they penalize me for the ones I think aren’t. That’s part of the game. I have to calm down sometimes. I get too excited and too emotional in the game and it takes over for the bad when I get those techs … They have a rule about ‘For the Love of the Game.’ You can’t clap at them. You can’t throw your fist at them or anything like that or scream. I’ve just got to calm down a little bit because the refs are doing a great job.” Keep Reading…

Rob Mahoney of SI.com: “Yet the Thunder are slowly improving as a selective-switching outfit, largely because Serge Ibaka is staying grounded more consistently and Kendrick Perkins is better at handling guards on the perimeter than most anticipate. We saw OKC’s switching success in action in the first quarter of this game, in which Minnesota was held to just 29 percent shooting overall. The aforementioned concerns about the Wolves’ offensive initiation played a part, but by switching so often the Thunder also dictated the terms of the game and forced their opponent into matchups that were clearly uncomfortable. Switching so deliberately basically leaves the offense no choice but to try to exploit perceived advantages, and yet Minnesota had a hard time isolating particular opponents to attack and re-directing their offense mid-stream. This isn’t to say that a case study against the league’s 21st-ranked offense should be sufficient for broader use, but it’s worth noting that the Thunder are flexible enough to switch against particular opponents for controlled stretches without getting completely burned.”

Darnell Mayberry: “Perk did make Pek take like two tough shots at the start of the game. Not sure I’d say it was tone-setting type stuff. But whatever. Here’s what I hate about all the hate that’s been heaped onto Perkins. It makes it tough to adequately and accurately analyze his performance. Let’s call it the Russell Westbrook effect. The same thing happened with the Thunder’s point guard. People are bagging on Perk so much that anytime anybody looks at his play through a critical analyst scope it’ll now be deemed as piling on. At the same time, anytime anyone praises Perk it’ll be judged as much ado about nothing, or, I love this one, pushing the company message. That’s what it’s come to with saying anything, good or bad, about Kendrick Perkins this season. And I wish it was not that way.” Keep Reading…

David Thorpe of ESPN Insider: “Westbrook’s will to win pushes him to an interesting conundrum. When he is making shots, he distributes the ball beautifully, orchestrates a devastating attack and is ready to explode when the defense spreads out to cover their scorers. When he is missing shots, he wants to keep shooting as if he must be the one to get his team going. Mediating that urge is simply part of a player’s maturation process. The Thunder are scoring 110.5 points per 100 possessions, which is the league’s best and a full two points better than what the San Antonio Spurs led the league with last season. When Westbrook is making shots as well as distributing them, the Thunder can easily continue leading the league in scoring efficiency. Indeed, they won four of their past six games by double figures, including huge blowouts over hot teams (Houston Rockets and Toronto Raptors) on the road.”

Mike Wise of the Washington Post on KD’s MVP chances: “Steve Nash. Larry Bird. Mark Price. Reggie Miller. Dirk Nowitzki. That’s it. That’s the list. And Nash and Bird are the only players to do it more than one season. Durant is now on pace to become No. 6 in the .50/.40/.90 club. Third in scoring, he takes two fewer shots per game than LeBron and Carmelo, the other two genuine MVP candidates. He’s also averaging career highs in assists, steals and blocks. As good a season as Anthony is having, Durant is a better defender; he plays both ends of the court as well as anyone outside of LeBron. And clutch, so clutch.” Keep Reading…

Jonah Bromwich of Off the Dribble on 50-40-90: “There is still a lot of season left. And while Durant has built a small cushion with his 3-point and field goal averages, he will need to stay focused at the line to join the ranks of the 40-50-90 pantheon. His free throw percentage in his last five games was just under 90 percent, and with only a tiny buffer between his current percentage and the dreaded 89 percent, every missed free throw represents a missed opportunity.”

From Elias: “The Wizards, who entered Monday with a record of 4-28 (.125), posted a 101-99 home win over the defending Western Conference-champion Thunder. Last month, Washington brought a 1-13 (.071) record into a victory over the defending NBA champions, the Heat. Only one other NBA team has ever posted victories over each of the previous season’s finalists in games it entered with a winning percentage under .200 (minimum 10 games). In 2004-05, the Hawks were 3¬-15 when they defeated the defending-champion Pistons, and 9-37 at the time of their victory over the Lakers, the runners-up in 2003-04.” Keep Reading…