Tuesday Bolts – 12.10.13

Sean Deveney of Sporting News writes how Thunder fan apparently played a part in a Grizzly coach getting canned: “There was a big guy sitting there next to our bench,” Hecker recalled. “He had to be 6-4, 250 pounds. He kept standing up, and they stand up a lot there in Oklahoma City, I can understand all that. But I said to him, ‘Sir, can you please sit down in a timely fashion because I can’t see the game?’ He says, ‘Who are you?’ I said, ‘I am one of the assistant coaches.’ I told him, I understand standing up, it is exciting, you are in the front row. But he was blocking everybody.”

Kelly Dwyer of BDL on Paul George talking up KD: “Durant didn’t score a single of his 36 points in an isolation set against George, and he didn’t get to the free throw line during a one-on-one move either. He simply run, cut and curled his way to a 14-23 night from the floor that would leave any MVP candidate (whether you’re referring to Durant or George) exhausted, much less one in George who had just contributed a 28-point, six-assist game in a win over San Antonio less than 24 hours earlier. Still … tougher than LeBron?”

Rob Mahoney of SI.com: “It’s unclear exactly what got Durant so riled, though he clearly homed in on his matchup with George and was perhaps looking to affirm his standing as the consensus second-best player in the NBA. Even with all of George’s improvement — the more polished handle, the baffling mid-range accuracy, the even heavier creative workload — any claim of his advancement beyond Durant would be premature at the least. Yet because George is a terrific, rising player on an outstanding team, such claims are inevitably made.”

Perry Jones needs some sauce, yo.

Another day, another absurd trade rumor. The latest is from Sam Amico of FS Ohio, who is batting a solid zero percent on his Thunder trade rumors the past few years. The Thunder very well may be entertaining offers for Jeremy Lamb — I don’t know (though I doubt it).

Sam Smith of Bulls.com: “And that’s after losing James Harden and Kevin Martin. Imagine if they had them and not Kendrick Perkins. And they even had Jeff Green before that. Heck of a scouting department. But having Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook is imposing with a good defense, if not great. Their personnel losses level the playing field and open it up to maybe a dozen other teams, which would not otherwise have been the case.”

KD’s backpack is bowl game swag now.

Marc Stein of ESPN.com has OKC third: “No one’s getting carried away here. The Thunder are well aware Indy was on the second night of a bruising back-to-back on Sunday. They know they’ve only played three road games since Nov. 16. They’re just letting KD and Russ do their thing … and quietly reveling in Reggie Jackson’s progress.”

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com has OKC fourth: “Imagine Dragons got their band’s name watching this team.”

John Schuhmann of NBA.com has OKC second: “The Thunder don’t need to get off to a great start to win a game (they won their four second quarters by a total of 41 points last week), but it’s nice when they do. And in eight first-quarter minutes against the Pacers on Sunday, the OKC starters were a plus-10. Prior to Sunday, the starters were a minus-48 in 181 minutes and the Thunder were the fifth worst team in the first six minutes of games.”

Tom Haberstroh of ESPN.com has KD third in MVP right now: “In five games this month, Durant is averaging 31.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, 4.8 assists, a pair of blocks and a pair of steals along with 55.2/47.4/91.4 shooting splits. His PER so far this month? 36.1 — best in the NBA. Yeah, he’s pretty good at this basketball thing. It feels silly to rank Durant third on an MVP list, but I’d feel worse slotting James and George this low, which says more about the competition than it does about Durant.”