Daily Thunder.com

Russell Westbrook dropped a spot in SI’s rookie rankings this week: “Westbrook has helped the last-place Thunder win four of five as they inch closer to overtaking the Timberwolves in the Northwest Division. With starting forwards Kevin Durant and Jeff Green sidelined by injury, Westbrook has shouldered more of the offensive load lately. The 6-foot-3 guard is averaging 22.2 points and 6.4 assists, along with 6.4 rebounds and 2.2 steals, in the last five games.”

Scott Brooks is hoping to shed that interim tag soon: “No talks yet,” said the Manteca native, who interviewed for the Kings’ coaching vacancy two offseasons ago. “I’m still interim. It hasn’t really crossed my mind – too much. But I like what I’m doing. I’m getting better. “I feel like I’m almost a mirror of our team. They’re a bunch of young guys who are getting better, and I’m improving with them. I critique myself after every game. Our players are all gym rats, so we’re kind of from the same mold. We want to get better, and I think we have.”

Is this the only headline the Oklahoman uses? “(Insert player) is making an impact.” This time, it’s Chucky Atkins: “Rather than sitting and sulking on the sidelines, the 34-year-old Atkins has voluntarily become somewhat of a player-coach, with obviously more coaching than playing. Atkins has taken Westbrook, the No. 4 overall pick, under his wing over the last two months, educating the 20-year-old on how to be a successful lead guard. Whether during timeouts or during game play, Atkins can be seen yakking in his teammates’ ears, sharing anything and everything he’s learned from 10 years in the league.” They might just be going player by player. Keep Reading…

When you start winning some games (how does FIVE of SIX sound my friends?), it’s not always just about winning the game, but it’s also a little bit about how you win. Well, that’s not entirely true because as long as the Thunder has one more point than the other team when the clock says zero, I’m happy (which was exactly the case tonight).

But OKC had some defensive lapses early, didn’t rebound in the second quarter, gave away a 10-point lead in what seemed like seconds and played a sloppy fourth quarter and at a point sometime in the fourth, I told myself, “Win or lose, I’m not that thrilled about this game.” But then the Thunder made a slew of big plays down the stretch and edged out Sacramento 99-98 and let me tell you, I really don’t care about semi-lackluster first 43 minutes. The last five were excellent.

The Kings took a 92-91 lead on a Rashad McCants free throw with 4:56 left in the game after the two teams had exchanged buckets on the last four possessions. And this game kind of had the feeling of, “Here we go, let’s watch OKC blow this down the stretch.” But the Thunder came up with big stop after big stop holding the game at one. Nenad Krstic stopped Spencer Hawes at the rim. Then after Jeff Green turned it over for a second straight possession, Hawes got tagged for a moving pick. Russell Westbrook then missed a little runner in the lane and the Kings’ Will Soloman streaked at the bucket. But Krstic was there again for a monster stop at the rim, denying Soloman. OKC couldn’t cash in after a McCants steal but AGAIN, the Thunder came up with a stop contesting a Bobby Jackson jumper and securing the rebound.

Finally the Thunder broke through as Earl Watson missed a reverse layup but Krispy Nads was there for put-back to giving OKC the lead for good, 93-92. (Then for good measure, OKC got another stop and Krstic got another offensive rebound and put it in. 95-92.

It was really a crazy sequence of events. It was one of those stretches where the Thunder could have easily been down eight with no chance and relegated to heaving threes, or they could have been up eight cruising to the buzzer. But instead, it came down to the wire and the Thunder made a play or two more than Sacramento and that was the difference. Keep Reading…

vs.

Thunder (17-46, 4-26 road) at Sacramento Kings (14-49, 10-21 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 9:00 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.7 (28th), Sacramento: 104.5 (26th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.4 (20th), Sacramento: 113.9 (30th)
Pace: Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Sacramento: 94.1 (6th)

(Jeff Green could play tonight, according to ESPN/The Oklahoman. I guess we’ll find out around 9:00 p.m.)

Another wonderful matchup in the Blake Griffin Playoffs. So far, OKC has split with Sacramento this season and though the Kings are sitting at just 14 wins (now that we have 17, we can talk down at those crappy teams below us), they did pick up a nice win against Denver two nights ago.

But this is a little different Sactown team than OKC saw the first two times. Gone is John Salmons who averaged 21 points, 9.5 assists and 6.5 rebounds against the Thunder. Add Andres Nocioni, who scored 23 in the Kings big upset over the Nuggs. Plus Beno Udrih (29 points in last meeting) is hurt and Bobby Jackson will be starting in his steed.

The Kings have scored 233 points in their last two games combined, but as we know, the Thunder’s playing some serious defense right now holding their last five opponents to under 90 points a game, including holding Philly to season-low 74. So it looks like we’ll have a nice little offense/defense showdown tonight and I think it could be summed up perfectly by the Thabo/Kyle Weaver vs. Kevin Martin matchup. Keep Reading…

SLAM had an article last week where slick writer John Krolik asked if Kevin Durant could be the anti-Battier in terms of plus/minus. Durant has one of the worst plus/minus scores in the league at -6.4 and overall plus/minus of -330 and Shane Battier is known to be valuable based almost exclusively on stats like plus/minus. There’s been some chatter recently about KD’s true value to the team on both ends and a lot of people point to the plus/minus.

But when I look at OKC this year, I really almost consider this as two different seasons. You’ve got the 2008 season and the 2009 season. And Durant’s horrid plus/minus numbers were really built up during that stinky 4-30 2008 start.

Consider: In 2009, in 25 games, Durant has an overall plus/minus of -39 (that’s including a -27 against Minnesota in which he played just 16 minutes).  That’s with the team record being 9-16 in games he’s played this calendar year. So he’s averaging a -1.56 a game, which is a far cry from the overall -6.4 he has for the season.

For perspective, KD’s 2008 overall plus/minus was -291 for an average of -9.09 a game (32 games). In fact, he had only four positive games in 2008 and didn’t have his first plus game until the last day of November. That’s a difference of 7.53 between 2008 and 2009. So it’s safe to say, things have changed pretty drastically in this new year for KD. Keep Reading…

Four out of five folks. Four. Out of five. Remember that whole “worst team ever” talk? Good times.

SLAM is looking for a nickname for KD. I thought we all kind settled on Durantula or Kid Declious: “We asked Kevin Durant himself if he has any nicknames, and all he could come up with is “KSmoove.” It’s absurdities like that which got us into the nickname business in the first place. Here’s a player with as much pure offensive talent as anyone to come into the League this millennium, as he showed most recently in the Rookie-Sophomore Game. Obviously, this guy needs a nickname that honors his abilities—and he’s on record as asking us for one. Kevin needs your help. Whoever has the best nickname will win a dope prize from the SLAM vault and get their name in Trash Talk next month.”

FanHouse doing lines: “Philadelphia shot below 40% … against the Thunder. OKC’s locksmith line-up — Kyle Weaver, Russell Westbrook and Thabo Sefolosha — conspired to wreck the 76er attack, and Sefolosha is looking like he just might be the best player traded near the deadline this season.”

The Scores Report put together the top 68 worst contracts in the NBA. OKC had just one (Nick Collison who hecked in at No. 33 in the “Overpaid Role Players” category: “In most cases, I don’t blame the player himself for his outrageous contract. The fault lies with the general manager that inked the guy to the deal. However, this rule goes out the window if the player has a history of only producing in his contract year – I’m looking at you, Tim Thomas.)”

As Joe mentioned in his recap, Malik Rose was on NBA TV’s arena link and had some pretty interested things to say. Man I like that guy. I kind of want him back next year. Keep Reading…