Daily Thunder.com

That right there is what you want to look like. Deadly shooters, excellent defense, strong rebounding, an elite superstar, top-notch contributing role players and overall awesome team basketball. Bold statement: The Lakers are a good basketball team. I want to be them.

From the opening tip, it was pretty obvious that Los Angeles was here to take care of business. They were focused, they were intense and they were clicking. OKC was in trouble from the get-go. And as someone watching the game, it was apparent early that this was not going to be a Thunder victory. In fact, OKC would be lucky to ever get within 10. So I put the winning thoughts away early and watched for things you could take with you.

• When Kobe was on the floor, the Lakers were +22. When he wasn’t, OKC was only +3. Kobe sat the entire fourth and the Thunder were even with the Lakers. OKC just never took advantage when the best player on the court sat down.

• You can’t fault the Thunder for not trying. The busted their butts tonight. Just nothing went down for them. Kevin Durant was off (4-13 in the first half), Russell Westbrook was scoreless with just one assist in the first half and the team only mustered 38 points at halftime. But to me, it looked like the were working hard. Just things didn’t go right. They gave up 37 first quarter points and the defense was bad, but it was just fundamentally bad. It wasn’t because they were trying. They were just overmatched.

• Maybe the most impressed I’ve been by KD happened with about 1:30 left in the third. Believe it or not, it happened on the defensive end and Durant didn’t even get his hands on the ball. The Lakers were ahead 90-70 and Durant had scored 13 in the quarter and was trying to get his team back in the game. L.A. came down with the ball with Durant on Jordan Farmer. The quicker and smaller Farmer tried to drive baseline but KD cut him off and Farmar backed out. Then Farmar immediately probed KD again and tried to drive. Durant, in an excellent defensive stance with his arms spread wide, cut him off again. Farmar passed it over to Pau Gasol and used Gasol for a screen to shed Durant. Farmar went high to the top of the key and Ariza cut through. Durant and Westbrook communicated perfectly with each other and made a flawless switch and KD picked up Ariza and denied him the ball, trailing him with his arms up. Ariza tried to post KD, but Durant denied him again. It was just obvious watching this whole sequence how hard KD was trying. Down 20 and having an off shooting night, Durant wasn’t going to budge. He wasn’t about to lay down for L.A. His defense has been criticized pretty heavily, but this possession he was textbook. He absolutely worked his tailed off, shuffling his feet, staying low, keeping his arms up and the Thunder paid it off by getting a stop. Plays like this show that he’s committed to being The Man and he’s going to be the superstar we’re dreaming about. Give him another year or two and he’s going to blow our minds. Keep Reading…

vs.

L.A. Lakers (55-14, 24-9 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (20-50, 14-22 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: 103.4 (28th), Lakers: 113.6 (1st)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.1 (20th), Lakers: 105.5 (6th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Lakers: 94.7 (5th)

For OKC’s first matchup against Los Angeles, I looked at nine things the Thunder really needed to focus on in order just to hang close with the mighty Lakers. Among those were get to the line, hold the Lakers to under 105 points, turn it over fewer than 15 times and outrebound them. And OKC did six of the nine really well and stayed close deep into the fourth.

At home last time (a game I predicted stupidly that OKC would win), the Thunder got close to L.A. with Kobe on the bench but never seized the moment. Despite losing by 14, I really feel like the Thunder let something slip away. They played well all over but just didn’t make shots. So what can OKC do to actually beat the Lakers? Not just stay close, but beat probably the best team in the league?

1. Score 100. The Lakers have lost 14 games this season. Eleven of those games were lost when their opponent scored 100 points. Granted, L.A. is 25-11 when their opponent scores 100+, but that means they’re 30-3 when the opponent doesn’t. Keep Reading…

Chad Ford has a list of all the players he anticipates going pro, the 50/50 guys and the unlikelies: “Last year at this time, Derrick Rose said he’d definitely be returning to Memphis. He’s now finishing his rookie season with the Chicago Bulls. The general rule is that if a player is projected as a lottery pick, his chances of declaring for the draft are very high. Of course, nothing is a given. Most recently, Blake Griffin decided to stay in school last year even though he was projected as a top-three pick in the 2008 draft. This year could see similar decisions. The draft class is weak, and a number of the top prospects aren’t ready for the NBA and really could use another year of college basketball. College underclassmen and international players who will be 22 years old or younger at the end of this year have until April 26 to declare themselves eligible for the NBA draft. Last year, 69 underclassmen and 22 international players initially declared for the draft. But by the time of the draft in June, most of the players had withdrawn. In the end, 38 underclassmen and five international players kept their names in the draft.”

And he’s also got some comments about who’s hot in the tourney and who’s not: ”Not: Once again, Thabeet is proving that just because you’re 7-foot-3 and taller than anyone else in college basketball doesn’t mean you’ll be making a huge impact on the floor. UConn largely ignored him on offense during its rout of Texas A&M on Saturday. Against Texas A&M’s strong front line, Thabeet took two shots in the game, grabbed six boards and watched Jeff Adrien do all the work down low. That’s not the type of performance you really want to see in the tournament from a possible top-10 pick.”

Mickael Gelabale is about to sign with the LA D-Fenders of the D-League.

Bill Simmons writes about the statistical revolution and it’s deficiencies: “The Spurs won their past two titles by surrounding a Tim Duncan-Manu Ginobili-Tony Parker nucleus with role players who didn’t care about numbers, rarely made mistakes and wouldn’t dare challenge the pecking order. Yes, Carmelo Anthony was a significantly better basketball player than Bruce Bowen between 2005 and 2007; Bowen was a better fit for the Spurs. That team didn’t need another scorer. It needed a top-notch defender and agitator who knew his place. Our current batch of public numbers can’t measure Bowen’s impact in that role. Maybe those numbers exist somewhere, but who knows?” Keep Reading…

The best way to gauge team progress is to take a number and compare it to what the team had at the same time last year. Pretty straightforward and simple. And what better to use as a measure than wins and losses?

Last season, the Thunder (then the Sonics of course) didn’t win their 20th game until the final day of the season. The team was 16-54 on March 24th. Now, OKC has win No. 20 with 12 games to go. Barring a dozen-game skid (fingers crossed), we should see 21 wins. That’s progress any way you want to slice it.

When this season started, most everyone gave Oklahoma City one simple goal to shoot for: Do better than last year. Improve. Get better. Grow and give hope. And I think 20 wins in *just* 70 games is an improvement over 20 wins in 82 last year.

(One thing you’ve got to remember is that last year’s 20-win team was entirely different. Only five players remain on the roster that finished the year with the team last season. The reigns hadn’t been entirely handed to Kevin Durant and Jeff Green, and Russell Westbrook wasn’t even part of the equation. It was really more of a veteran led team with guys like a Luke Ridnour, Earl Watson, Kurt Thomas, Wally Szczerbiak and Delonte West shouldering most the load at different times. Durant only started to take on the “star” role about halfway through the season and Green only started 52 games and averaged 28 minutes a game. Last year’s team most certainly wasn’t the “core” that Sam Presti wanted to move forward with. So this season was almost an entirely separate rebuilding year in itself as now we’re starting to see a roster take shape.)

There’s no denying the change from 2008 to 2009. OKC is 16-21 this year, compared to 4-29 in 2008. Last season, the team was 9-22 in 2007 and 11-40 in 2008. Other words: No striking improvement throughout the year. In fact, they got worse. This season the team has taken a major step ahead with its progress in 2009. Thabo Sefolosha was added to the roster and has made an immediate impact. Kevin Durant has begun to emerge as a bonafide megastar. Jeff Green has gone from possible liability to excellent sidekick. Russell Westbrook has progressed as a point guard and has gone from question mark to the potential Rookie of the Year. Keep Reading…

From NewsOK.com:

The Oklahoma City Thunder has recalled forward D.J. White from the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League.

White was rather studly for the 66ers, averaging 17.3 points, 9.7 rebounds and 2.0 blocks in almost 38 minutes a game. I guess Sam Presti saw all he needed to see from White in Tulsa, and the numbers pretty much back that up.

I know that for these last 12 games I’d try and and get White at least 10-15 minutes a game. Malik Rose (likely) won’t be here next season so someone is going to have to fill the role of solid big guy off the bench. Nick Collison does a fantastic job with it right now, but it never hurts to have two of those especially since White has a little more skill and offensive ability. The Thunder bench is a relavtively obvious weakness to this team and White should shore that up a bit.

The major problem the OKC bench has is that there’s nobody on the pine to put the ball in the bucket. Collison is a glue guy that does little things. Kyle Weaver can knock down a jumper but he’s not going to give you much more than eight points or so in 20 minutes. Chucky Atkins can miss an open three with the best of them. And let us not speak of Earl Watson right now. I love the thought of having a physical big man that can come in grab some rebounds, knock down a 15-footer and score the ball.

Hope you enjoyed T-Town D.J., because hopefully you’re in OKC for a while.

Update: Marc Stein’s power rankings: “Best team in the league that has already been mathematically eliminated from playoff consideration? With the Thunder at 16-21 in 2009 and fresh off wins this month over the Mavs and Spurs, I don’t think it’s even close.” That’s good, right?

Alright Thunder management, what’ve you got? The Bulls just launched a campaign for Derrick Rose’s Rookie of the Year candidacy. I think the best campaign would be for Russell Westbrook to completely outplay him for the rest of the season, but that’s just me. That could do a lot more than some website with a couple quotes on it. But what do I know?

George Karl thinks “guys like Durant” get calls because they’re skinny: “It seems like skinny guys get more call than big guys or thick guys,” Karl observed. “Like when (Kevin) Durant goes in there he gets pushed off and you can see him get pushed off. Melo is so strong that he gets hit with the same hit — and I’m saying that all over the league — thick guys don’t get pushed off their spot where you can see a skinny guy get pushed off his spot so the whistle blows. I don’t think that’s fair. I think if there’s contact and there’s dislodging, if it’s only six inches instead of 16 inches it’s still a foul.”

Ball Don’t Lie, Behind the Box Score: “The Thunder had one turnover in the first half, and if that doesn’t speak to the type of players that Sam Presti has brought in, and the uncomplicated-but-efficient type of offensive sets that Scott Brooks has introduced, then we’re just going to have to talk about the Timberwolves. No? OK, Oklahoma City really seems to enjoy playing with its current roster. As soon as Thabo Sefolosha sat for Kyle Weaver in the first quarter, Thabo was immediately off the bench pointing things out to Weaver after a blown defensive assignment. And instead of acting insulted, or too sensitive, Weaver listened to the man who essentially stole his starting job a month ago. Very cool. And instead of worrying about their power being usurped by a guy in his mid-20s usurping their authority, the Thunder coaching staff let Thabo make his point. This team talks, on both ends, and it does selectively run, but most of the damage against the Timberwolves was done in the half court. I don’t think the Thunder are 18 points better than the Timberwolves over a 24-minute span, Minnesota’s lackadaisical play contributed to that early deficit, but taking down a team like Minnesota 57-39 in the first half is worth a nod in OKC’s direction.” Keep Reading…