Daily Thunder.com

 vs.

Indiana Pacers (32-44, 10-29 road) vs. Thunder (21-54, 14-24 home)

TV: KSBI (Cox 15)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 6:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.0 (29th), Indiana: 107.3 (20th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.5 (20th), Indiana: 109.2 (19th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.4 (8th), Indiana: 96.3 (3rd)

Can I just take a moment to say, what the crap weather? Snow last weekend, then sunny with highs of 75 through the week and now back to low 40s and 200 mile per hour wind. Oh yeah, I live in Oklahoma. Nevermind.

For tonight’s game against Indiana, I’m really expecting a solid effort. After Friday, ahem, “poor” performance against Portland, I think this team comes out with a lot of fire tonight. They may only have 21 wins, but they have an awful lot of pride. In fact, in games OKC lost by 20 more (under Scott Brooks) the Thunder’s 0-4 in the following game with a pair of two point losses and overtime loss. So while that’s not exactly an encouraging bit of information, it does say that the team doesn’t really sulk and get their rears handed to them on consecutive nights.

Brooks hinted that D.J. White may see action for the first time tonight. I’m really anxious to see what he adds. I don’t expect big minutes or big production, but I’m looking forward to at least getting a look at him. At Indiana he was a terrific low post scorer and physical rebounder – something OKC really needs. (Kind of ironic he makes his debut in the NBA against Indiana, huh?) Keep Reading…

Reader Kev was at the 66ers game last night and had some great comments about D.J. White and Kyle Weaver’s performances. I thought it needed to be bumped up to maybe catch some more eyeballs.

Actually, White was not that good on the boards – he had seven boards – four were offensive and three of those were attempted tip ins – come on, if you’re 6-9 you should be able to get more than 3 defensive rebounds in 36 minutes of action. I didn’t see the aggressiveness from White that you need at THAT level to warrant time in the NBA. He was very good at jump shots, as he put in at least four of those from 15 to 19 feet. Sadly, he did very little post up work. In fact, he got the ball in the post TWICE all game. The first time he turned and faced immediately after catching it (he hit a jumper from about 12). The last time he fumbled the ball after starting to dribble, and almost turned it over in the process. He offered little defensive resistance inside all night, so (based off of one game I know) it doesn’t look promising.

Weaver looked okay at the point. He registered 11 assists, but when you play in a game in which transition and rotating defense is almost non existent, you can rack up the assists if you are a willing passer (which he is). He did okay at ball handling, even though he had two bad passes out of traps. With Livingston on hand, I don’t think he will be seeing the point with the Thunder anytime soon. Still, it was fun to see him take his “demotion” in stride – he was in a good mood the whole game, and even gave a fist pound to all the statisticans before gametime.

Great stuff. I’m a little disappointed about White’s post game. At Indiana he was lethal in the post. I hope he’s not trying to be a jump shooting big man. Been there, done that (Johan Petro). Also, you can check out last night’s 66ers box score here. Weaver played all 48 minutes and had 24 points (11-17 shooting), 11 assists and seven rebounds. White had 28 points and seven rebounds in 37 minutes of run.

Both players have been recalled and that’s the last time White is going down for the season. Under league rules, a player can only make three trips down and up between D-League and NBA. Hopefully White can get a little burn in these next seven games.

Also, Darnell Mayberry had an explanation as to why Weaver was sent down:

“He’s going to be able to play there two games and only miss one game here,” said Brooks, indicating Weaver is likely to be recalled prior to Sunday’s game against Indiana. ”I like what he has done for us, and he will continue to improve because he is a great worker. But he’s getting minutes down there and it helps when you get minutes. I know he was getting 16, 17 minutes up here, but he’s getting 40 minutes down there. I thought he did a good job. He was filling up the stat sheet. They didn’t win the game, but I thought his numbers and his play was pretty good. So he’s just getting an opportunity to play extra minutes.”

Box score (take a good look at it – it’s a good one)

You know what kind of quotes you see after a game like that?

“We just didn’t have any intensity tonight. We have to come out with better energy than that.”

“Shots just weren’t falling. Some nights that happens.”

“This one is on us – we just didn’t play with any fire tonight.”

“We got out-hustled. No excuses. That was just terrible effort on our part.”

“Give credit to the Blazers. They weren’t giving us any easy looks.”

Blah, blah, blah. I mean, what else are you supposed to say? “You know, other than the getting beat by 37 and shooting 36 percent, I thought things went pretty well.”

But let me tell you, that was a poor effort. They stunk. Big time. Sure, it was an “off night” if you want to call it that. I think a better description would be “so far off that I actually wonder if someone would hit the shot clock with a jumper night.” Oklahoma City shot just 36 percent for the game and it took a lot to get there after the Thunder shot just 23 percent in the first half. Yes, that’s right. Twenty-three percent. Eleven made field goals. Pathetic.

Here’s some numbers from the first half: Kevin Durant 2-9, eight points. Russell Westbrook 1-8, seven points. Jeff Green 3-7, nine points. Nenad Krstic 1-7, two points. And it’s not like it really picked up in the second half. after 35 first half points, OKC put up 37 in the second for a whopping 72 points. Too bad Portland had 107. You know how many points the leading man for OKC had? Thirteen. Thirteen points. The Thunder had three guys in double figures. As a result of all that *stellar shooting, Brian Davis probably said some variation of his little “lid on the basket” cliche 2,000 times. It got pretty old pretty fast. Keep Reading…

vs.

Portland Trail Blazers 47-27, 16-20 road) vs. Thunder (21-53, 14-23 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 7:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.2 (28th), Portland: 113.7 (1st)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.3 (20th), Portland: 108.7 (18th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.5 (8th), Portland: 86.7 (30th)

Last time the Thunder beat the Spurs, they responded with a flat, uninspired performance against the Bulls. Do that again, and we may be taking a trip down P.J. Carlesimo lane with a home blowout loss. Hopefully, the team carries the momentum of beating one of the premier teams in the league at their place with them. One would assume OKC’s confidence would be sky high and they’d feel great going into this game. But I don’t think the Thunder plays that well when they think they’re “good.” They can’t take possessions for granted. They can’t just wait to turn it on like the Lakers or Celtics do. It’s got to be a full 48 minute grind.

I actually remember thinking during that Bulls game at some point in the first half (a half where OKC led the entire way), “Man, this team is playing with a little swagger. They look confident.” And of course the Bulls outscored OKC 51-40 in the second half, winning 103-96. Confidence is one of the most important things in sports. When you’re confident, you feel good about yourself and you play better. I firmly believe that. But when you’re not all that great and you’re a bit over-confident to the point where you think you can take possessions off or not work as hard on the glass, you’re going to get beat. So tonight, after an extremely impressive win over the Spurs, let’s hope nothing is taken for granted. Keep Reading…

Update: Chris Sheridan looks at interim coaches in limbo and says Scott Brooks is a “near lock“: “Start with the fact that nobody in Oklahoma City has uttered anything but positives when discussing him. Add in the dynamic that he gets along splendidly with general manager Sam Presti and got more out of Jeff Green and Kevin Durant by sliding them over to power forward and small forward, respectively. And toss in their two most recent efforts — playing the Celtics tough for 3½ quarters Sunday, then stunning the Spurs in San Antonio on Tuesday — and you pretty much get the picture that Brooks is there to stay. Think the Sacramento Kings are kicking themselves for passing over Brooks in favor of Reggie Theus two years ago? When they promoted him, the Thunder said they’d give Brooks every opportunity to earn the job. He did.”

HoopsWorld has Scott Brooks as one of next year’s leading Coach of the Year candidates: “This team has taken significant steps this season and Brooks has defined three players (Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook and Jeff Green) to build around. Thabo Sefolosha immediately contributed upon his arrival after being ignored in Chicago. Brooks’ biggest obstacle next season will be building offensively. Oklahoma City ranked 29th in the league in offensive efficiency. Brooks has gotten Durant’s approval and hopefully will return to coach the Thunder next season without the “interim” tag.”

The Magic traded Dwight Howard to OKC? Huh? How did I miss this? Oh, it was just an April Fools joke played by the Magic: “The Magic’s PR and Marketing team sure had some fun with April Fools’ Wednesday in Orlando. Let me try my best to explain. Giddy with whoopee cushion excitement all night long, the Magic pretended to “trade” Dwight Howard to the Oklahoma City Thunder, “re-sign” former great Penny Hardaway, and “play professional basketball” exactly like the Washington Generals. (They nailed that last one flawlessly, falling 99-95 to the sub-sub-sub-.500 Raptors.)”

Berry Tramel with some excellent points on the cost of losing: “You know what I’m talking about. The theory that defeat is fine, since every loss increases the odds of Oklahoma City landing hometown hero Blake Griffin, the runaway best player available in the 2009 NBA Draft. It’s only natural to check out the lottery standings, since the playoffs never were an issue for the Thunder. When OKC pulls a stunt like it did Tuesday night – winning at San Antonio – you check the standings and realize if the Thunder had minded its own business, this morning it would be tied for fourth place in the lottery standings. Instead, the Thunder is sixth. That’s a huge difference in lottery odds – 13.7 percent for fourth, 7.5 percent for sixth. But those odds are 13.7 and 7.5, not 83.7 and 77.5. And no matter what the odds, increasing them comes at a high cost. Losing is not easily shaken. Mason is exactly right; losing can become a habit.” Keep Reading…

Excellent stuff here emailed in by a reader. I’m a bit of a stat guy myself, but I don’t think there’s anything that can judge “Can the guy ball?” And like I wrote about last week, Russell Westbrook can absolutely ball. Here’s a better way of saying it.

By John Mietus

One key element little discussed in this year’s NBA rookie of the year race is the importance of intuitive feel for the game, basketball genius for lack of better term. Some coaches and statisticians try to refer to this “feel” as Basketball IQ, but that attempts to quantify with numbers (high or low) a player’s innate feel for the game. The truth of the matter is that most great basketball players simply feel the game out, and no statistical measure accurately captures the beauty or volatility of such play. That’s why team’s can write PER measurements on Ricky Rubio or Larry Bird without ever fully realizing the “win potential” of either player.

I’m not always a fan of what Charley Rosen, the FoxSports.com NBA writer, says about basketball. Rosen tends to be negative to the point of absurdity when discussing the greatest basketball players in the world, but he makes valid points on the contributions of players in regards to a team concept. Rosen points out that 90 percent of the players on the court at any given time of a game do not hold onto the basketball. That implies that 90 percent of the game happens away from the ball. And even in the NBA, even in a league designed to be played one-on-one, plenty of opportunity for improvisation and contribution occurs when a player does not actually have the basketball in their hands. It goes well beyond, “Is this guy setting a screen where he should be?”, and has more to do with a feel for spacing, for angles, for opportunities to make plays. It happens on both ends of the floor and allows an intuitive player to separate himself from players of average ability. But can it be measured? Not concretely. It can only be felt.

I want to talk about Russell Westbrook and the critical measures of a player’s capability. Watching Russell play this year on television or live and you can see the joy of his game. He’s like a child who has yet to realize all the limitations and boxes life will attempt to put around him. People get concerned over his turnovers or his “low” shooting percentage but they may miss his bouncy athleticism, his intuitive ability to make plays, his general court sense. Russell’s been out trying things this year, experimenting, pushing the boundaries of statistical analysis. Keep Reading…

Update: David Thorpe has a really cool Rookie Watch out – which player should each rookie study? For Russell Westbrook, he says Dwyane Wade: ”When Wade is at his smoking-hot best, he’s both a dynamic athlete and a skilled midrange shooter. That combination is necessary for Wade to be special, because some teams often build a wall around the rim and force him to make jumpers. Westbrook is incredibly athletic with and without the ball, so imposing his will on most possessions by using that gift gives him an advantage almost every time. And he is learning to do that now. But if he also gets his midrange game to work efficiently, he’ll be headed to the All-Star Game and the Thunder will be playing in late spring.” Also interesting is who he has O.J. Mayo studying.

Good to see P.J. Carlesimo has found work: “I can’t remember the last time I saw Carlesimo on-air, but I don’t remember him being that bad. He always seemed to have a surly disposition to me, but maybe a fun environment like TNT Basketball is what the former coach needs. We shall see.”

In the comments of Darnell’s blog he says he’ll have a Serge Ibaka update Monday in the paper and had this interesting note: “Basically, the front office loves how he’s developing over in Spain. The plan is to bring him over to join the team for summer league play and evaluate him in an NBA-type setting. It’s still unclear if the team will bring him over for next season. My guess is no. But again, that’s just my guess.”

Kevin Durant evidently bruised his hip against the Spurs, but he acts like he’s OK: “I couldn’t run like normal,” Durant said. “I just wanted to stick it out and fight through it. After I get some treatment [Wednesday] hopefully I’ll be all right.” Oklahoma City’s next game isn’t until Friday against the Blazers.” He did it early in the second quarter and he went on to score 15 more points so yeah, I think he’s OK.   Keep Reading…

Defense is one of the most difficult things to quantify in basketball. It’s not as simple as just figuring out how much the guy a certain player is guarding scores and then you have a number to with which to judge. In basketball the team context in unavoidable. The schemes teams run rely on “teamwork” defense, helping, rotating, switching, double teaming, etc., making player defensive evaluation sort of a nebulous concept.

But we acquired Thabo in late February at the deadline and he came with a defensive reputation. I don’t claim to know everything there is to know about playing defense in the NBA, but when you see a player like Thabo get after it defensively for the first time, you know your seeing aggressive, intense defensive effort.  Great defense may be a little difficult to quantify, but you sure know it when you see it; especially after some of the porous performances we saw in December.

I’ve been keeping a spreadsheet of our offensive and defensive numbers broken down by months since Keep Reading…