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…
Thunder Player Power Rankings: High standards
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Funny how high our standards can be. The Thunder went 3-1 this week, but it felt like they played kind of bad.
It seems like it really wasn’t good enough, mainly because that home loss to the Nets was so ugly. Russell Westbrook told us not to go bananas. But some people probably went bananas anyway.
The Thunder have won five of their last six, but still, we all tend to focus a lot more on what they’re doing wrong than what they’re doing right. Why? Because their standard of performance is high for themselves. They expect better too.
And like I said after Westbrook’s comment, when your team routinely wins seven out of every 10 games it plays, losses tend to stick out more. Wins like the ones over the 76ers and Raptors were mostly routine, taking-care-of-business affairs. But a double-digit home loss to the Nets? That’s something. We notice that. And there’s a lot more to talk about. Keep Reading…