It’s like that scene in Jurassic Park when Hammond is telling Ellie how to turn the power on.
“There’s a round green button that says push to panic.”
Push to panic?
“Poosh it.”
Some wanted to poosh it after a heartbreaking Game 4 loss in Houston, but you can definitely poosh it now. It’s just Game 5 and the Thunder still lead 3-2, with two opportunities to close the series and move on. But these 48 minutes tonight exposed a whole lot that’s wrong with the post-Westbrook Thunder. Keep Reading…
vs. 
TV: TNT
Stream: Click here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 8:30 CT
View from the enemy: Red 94
A chance to close at home, and maybe that’s for the best. The Thunder have some challenges ahead in learning to play without Russell Westbrook, and maybe one more game of trying to sort through it all live will do them some good.
That is, as long as they win.
Henry Abbott of TrueHoop on Game 4 and hero ball: “Simply put, with more respect for open shooters, and less fascination with who’s shooting, the Thunder absolutely could have scored more. And they only had to score a tiny bit more to, you know, end the series. It came to a hilarious head with 12 seconds left. The Thunder had been force-feeding Durant so religiously the defense scarcely looked at anybody else. And yet, in the face of evidence timeouts only help the defense, and despite a Rockets team scrambling to get in place, the Thunder called a timeout.”
Tom Haberstroh in a 5-on-5 says the Rockets can come back: “The recency bias bites us badly in the playoffs and it always looks like the team that won the most recent game has “figured it out.” But that’s not it. The Thunder lost their second-best player and the Rockets have a shot anytime Derek Fisher is getting about 30 minutes a night in 2013.” Keep Reading…
Layne Murdoch/NBAE/Getty Images
If you had trouble sleeping last night following the Thunder’s draining 105-103 Game 4 loss, you weren’t the only one.
Because Serge Ibaka did too.
“I couldn’t sleep last night, man,” Ibaka told reporters today at practice.
Ibaka of course missed a point-blank shot as time expired that would’ve sent the game to overtime. It was a play that looked simple, but wasn’t as easy as it appeared. But Ibaka came up short — literally — and is dealing with getting past that play.
“It happened. It’s been tough on me. It was my first time to be in that position,” Ibaka said. “For me, it was my first time to be in that position. It didn’t happen, so now I know how it feels and I’ll move on. My focus is now on tomorrow’s game.” Keep Reading…
Bill Baptist/NBAE/Getty Images
HOUSTON — When the Thunder needed a basket the most Monday night in Houston, the best they could do is get Kevin Durant the ball a few feet from the half court line.
As thrilling as Oklahoma City’s emotional Game 3 win was on Saturday night, the Thunder have revealed just how lost they are without Russell Westbrook through two games. OKC’s reliance on Durant has already veered into the territory of over-reliance, and the Thunder would be headed back to the Peake tied 2-2 if it weren’t from some horrific play in the clutch from James Harden that gave them a chance to win two games late in the first place.
Scott Brooks argued after Game 4 that it isn’t as simple as looking at the last play of the game, which unfolded in brutal fashion for Oklahoma City. “It’s easy to point to a play or two down the stretch, but there’s so many plays that we probably could have done much better,” Brooks said. But while that’s certainly true, not only can that be a troubling statement in and of itself, it also ignores the simple truth that the playoffs are going to come down to a play or two down the stretch plenty often, and the Thunder aren’t getting it done on the offensive end in those scenarios, and they aren’t doing what it takes to avoid them in the first place. Keep Reading…
Zach Lowe of Grantland writing about Game 3, but with some fascinating post-Westbrook stuff: “Durant dribbled the ball 377 times in Game 3, about 240 more dribbles than he averaged per game for the season, according to data provided exclusively to Grantland from the SportVU camera system installed in 15 NBA arenas, including in both Houston and Oklahoma City. That number is between 50 and 100 fewer dribbles than the most dribbly point guards — Tony Parker, Westbrook, Mike Conley, Damian Lillard, et al. — averaged in recorded games, but it’s in the same neighborhood as the per-game averages for some point guards who don’t pound the ball quite as much (Kyrie Irving, Ricky Rubio, Ty Lawson, and others), per the SportVU data. Durant touched the ball 111 times in Game 3, almost double his season average, and a number that would’ve led the entire league, per the camera data.”
Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports: “Outside his locker on Monday night, the smile curled over Beverley’s mouth. As the Rockets guards go, Beverley (16 points, four rebounds, three assists and no turnovers) had been far better in every way than Harden (15 points, three assists and an ungodly 10 turnovers). Out of nowhere, Beverley refuses to stop impacting this series and suddenly is turning into a cornerstone player for the Rockets’ future. For now, he’ll simply be the most hated man in Chesapeake Energy Arena on Wednesday night. Nevertheless, Beverley promises it won’t be the most volatile setting of his young career. At 24 years old, he’s been to basketball oblivion and back, and these circumstances bring out the ferocity with him.” Keep Reading…
When the final buzzer sounded on Game 4 which left Serge Ibaka crumpled on the floor, hands on head in disbelief, I just kept repeating the same thing over and over.
What a shame.
Building off a spectacular Game 3, Kevin Durant one-upped himself in his mission to carry the Thunder to a higher place by going for 38 points on 12-16 shooting, eight eight rebounds and six assists. His step-back 3 that cut Houston’s lead to four was ruthless. His 1-on-4 dunk to take it to two was completely vicious.
Durant’s game was about to be one of those transcendent playoff games that you’d never, ever, ever forget. Playing in his more traditional manner as the cold-blooded efficient scoring terminator rather than super-aggressive point forward, KD was on the verge of an all-timer.
With two critical stops, the Thunder had the ball with 12 seconds left, and a chance to finish this thing. With KD cooking — and saddled with five fouls — it was obvious: Go for the win. Let one fly, swish it through, pray for a Bounce Of God, clang it long, whatever. Try and end it right then and there, with one swoop. Keep Reading…
THTV: Could the Thunder blow this?
The Thunder lead 3-1 over the Rockets and have a potential series-clinching Game 5 in their own building.
But on TrueHoop TV today, David Thorpe says the Thunder could be vulnerable, that they could become the first team ever to blow a 3-0 series lead.
He lists a perfect storm of reasons: a) nobody has ever done, which means eventually there has to be a first; b) the Thunder don’t have their second best player; c) the Rockets are young, dumb and brash, meaning they don’t care about history; d) the Rockets’ style means they play loose, and if they get hot, they’re hard to stop; and finally e) the Thunder aren’t adapting to life post-Westbrook as well as they should be.
Keep Reading…