Here is pretty much all you need to know about this game. In the last 5:30 we scored 2 points, both from the free throw line. This is a common theme with our club and has been all season long, we just go through such long extended droughts that I don’t care how good your defense is you are not going to win games doing that.
You won’t beat bad teams playing like that and you are lucky if you don’t get a 20 point loss put on you by really good teams, which Oklahoma City is.
There is no shame in losing to the Thunder, I think if we were all honest if we looked at the schedule prior to the season even with Danny here we all pretty much had this written off as a loss. But its games like this that make those Toronto, Minnesota & Charlotte games so hard to swallow.
We have now dropped to 9th in the East and sadly two full games back of Chicago for the Central division lead. I know it’s early in the season but we have to be mindful of our position if we want any kind of home court for the playoffs playing a lower seed instead of being the sacrificial lamb to one of the top 3 teams.
There really isn’t a lot to say about this game, we actually didn’t play badly. I mean sure there were things I would like to have seen us do differently, like not benching Lance to end the game. But at the end of the day Durant & Westbrook just took over, like they do against several teams.
Yes we all saw what happened to Roy, again. I was very surprised when Frank benched him for the rest of the game in favor of Ian. I wasn’t opposed to it mind you but I was surprised.
At this point in time the only thing we can do is wait for this to pass and just pray that this is not the new normal for Roy.
Here is how pathetic our bench has been all season. I have to look at this 8 point game from Gerald Green and pretend like this was a good game for him. I mean in the grand scheme of things he didn’t play poorly although I don’t feel he did anything to merit playing at the end of the game. But I think the expectations’ coming into the season was a little higher than this.
West was his usual problematic self for our club and Tyler was his usual ineffective self as well. This is a trend for both players with the later not being a good thing.
Oh speaking of the bench did you know that Kevin Martin by himself outscored our entire bench? It’s true he had 24 and our entire bench produced 20 points.
Tonight let’s just do the good the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
David West once again produced for our club. He ran out of gas at the end of the day and only contributed 2 points in the 4th (I think) but OKC did a very good job of denying him the ball and when he did get it they rushed two defenders at him to make him give it up quickly. I have a real concern for the min. he is having to absorb right now, I can’t blame Frank at all because honestly the guy is our only real consistent scorer and Hansbrough has been absolute garbage lately. But I just don’t know how long he can continue at this pace.
Paul George had another good night playing against one of the premier players in the NBA. I don’t care that he got blocked by Ibaka, what I do care about is that he had the tenacity to drive and attempt to ram that down Ibaka throat. It’s the NBA your going to get blocked but more often than not you can end up at the line or if not you will have a spectacular dunk or miss either way. I know he is going to get a lot of credit for what he did on Durant in the first half and he should but there were a few times I saw Lance on Durant and it worked out just as well. BTW that fast break he ran with Lance was superb.
Lance Stephenson had a really good game. I have no idea why he was not in there at the end instead of Green. We desperately needed someone who could make something out of nothing in that case and Lance is one of those types of players. Frank may have been afraid that he is also one of those types of players who will make a massive mistake as well but in this case I think the tradeoff would have justified it. Either way I was proud of Lance for recognizing that Martin is a horrid defender and attacked him whenever he could. Also as I said above there were a few times that Lance got Durant on a switch and honestly I can’t think of one time Durant burnt him. Good overall game from Lance.
The Bad:
Tyler Hansbrough was just brutal. Last season they would let him and West play together so that often times Tyler had almost 20 in a lot of games. This year if he gets 12 he’s lucky and often times we are not. I guess at the end of the day he is what he is and every so many games he will drop a gem of a game on you where he comes in and causes havoc in the paint and draws fouls. But those games are getting fewer and fewer and farther between games.
By all rights I want to put D.J. Augustin here because once again he had 2-1 turnover to assist ratio. But he did manage to slop up a couple of Tyler type crap shots that went in so I guess for him that constitutes some form of success.
The Ugly:
I know that we all want to put DJ out to pasture but in all honesty I wonder if it isn’t time to give Pendegraph or preferably Plumlee some run at the backup 4 spot for a few min. a game just to see what we can get. I know it will never happen but honestly I’m tired of waiting for consistency from Tyler.
Ha, bet you thought you were in for some AC/DC
You won’t beat bad teams playing like that and you are lucky if you don’t get a 20 point loss put on you by really good teams, which Oklahoma City is.
There is no shame in losing to the Thunder, I think if we were all honest if we looked at the schedule prior to the season even with Danny here we all pretty much had this written off as a loss. But its games like this that make those Toronto, Minnesota & Charlotte games so hard to swallow.
We have now dropped to 9th in the East and sadly two full games back of Chicago for the Central division lead. I know it’s early in the season but we have to be mindful of our position if we want any kind of home court for the playoffs playing a lower seed instead of being the sacrificial lamb to one of the top 3 teams.
There really isn’t a lot to say about this game, we actually didn’t play badly. I mean sure there were things I would like to have seen us do differently, like not benching Lance to end the game. But at the end of the day Durant & Westbrook just took over, like they do against several teams.
Yes we all saw what happened to Roy, again. I was very surprised when Frank benched him for the rest of the game in favor of Ian. I wasn’t opposed to it mind you but I was surprised.
At this point in time the only thing we can do is wait for this to pass and just pray that this is not the new normal for Roy.
Here is how pathetic our bench has been all season. I have to look at this 8 point game from Gerald Green and pretend like this was a good game for him. I mean in the grand scheme of things he didn’t play poorly although I don’t feel he did anything to merit playing at the end of the game. But I think the expectations’ coming into the season was a little higher than this.
West was his usual problematic self for our club and Tyler was his usual ineffective self as well. This is a trend for both players with the later not being a good thing.
Oh speaking of the bench did you know that Kevin Martin by himself outscored our entire bench? It’s true he had 24 and our entire bench produced 20 points.
Tonight let’s just do the good the bad and the ugly.
The Good:
David West once again produced for our club. He ran out of gas at the end of the day and only contributed 2 points in the 4th (I think) but OKC did a very good job of denying him the ball and when he did get it they rushed two defenders at him to make him give it up quickly. I have a real concern for the min. he is having to absorb right now, I can’t blame Frank at all because honestly the guy is our only real consistent scorer and Hansbrough has been absolute garbage lately. But I just don’t know how long he can continue at this pace.
Paul George had another good night playing against one of the premier players in the NBA. I don’t care that he got blocked by Ibaka, what I do care about is that he had the tenacity to drive and attempt to ram that down Ibaka throat. It’s the NBA your going to get blocked but more often than not you can end up at the line or if not you will have a spectacular dunk or miss either way. I know he is going to get a lot of credit for what he did on Durant in the first half and he should but there were a few times I saw Lance on Durant and it worked out just as well. BTW that fast break he ran with Lance was superb.
Lance Stephenson had a really good game. I have no idea why he was not in there at the end instead of Green. We desperately needed someone who could make something out of nothing in that case and Lance is one of those types of players. Frank may have been afraid that he is also one of those types of players who will make a massive mistake as well but in this case I think the tradeoff would have justified it. Either way I was proud of Lance for recognizing that Martin is a horrid defender and attacked him whenever he could. Also as I said above there were a few times that Lance got Durant on a switch and honestly I can’t think of one time Durant burnt him. Good overall game from Lance.
The Bad:
Tyler Hansbrough was just brutal. Last season they would let him and West play together so that often times Tyler had almost 20 in a lot of games. This year if he gets 12 he’s lucky and often times we are not. I guess at the end of the day he is what he is and every so many games he will drop a gem of a game on you where he comes in and causes havoc in the paint and draws fouls. But those games are getting fewer and fewer and farther between games.
By all rights I want to put D.J. Augustin here because once again he had 2-1 turnover to assist ratio. But he did manage to slop up a couple of Tyler type crap shots that went in so I guess for him that constitutes some form of success.
The Ugly:
I know that we all want to put DJ out to pasture but in all honesty I wonder if it isn’t time to give Pendegraph or preferably Plumlee some run at the backup 4 spot for a few min. a game just to see what we can get. I know it will never happen but honestly I’m tired of waiting for consistency from Tyler.
Ha, bet you thought you were in for some AC/DC
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