Monday Bolts – 2.2.15
Chris Mannix of SI.com on the Thunder: “Ideally, Oklahoma City would bring both Jackson and Waiters off the bench, a 1-2 scoring punch that could take the offensive burden off of Durant and Westbrook, who are still shaking off some rust from early season injuries. But Waiters is also insurance if the Thunder are unhappy with early results and choose to flip Jackson, Lopez is a shell of the All-Star center he was in 2013. His scoring has dipped to 14.7 points per game and he is averaging a pedestrian six rebounds. But Oklahoma City was willing to roll the dice with Lopez because the cost was low (a package build around center Kendrick Perkins) and with Adams entrenched as the starter. Expectations for Lopez would be limited to a solid scoring option off the bench. As for Lopez’s money, the Thunder, who have carefully avoided being taxpayers in recent years, have dodged the dreaded repeater tax penalties and are willing to go deep into the tax this year, if necessary.”
Anthony Slater on playoff hopes: “Russell Westbrook returned in late November and has played every game since Thanksgiving. Kevin Durant has shuffled in and out of the lineup with different ailments but, in January, played in 12 of the Thunder’s 14 games. During that stretch, Oklahoma City went 6-6. Even when healthy, this has been a .500 team of late. In the East, that’ll get you in the dance. In the West, that’ll leave you home in late April.”
Kendrick Perkins apparently thinks there are 48 minutes in an NFL game. (Update: He apparently deleted the tweet.)
Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com on a weird NBA phenomenon: “Earlier this month, our statistics guru Dr. Steve Ilardi alerted us to this bizarre trend and we’ve been tracking it ever since. That Memphis win wasn’t a fluke. The hushed home crowd is becoming a thing this season. Home squads are losing all over the place — including Tuesday night when they lost all six games. Take a look at the standings. By win-loss record, the Nets, Bulls, Mavericks, Pistons, Rockets, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Magic and 76ers are all performing better on the road than at home. In fact, home teams have won only 53.7 percent of their games this season, the lowest such rate in modern NBA history. And it’s not even close.”
Good breakdown of the Thunder, Suns and Pelicans remaining schedules.
Marc Stein of ESPN.com on Adam Silver’s first year: “Appreciation from the players in Silver’s league, meanwhile, is tangible. Sources in the room say Silver, at All-Star Weekend 2014 in New Orleans, addressed the All-Stars in both conferences and vowed to seek the players’ input to grow the game and make the league better. LeBron James, sources said, promptly responded with a plea to make the All-Star break longer and reduce the number of back-to-backs for each team. Silver assured the audience he had gotten the message … and here we are heading into an extended break next month for the first time in league history.”
