Wednesday Bolts – 4.27.11
Ben Hochman of the Denver Post wondering how Russ will respond: “Now, Westbrook is a competitor and an angry, fiery dude on the court. He also feeds off the home crowd, as we saw in the first two games, notably the opener, when he poured in 31 points (on 23 shots). So it will be fascinating to watch how the Nuggets defend him in Game 5 on Wednesday, be it with Arron Afflalo, Ty Lawson, double-teams, etc.”
Beckley Mason trying to decipher why Rose and Westbrook are treated differently: “At the end of games, Rose does an excellent job of controlling tempo and makes very mature pass/shoot decisions. It helps that his go to move is going to the rim, but he’s made a number of nice kick-outs, notably to Kyle Korver, for big, late shots. Part of the reason this works so well is because everyone in the gym, on both teams, knows that Rose wants to penetrate. Korver knows where to be. If Westbrook breaks off a play for Durant because KD gets muscled off his cut, it’s less likely that his Thunder teammates will be perfectly positioned to take advantage of Westbrook’s improvisation.”
Berry Tramel says to back off Russell Westbrook: “So sure, it would be good to get Durant more than 18 shots. And James Harden more than five. But that’s on them as much as Westbrook. Harden did a lot of standing around, with and without the ball. One thing you can say about Westbrook, good or bad, win or lose, he doesn’t stand around. “Russell didn’t play well,” Brooks said. “He settled for his jumpshot too many times. I don’t look at Russell’s game and say the sky is falling. He didn’t have a good game. That happens.” Brooks said he hadn’t mentioned the 30 shots to Westbrook. “Russell plays in attack mode,” Brooks said. “He’s an aggressive player. We don’t want to take away his aggressiveness to the basket.” Amen, brother.”
Interview with John Hollinger: “They actually have continued improving more than I expected. I thought as big a step as they made last year, they were going to kind of need to consolidate a little bit those gains. I thought this year was actually going to be rougher than it actually ended up being. Because a lot of times when teams make a big one-year jump like the Thunder did, it’s very hard to continue progressing forward. It’s called the Plexiglas Principle. Most teams that make big one-year jumps actually come back to earth a little bit the next year. So for the Thunder to continue to improving their win total was very impressive.”
KD is from DC and that’s all you need to know.
Jackie MacMullan of ESPN Boston with a great piece on Jeff Green: “In short, Green remains the most skilled player in the transaction with Oklahoma City. Ah, but does that make him the best player? The ongoing vigil for Perkins is understandable. He was a hard-working, intimidating, emotional leader who was beloved by almost everyone. Whether that offset his standing as an offensive liability remains to be seen. Perkins’ trademark scowl and forearm shiver played well in these parts. The blank “nobody’s home” facade of Green isn’t quite as enticing to a sports city that adores Terry O’Reilly almost as much as Bobby Orr.”
Rob Mahoney for ESPN.com on what happens tonight: “Three more series come to a close. Miami, Memphis and OKC all smell blood in the water, and though San Antonio may deserve the benefit of the doubt, I don’t see the Spurs fully recovering from Memphis’ blitzkrieg in order to make the necessary adjustments. Philly and Denver, meanwhile, were merely delaying the inevitable with their Game 4 victories.”
Holly Mackenzie for TBJ on tweeting and bookbags: “From backpacks to broken jumpers, last night’s Twitter conversations served to further the conversation about sports and social media. We’re all communicating within the same medium now, even if some of us live in a world where deciding to wear a backpack creates a ripple over the internet. Having more access to professional athletes has been argued to be both good and bad, but from where I tweet, anything that reminds us that these guys are humans — and sometimes college-aged humans — is a good thing.”
The Nuggets found some confidence.
Nice little name drop of DT from Bill Simmons at 26:40 of his podcast with Jonah Keri.
KD on the “heated” argument during a timeout of Game 4: “We’ve been doing that all season,” Durant said. “That’s a part of a basketball team. You’re not going to always be happy all the time. … Sometimes you have to scream at guys for them to get the point. That’s what we were doing … It’s not on him,” Durant said. “It’s a team effort. When we win it’s not just because of Russell. So when we lose, it’s not just because of him. It’s a team effort. That’s why we lost.”