Thursday Bolts – 11.11.10

A pretty stellar feature from The Kansan on Cole Aldrich: “Step one is getting his first paycheck. Former Kansas player and current Thunder teammate Nick Collison said Aldrich should get it soon — sometime in November. But Aldrich has already found a place to live — incidentally a few blocks from where Bill Self grew up and went to high school in Edmond, Okla., about 15 minutes away from the Ford Center.”

Cole Aldrich is blogging for Dime: “We really didn’t have any rookie hazing. With Kevin [Durant] and Russell [Westbrook] and few older vets, they haven’t made me do anything crazy. I pretty much throw on the showers after practice, give them their towels. Minor things. They’re mostly lenient. I do try and do things out of my way though to please them and give them that respect. Probably the craziest thing I had to do was during training camp. It was Kevin’s birthday, and I had one of our team managers go and get party hats and kazoos and we all sang him happy birthday with kazoos.”

David Thorpe has Aldrich ranked 26th.

NESN on KD: “Durant may never be a Shaq or LeBron, but he could add a little “passion” and “cool” to the way he presents himself. Everybody respects humble and understated, but if Durant wants companies to come to Oklahoma City, he’ll have to give them a little more D-Wade and a little less Tim Duncan.”

PBT on last night: “No Andre Igoudala, out injured for the Sixers. Plenty of Russell Westbrook abusing Lou Williams and everyone else, he dropped 31. Jrue Holliday acquitted himself nicely on offense with 17 and 11 dimes, but did we mention Westbrook did what he wanted on offense?”

Philadunkia: “If I told you this information minutes before tipoff you would have gambled away your life savings that Thunder would have at least, at least won by 15 points and certainly covered the 11 point line Vegas put on this contest.  I hate using the term moral victory more than the next guy but there are some very positive things to take away from Tuesday night’s loss.”

Liberty Ballers: “Durant followed in Westbrook’s footsteps as he too was getting to the basket what seemed like any time he wanted to. Nocioni and Turner did a pretty good job not allowing him to come off screens for a catch-and-shoot, but because they committed to getting in his face and not allowing any separation for jumpers, he was able to use his quickness and absurd length to take the ball to the hole. Durant, doing what he normally does, was able to get to the line 14 times, hitting every attempt. 45% of his 31 points came from the free throw line. Wow.”

Darnell Mayberry: “What I didn’t understand was why Thunder coach Scott Brooks put Nenad Krstic on Elton Brand to start the game instead of Ibaka. Krstic is a better position defender, yeah, but it seems like Ibaka could have used his length and athleticism to better contest Brand’s shot. But Brand got going early, making his first three shots. The Thunder is fortunate that flame didn’t grow into an uncontrollable fire. Ibaka later started the second half on Brand.”

Kelly Dwyer Behind the Box Score: “OKC, though, had it. Another standout game from Russell Westbrook, who managed 31 points, 12 assists, and a dodgy seven turnovers. Kevin Durant is still shooting below 40 percent on the season but he made 16 of 16 free throws on his way to 31 of his own, and once again Serge Ibaka (12 points, seven rebounds, four blocks) seemed to be everywhere when the Thunder needed him the most.”