Wednesday Bolts – 12.24.14
Andrew Gilman of Fox Sports Southwest: “Who cares if Westbrook deserved the technical foul or not? It doesn’t matter. The fact is, Westbrook committed a bad foul in a bad spot and it all could have been avoided. Brooks is right. So is Westbrook, and this idea of keeping composure seems like a healthy option, too. So why is Westbrook losing his way at this point in his career when he has been playing some of the best basketball of his career? His play helped carry the Thunder to an eight-game winning streak and vaulted Westbrook into some early season MVP discussion. Missed shots or poor basketball decisions are understandable and expected, but not passing for 5 game minutes and then picking up a technical foul in the final moments, combined with not running a designed play is the kind of things hard to overlook, understand or even fathom, honestly.”
Tom Haberstroh of ESPN Insider: “In the Thunder’s championship run to the 2012 Finals, neither Kevin Durant, Russell Westbrook or Serge Ibaka missed a single game the entire season. Never missed one. They played 1,664 minutes, or 25.1 minutes per game together. Basically, an entire half every game they featured three studs on the floor. But this season? Totally different story. Westbrook, Durant and Ibaka have played together just 173 minutes total, or 5.9 minutes per team game. In other words, OKC’s three-headed monster has taken the floor one-fifth as often as it did during their only Finals campaign. Injury fortune can shift the entire NBA landscape and the Thunder know that better than anybody. Oh, and how’s that Westbrook-Durant-Ibaka trio doing this season? It’s outscoring opponents by 20.8 points per 100 possessions. Uncle.”
Two point guards scored 40 last night. One was poised and composed. The other was wild and emotional.
Anthony Slater: “But to combat that, Scott Brooks had inserted defensive specialist Andre Roberson, who four nights prior had baited Kobe Bryant into a miss in a similar situation. And because of a guard-to-guard screen, Roberson was briefly switched onto Lillard. But this wasn’t a Kobe iso. Portland went with a far more complex stagger screen — the kind of out-of-bounds play the Thunder has repeatedly failed to dial up in late-game scenarios. And just as Roberson switched onto Lillard, LaMarcus Aldridge screened Roberson, who got caught in the cross traffic.”
Berry Tramel: “Then OKC’s defense wilted in overtime. After Serge Ibaka blocked an Aldridge layup to open overtime, the Blazers scored on five straight possessions, with two 3-point shots and a 3-point play. Portland’s lead was 111-106 with two minutes left, and only one team was going to blow a crunch-time lead on this night. The only drama left was a wrestling match between Ibaka and Aldridge that got both players ejected with 9.5 seconds left in overtime, then a fight that broke out in the crowd, with some serious whomping going on. By then, the Thunder was out of punches, and suddenly OKC is 13-16, back to three games under .500 and looking uphill still at Phoenix and New Orleans, trying to get into playoff position. It’s a long season, but games like this will make even longer a season in which nothing is coming easy.”
Dave Deckard of Blazers Edge: “The Thunder paid for it, too. Westbrook missed a long bomb to win the game, which then went into overtime. A couple of threes and an Aldridge and-one propelled the Blazers to a 111-106 lead which they never relinquished. Westbrook fouled out, Ibaka and Aldridge got into a nasty shoving match underneath one of the stanchions, but the scoreboard provided no fireworks. Portland walked away with the 115-111 win and an INCREDIBLE 3-1 finish to their current road trip.”
Lillard on his watch gesture: “I was just pointing to the watch. That was Lillard Time. That’s the first time anybody has ever seen that. I was just feeling myself a little bit at the moment.”
Tramel again: “Why was Portland, down three with 5.2 seconds left, able to get off a better shot than was the Thunder, tied with three seconds left, inbounding from the same spot? Not how. Not what. Why? When Portland had to have a 3-pointer, and the Thunder didn’t need a 3-pointer, why was Damian Lillard’s 26-foot 3-pointer more open and more in rhythm than Russell Westbrook’s 28-footer? Westbrook can go baseline to baseline in less than five seconds. Three seconds is an eternity for an NBA offense. Why did three seconds become an instant on OKC’s final possession.”
