Monday Bolts – 4.4.16
Anthony Slater: “With rest paramount in the season’s final week, Sunday set up as,
potentially, the Thunder’s last real test before the playoffs arrive. Consider the results concerning. On a national stage, OKC’s offense wilted down the stretch again, allowing the desperate Rockets to pull away for a 118-110 win. It was the Thunder’s league-leading 13th defeat after entering the fourth quarter with a lead. Seven of those have come since the All-Star break.”
Calvin Watkins of ESPN.com: “The Rockets’ best player and leading scorer will become the main recruiter this summer in the franchise’s quest to sign Kevin Durant, whom Harden played with for three seasons in Oklahoma City. Selling points for the Rockets include no state income tax in Texas, ability to team up with one of the league’s best scorers in Harden, and a bigger city with more marketing opportunities compared to Oklahoma City.”
Ananth Pandian of CBSSports.com: “However, Durant has shown that he doesn’t need a big city like Houston to become a big marketable star. In Oklahoma City, he is the face of the franchise and has amassed several national sponsorships with companies like Nike and Sonic. He is one of the top players in league and has crafted his own stardom in Oklahoma City, where he has always shown loyalty to. Also, Durant currently plays with Russell Westbrook, a dynamic scorer and playmaker who, like Harden, is one of the top guards in the NBA. The Thunder are also a better team overall than the Rockets, and are more well suited to contend for a championship.”
Berry Tramel: “Houston has the easiest remaining schedule: at Dallas, home against Phoenix, home against the Lakers, at Minnesota, home against Sacramento. The Rockets’ rally to beat the Thunder on Sunday was huge for Houston’s playoff hopes. With a loss, the Rockets would have been two games behind Dallas and Utah. Now, Houston is in decent shape. In fact, OKC’s loss to the Rocket could mean the Thunder is headed back to Houston for the first round of the playoffs. Best guess of the playoff finishes: 5. Portland; 6. Houston; 7. Utah; 8. Dallas; 9. Memphis.”
Joe Lacob is hilarious: “We’ve crushed [other teams] on the basketball court, and we’re going to for years because of the way we’ve built this team. We’re light-years ahead of probably every other team in structure, in planning, in how we’re going to go about things.”
Sam Eilfing of Deadspin shreds that: “This isn’t necessarily some revolution in business, though on the part of Lacob and his crew. Other astonishing, disruptive moves they made to rehab an inexplicably moribund franchise that had foundered despite being in one of America’s richest and most desirable urban areas included: Making the 50-year-old arena nicer inside. Getting better food for fans there. Planning to move to a nicer arena with more space for things other than basketball that make money. Hiring Jerry West, a long-established managerial maven in the sport, to advise. For that bleeding edge innovator, they had to look exactly as far as the NBA logo. You or I could make most of these moves if we just asked ourselves What Would Mark Cuban Do?”
