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Monday Bolts – 3.30.09

by Royce Young on March 30, 2009 at 9:08 am 3 Comments

Pro Basketball News on Shaun Livingston: “Playing for the Tulsa 66ers is not a demotion but another opportunity for thunderbolt2322 me to better myself,” Livingston said. “There’s no substitute for actual game time. You can’t simulate the movement. And contrary to popular belief, basketball is a contact sport.” Livingston is getting almost 30 minutes a game and is averaging 9.5 ppg, 6.0 apg and 3.5 rpg in 11 games in Tulsa.

Ryan McNeill of Hoops Addict talked one-on-one with Scott Brooks. (Audio inside.)

And the article mentioned in the interview, where Charley Rosen says he’d vote for Scott Brooks for Coach of the Year: “If I had a vote, I’d pick Scott Brooks. When Brooks took over, OKC seemed doomed to challenge the 1972-73 Sixers for having the worst record in the history of the NBA. Philly finished at 9-73, and under the sad-sack leadership of P. J. Carlesimo, the Thunder started the current season at 1-12. Granted that the Thunder is only 18-37 with Brooks in the command seat, but they’ve won six of their last 10 games — including a stunning victory over the Spurs. Moreover, several of the Thunders’ most recent wins have been accomplished without the services of their two leading scorers, Kevin Durant and Jeff Green. Indeed, Brooks has miraculously transformed OKC from a pushover to a dangerous ball club. The key word here is “miraculously.” Keep Reading…

Thunder 84, Celtics 103

by Joe on March 29, 2009 at 8:29 pm 18 Comments

Box Score

The Thunder played surprising, inspired basketball for most of three quarters before finally succumbing to the excellence of the World Champs on the road. It might have been that the Celtics didn’t really expect much of a fight from a 20-53 team, but nevertheless, they turned it on when they needed to on both sides of the ball. Judging by the Celts dominance, it was sort of like a shark with blood in the water. The crowd got going, the defense tightened and the Thunder folded, only able to score 16 points in the fourth to the Celtic’s 32.

The Thunder came out and played fairly well in the first quarter, especially after Durant went to the bench with his second foul at around 4:oo in. The Thunder were down 7-4 at the time, but immediately went on a run without him closing out the quarter 21-13 and ending with a 5 point lead. Kyle Weaver was the key in that run, getting 4 assists and a steal and being the glue guy in the quarter. Keep Reading…

Three point shots and winning percentage

by Joe on March 29, 2009 at 12:23 pm 21 Comments

Reading some of my favorite basketball blogs this morning I came across this little snippet in Ballerblogger where the author references John Hollingers per diem piece from Friday. It’s a great read, I highly recommend it. I am not a big Hollinger devotee, but he is great at noticing statistical trends. In the Friday Per diem article, Hollinger makes the connection between teams that attempt a lot of three pointers, and teams that don’t, and how they respectively shake out in wins and losses.

“…the reason teams shoot more often from out there (and perhaps employ players who do it better) is a simple one: It works. In fact, few stats correlate better with winning than 3-point attempts. If you tell me only how many 3-pointers a team has chucked up this season and provide no other information, I can tell you whether it is a winning team and be right eight times out of 10.”

“Check this out: The teams in the top 10 in 3-point attempts per field goal attempt have a combined winning percentage of .593 … and those in the bottom 10 have a combined winning percentage of .400.

That’s no accident. Three-point attempts have correlated highly with winning for the past several years.

Nine of the top 10 teams in 3-point attempts per field goal attempt also are above the league average in offensive efficiency, the lone exception being 20th-place Indiana. Similarly, only two teams , Utah and Golden State, have had below-average rates of 3-point attempts and still rank in the league’s upper half in offensive efficiency.”

Hollinger has a point there. Being as how the Thunder are dead last in three point attempts per game in the NBA, and also pretty close to the bottom of the win/loss column as well I decided to put Hollinger’s hypothesis to the test.

Thunder field goal shooting:

fga/gm=81.8
fgm/gm=36.7 (combined 2fgm+3fgm)
Points per shot (PPS) from fg=.947 (combined 2fg+3fg)
NBA league average Points per shot=.998 Keep Reading…

Thunder 96, Raptors 112

by Joe on March 27, 2009 at 8:08 pm 27 Comments

wedgie Earlier in the week when we got taken to the woodshed by the Lakers, Royce titled the post game “Schooled”. After tonight’s debacle game, I am fielding suggestions for a good title for the post game wrap. Any ideas? Does the picture on the left stir your imagination?

Box Score

Tonight was just a forgettable game. The Thunder jumped out to a 5-0 lead to open up, and then the bleeding started. The Raps reeled off a 15-2 run and never looked back. They had the lead from that point on, and the Thunder never really made a game of it.

Throughout the season, we’ve had plenty of losses, and after being a longsuffering Sonic fan for two decades, I’ve seen a lot of them, especially in the last 4 or 5 years. But during this new Thunder era, we’ve almost always been competitive; even when we were 3-29, most nights we were “in the game”. That just wasn’t the case tonight.

If you told me that we would lose tonight by 16 to Toronto, my mind would have instantly jumped to turnovers. The Thunder lead the league in Turnovers (as in the most) at 16 a game. I would think the Turns did us in once again. That also just wasn’t the case. The Thunder only turned it a mere 11 times. What did us in was extra poor shooting and getting busted on the boards. Keep Reading…

Thunder at Raptors: Pre-game primer

by Royce Young on March 27, 2009 at 12:11 pm 10 Comments

okc-thunder6 vs. t-raptors

Thunder (20-51, 6-28 road) at Toronto Raptors (26-45, 15-20 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 6:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.3 (28th), Raptors: 106.3 (23rd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.1 (20th), Raptors: 109.9 (21st)
Pace: Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Raptors: 91.5 (16th)

Get your DVR’s ready! Sweet 16, Thunder-Raptors? Sweet 16, Thunder-Raptors? Decisions, decisions. Plus you’ve got Supernanny at 8:00. I think I know where my DVR is going.

OKC’s got a chance at another season sweep in Toronto tonight, with the Thunder taking game one 91-83 against a, let’s just say less than inspired Raptor ballclub. Toronto shot 36 percent that night and looked like they took roofies at halftime. That game had maybe my favorite Thunder play of the year with Nick Collison getting on the floor and wrestling away a loose ball from Chris Bosh late in the fourth quarter which led to a Jeff Green icer.

The Raps have won two in a row and while they are one of the league’s most disappointing teams, they still have talent. For whatever reason things haven’t worked this year, but this isn’t going to be anything easy for the Thunder. Heck, when is anything ever easy for a 20-51 team? Keep Reading…

Sore “ankle” puts Tyson Chandler in medical walking boot

by Royce Young on March 27, 2009 at 11:41 am 2 Comments

ESPN.com (h/t Joey):

New Orleans Hornets center Tyson Chandler is expected to sit out another one to two weeks while his sore left ankle heals. Team officials said Friday that Chandler had been fitted with a medical walking boot, which he is expected to wear anywhere from seven to 14 days. Chandler already has missed four straight games since his left ankle, which kept him out for about a month earlier this season, began to bother him again.

I know, I know. Forget about Tyson Chandler. Let’s move on. I want to as well. But when you see news like this, it’s hard not to notice. I really wish the best to Tyson, but deep down (waaaaay deep down, in the really dark place) the more I see of these types of stories, the better I feel.

Friday Bolts – 3.27.09

by Royce Young on March 27, 2009 at 8:09 am 22 Comments

Scott Brooks on “Twitting“: “Twitting? What is it?’” Oklahoma City interim coach Scott Brooks said the other day. “So thunderbolt2321 you ‘tweet’ on Twitter? I don’t anticipate myself ever doing that. I guess I’m not around the guys in the locker room enough to see it.”

The Lost Ogle thinks we should say bye to Blake. And makes the point that Oklahoma State fans that are rooting against the Thunder winning the lottery because that means a Sooner would join the team, should stop. Is that really happening? Because that’s, uh, really stupid. Clark makes a comparison too: “As I said before, I initially bought the Boozer link and once mentioned it to Patrick. Then, Patrick came up with a much better player to view Griffin in light of: Amar’e Stoudamire. The Suns’ power forward/center is practically who Blake was cloned from. Stoudamire has the strength and the athleticism to overpower, run past or jump over any defender who has the misfortune of being assigned to him.” Fran Fraschilla agrees with you. And so do I.

Another vote for KD for Most Improved: “I still vote for Kevin Durant for most improved; making the jump from pretty good to almost great is a bigger deal to me than whoever doubled their numbers because their minutes went up significantly. The difference between champions and playoff teams is that champions are led by men who play with that attitude, that ‘I’m King of the World and I’m gonna crush you’re a@#!’ demeanor. Durant has been showing that this season, and it’s going to serve him well when he has a good team around him. Some might want to give it to Paul Milsap, but he really just got more minutes to do what he was already capable of doing. Rajon Rondo has definitely gotten better, but how much of that is due to his teammates? Devin Harris got consistent minutes and more shot opportunities, but I don’t know that he is a better player than he was a year ago. Durant has showed a real change in the quality of his performance, one that transcends minutes and shots.” Keep Reading…

Russell Westbrook: the future at point guard?

by Royce Young on March 26, 2009 at 8:12 pm 28 Comments

Russell Westbrook had an interesting quote last week. He said something to the effect, “I know what I’m doing wrong and I know what I need to improve on, but with 82 games and playing every night, it’s not easy to change and learn on the fly.”

Nailed it, young fella. That’s why players get better year-to-year. They have a summer to reflect and take a breath. They can watch video, slow down and focus on details. Instead of just watching a little tape and getting an earful from a coach and then turning around and playing that night with all those thoughts running through their head, they can take time and progress naturally.

Some have been grumbling lately about Russell. He’s not a point guard. He’s a two trapped in a point guard’s body. He’s solid but he’s not the point guard of the future. He takes too many bad shots. He forces it all the time. Way too many turnovers. He’s not getting it. And on. And on. And on.

I can understand those gripes sometimes, especially when he tosses up seven and eight turnover games. I’ll admit to having headbutted my coffee table on more than one occasion when Russ forces a pass or takes a quick shot. The fact that he’s shooing 39 percent with over four turnovers a game this month is understandably frustrating.

But sometimes while we watch, it’s easy to forget what’s going on. He’s a rookie that’s never exclusively played point guard, even in college. Most didn’t think he was worthy of being the No. 4 pick. Most thought he would be a “project” or just a defensive stopper. And now look at him – possibly the Rookie of the Year and averaging 15 points, five assists and five rebounds, something not too many rookies have ever done. Seriously, that list is pretty thin – just nine other rookies have ever done it with names like LeBron James, Michael Jordan, Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson on it. Uh, that’s pretty good. Keep Reading…

Thunder (20-51, 6-28 road) at Toronto Raptors (26-45, 15-20 home)

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