Daily Thunder.com

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…

Box Score

Is the glass half full or is it half empty?

I asked my wife that question (without any real context, since she doesn’t really like basketball on TV that much) and she replied sweetly “half full of course”.  Ok, there it is. Instead of looking at this game as a game where the Thunder were up 32 points with 1:32 left in the third, only to allow the Minnesota bench mob run the score back into single digits, I am instead going to mostly ignore all that and write about how we dominated all facets of the game with our starters in and built up the big lead and “got even” for the whoopin’  they gave us here a few months back.

In the first quarter it was just simple execution; the Thunder executed it’s offense and defense and the T-Wolves did not.  The Wolves are basically running a three guard lineup with Foye, Telfair and Miller, a tweener forward in Gomes and rookie Kevin Love at center.  While that group did a good job on the boards (backed up by Sonic/Thunder killer Craig Smith), it had very little inside presence on offense. They took a lot of jumpers and just weren’t hitting them. The Thunder were smooth offensively hitting their jumpers, cutting for back-door’s, and driving the lane.  We had a 14-8 advantage in points in the paint in the first and opened up a 10 point lead shooting 48% to the Wolves’ 30%.  The Thunder also had zero turns in the opening quarter. Keep Reading…

 vs.

Thunder (19-50, 5-28 road) at Minnesota Timberwolves (20-49, 10-25 home)

TV: FS Oklahoma HD (Cox 37, HD 722)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM)
Time: 2:30 CST

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.4 (28th), Minnesota: 106.3 (23rd)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.2 (20th), Minnesota: 111.3 (26th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Minnesota: 92.0 (14th)

What a big game – loser takes last place in the division, winner takes second to last place. Woowee, intense. The last time the Thunder visited Minnesota, they took a pretty good drubbing. The kind of drubbing where the game was over basically in the first eight minutes and you were just left watching to see how many threes Randy Foye might hit. It was a rough night for OKC as Minny rolled 129-87. And it wasn’t even that close.

But the Wolves are still without big man Al Jefferson and while Kevin Love has played well in his place, he’s no Al Jefferson. The Wolves aren’t great at home (10-25) but they have won two of three at the Target Center and OKC is tied for the league’s worst road record at 5-25. But hey, we’ve won two of five on the road. So it’s the league’s worst home record against one of the worst road records. Should be fun!

Last time these two teams tangled, the Wolves were having their best month of the season and the Thunder caught them in their hottest stretch. It seemed like it was an endless barrage of threes and the Thunder offense never got even close to getting on track. And while the Thunder defense has slipped a bit since Kevin Durant has returned (not really that much in all reality though), the offense hasn’t clicked that well. KD went a very un-KD-like 10-24 from the field against Utah and the supporting cast didn’t do a very good job to pick up the slack.

Tough to place any kind of expectations on this game because you never know what you’re going to get with the Thunder on the road. Heck, kind of hard to say what you’ll get any given night. I feel like it should be a win, but who knows. And plus, add in the fact that nobody will be watching so that takes the importance of this game to even a lower level. But I’ll still be watching… during commercials.

Tip is in, oh crap, an hour! Go Thunder.

The Thunder have been nothing if not a team in transition all season. I’m not sure what version we are on but change has been constant. First we had a coaching change after game 13. During P.J.’s little sip of water with the Thunder this season the team was absolutely anemic on offense (92.5 offensive rating) and a bit above average defensively, using a lot of gimmicky zone defense (105.7 defensive rating).  The offense was beyond terrible, running and gunning but inefficient and only scoring more than 90 points 4 times in those thirteen games, and only going over 100 once. Blowouts were the norm.  I guess that was Thunder version 1.0.

Next came version 2.0 with Scotty Brooks in charge. The offense immediately took a huge jump in efficiency. Spacing was improved and the team began to attack the basket and get a bit slower and more deliberate. The defense meanwhile was completely destructed. The zone defense was sent to the shelf, double teaming was rare, and man to man was the order of the day.  The results were pretty spotty. In Brooks’ first dozen or so games the defense performed terribly, but it was sort of overshadowed by so much offensive improvement. The team began to get blown out a lot less frequently.

Brooks also was tweaking the lineup. Out of the rotation were Johan Petro, Chris Wilcox and Damien Wilkins. Durant went to the small forward position, Green the starter at the 3, and Collison manned the post. Desmond Mason finally solidified himself as our best defensive two, and Westbrook moved in as the starting 1. Things began to gel.

The team lit fire around the coming of the New Year and began to play .500 ball, which is saying something when you start the season 3-29. The team also plucked Nenad Krstic from Euro purgatory and began working him in. Brooks brought in assistant Ron Adams to help with defense. Keep Reading…

Another loss at home by the hands of another white hot point guard.  It was like Deja-vu from Wednesday night with the Bulls. Tonight was Deron Williams turn to be perfect from the field in the third quarter (6/6), much like Derrick Rose was in the second half two nights ago.

In tonight’s matchup, the Thunder never really seemed in control of the game at any time. They managed a one point lead at the end of the first using a 9-2 run, but the Jazz came out in the second and went on an 8-2 run of their own.  Meanwhile the Thunder began to turn the ball over. Big surprise eh? This team does a lot of self inflicted damage. The Thunder entered halftime having turned the ball 12 times and closing out 2/10 shooting.  In fact, we shot a measly 5/17 in the second quarter as a whole (29%), while the Jazz were putting on a pick and roll clinic and shooting 50% in the quarter.

As I mentioned, the third quarter is where Deron Williams lit fire and was an offensive force. Westbrook couldn’t stay in front of him at all.  Basically all Westbrook did to defend him was to foul him, which he did on back to back plays.  But first Williams stroked a couple of jumpers in Westbrook’s grill just to get him thinking shot defense, then it was all drives.  It obviously got me thinking we needed to switch Thabo on him like Brooks did in against Rose on Wednesday. Brooks did, and it didn’t make any difference. Once Williams crossed up Thabo so bad that he almost fell. Thabo picked up his 4th foul and Westbrook his second and third working on Williams in the third. Keep Reading…

 vs.

Utah Jazz (42-26, 13-20 road) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (19-49, 14-21 home)

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

Offensive Rating: Thunder: 103.4 (28th), Utah: 110.3 (6th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder: 109.2 (20th), Utah: 106.5 (9th)
Pace:Thunder: 93.6 (8th), Utah: 92.6 (10th)

Remember what happened the last time the Jazz were here? OKC pounded them by 21 prompting the Salt Lake Tribune’s beat writer to pen this oh so hilarious lead: “Because there’s nothing to do in Oklahoma City, the Jazz had no excuse for not showing up Wednesday night against the Thunder and suffering a 114-93 humiliation at the hands of the NBA’s worst team.” I remember laughing at that. How clever.

Suffice to say, it would be fun to win again. Maybe ol’ Ross Siler could write something like, “The Jazz didn’t play well in Oklahoma City again – and they should have, because OKC is boring. See, because there’s nothing to do in that city. Except ride horses and pitch horseshoes. Which is exactly what Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer were seen doing before the game. Maybe that’s why they lost.” But the thing is, it’s not a stretch for the Thunder to do it. For whatever reason, a team as solid as Utah is top to bottom, they are very much below average on the road. They’re 29-6 at home, but just 13-20 on the road. They average two points less a game, three percent lower from the field, eight percent lower from three and turn it over two more times away from SLC.

And surely after a semi-disappointing loss against Chicago, OKC will come out ready to play for this one. The defense wasn’t good, the rebounding was worse and the Thunder just didn’t play well at all in the second half. But Utah is a very good squad and so it’s not like we should have expectations of a win. And they need every win they can get as they’ve lost three of four and seem to be slipping a bit in the Western playoff standings. So add that to what the Thunder did to them last time they were here and it’s unlikely the Jazz don’t come out ready to play. Keep Reading…

Not much Thunder news out there today with that tournament that some people are interested in going on…

Ian Thompson looks at five annual critcisms of the NBA compared to college basketball: NBA players don’t care: It’s true that many of them are selfish at the expense of the team. But you’ll find this to be true in the NCAA as well. In another sense, NBA players have never cared more about their careers. Because there is so much money at stake, they train year-round and practice more often than players of previous generations. I can tell you that it drives college coaches crazy when their players leave the program to undertake a 24/7 workout and diet regimen in preparation for the NBA draft. Kevin Love transformed his body after last year’s NCAA tournament to improve his stock for NBA talent evaluators. Don’t you think UCLA coach Ben Howland would have appreciated that commitment on behalf of the college program?

John Hollinger looks at five lottery teams that could make a run to the playoffs next year: “Despite having their doctor nix the Tyson Chandler trade, the Thunder made a less-discussed coup at the trade deadline with shooting guard Thabo Sefolosha. He gives the team the solid wing defender it’s been missing for most of the past two years and allows Jeff Green and Kevin Durant to play forward full time. Throw in Russell Westbrook’s surprisingly fast development and Nenad Krstic’s arrival and the talent base is growing rapidly. Also, the Thunder are poised to add even more talent this summer. In addition to another high draft pick of their own and another from Denver (technically the better of Denver’s or San Antonio’s, which almost certainly will be the Nuggets’), the Thunder have beaucoup cap space to either spend in a buyer’s market or use in a trade. And then there’s this little fact — since starting the year 3-29, the Thunder are a very respectable 16-20. With Durant coming on like gangbusters and Green and Westbrook also showing major progress, getting somewhere near .500 next season won’t require much of a push.”

Serge Ibaka update: The big guy has continued to play more minutes lately than he did early in the season. His last six he’s averaging 9.5 ppg on 60 percent shooting with 7.0 rpg and 1.84 blocks per game. That’s all highlighted by a game against DKV Joventut (Ricky Rubio’s team) where Ibaka went for 16 points, 15 rebounds and a block in 26 minutes. Keep Reading…

Ah, the best day of the year. So much buildup, so much anticipation and today here we go. What will we see? Will a 16 finally beat a 1? Will there be a memorable buzzer beater? Such a wonderful time. (And it’s also a really good time to get a good, hard look at some of the top college prospects too…)

Eric Musselman ranks the players in the tournament based on pro potential.

Chad Ford looks at pro prospects by region in the tournament: “Blake Griffin: Griffin is the consensus No. 1 pick in the draft, and, short of a horrific injury in the tournament, nothing will be able to knock him off that perch. He’s as close to a sure thing as there is in the draft, and his performance in the tournament shouldn’t have a big impact on his stock one way or the other.” (One thing I’d love to point out is that you shouldn’t completely fall in love with a player just because he has a nice tourney. That’s an incredibly small sample size and while it can show you what a guy can do, it doesn’t necessarily mean that’s what he will do.)

Ric Rucher talks with Jim Traber about the Thunder’s future and Bill Simmons (audio inside). Listen to this. It’s EXCELLENT stuff.

Empty the Bench named its second round Rookie of the Year and Kyle Weaver was honorable mention: “In and out of the lineup until February (mostly out), the swingman from Washington State has, if anything, proven he’s a nice compliment off the bench behind the Thunder’s nucleus of young, rising stars. He’s recently been replaced in the starting five by trade-deadline acquisition and ETB favorite Thabo Sefolosha; he does a lot of the same things as Thabo, just without as much panache and with a much lower ceiling.”

And Weaver got a little love from David Thorpe in this week’s rookie rankings too: “Weaver filled in admirably for the Thunder when Kevin Durant went down with an ankle injury. Weaver scored 10-plus points in four straight games and looked like he had some potential as a 3-point shooter. Considering that he was drafted for his defense, those are positive signs. He has a chance to be a nice bench option for the Thunder next season.” Keep Reading…