Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder preview (Game 4 of 82)

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durant westbrook thunder mavericks

  • When: Wednesday, 06 November 2013 at 8:30 PM CST
  • Where: Chesapeake Energy Arena, Oklahoma City, OK

Three words come to mind when I think of this game: Return to normalcy. For the past 6 months, Thunder fans have been living on the edge regarding our present and our future. We’ve seen what life is like without Westbrook and we’ve seen Westbrook (surprisingly) come back for the home opener on Sunday. Now it feels normal. A primetime game with the whole band together against a rival. To me, the NBA season starts today.

The Oklahoma City Thunder come into this game with a record of 2-1, after what can only be described as a whirlwind first week. They looked good, but not great, in their opener against Utah. Then, in Minnesota, crews are still trying to pick up the mess that was left behind by the shellacking the Thunder received at the hand of the Timberwolves. And then Westbrook returned to provide a spark at home against the surprisingly resilient Phoenix Suns. The week was like the recordings of a seismograph: up and down, up and down. But alas, the Thunder came out relatively unscathed and have had a couple of days between games to practice with a full compliment of players.

The regional rivalry between the Thunder and Dallas Mavericks begins tonight in Oklahoma City. The Thunder won all 4 games against Dallas last season, and have won 10 straight games against the Mavs, to include the playoffs. While it may seem to currently be a one-sided rivalry, two of the games last season went to overtime and a third was only a 6 point victory for OKC. Regardless, when it comes to regional rivalry games, you can usually throw records out the window.

The Opponent

mavericks nowitzki ellis calderon marion dalembert

Coming into this game, the Mavericks are 3-1, and are surprisingly one of the top offenses in the league. Surprising, not because of the personnel, but because of how quickly the new parts have assimilated into an offensive force. The Mavs are still led by forward Dirk Nowitzki, who seems to be recovered from the myriad of ailments that plagued him last season. The Mavs’ reassembled backcourt seems to be what is spear-heading the offense. Shooting guard Monta Ellis has been very efficient in the first 4 games of the season, averaging 25 ppg on 53% FG shooting. The other half of the back court, Jose Calderon, has struggled mightily offensively, but has done a good job orchestrating the offense. Off the bench, the Mavs are led by veterans Vince Carter and Dejuan Blair. Continue reading Dallas Mavericks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder preview (Game 4 of 82) →

Oklahoma City Thunder at Utah Jazz Preview (Game 1 of 82)

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durant favors thunder jazz nba

  • When: Wednesday, 30 October 2013 at 8:00 PM CST
  • Where: EnergySolutions Arena, Salt Lake City, Utah

It’s finally here. BIG is ON! The wins and losses count from here on out. The MVP campaign starts now (Kevin Durant). The All-Star bids start now (Durant, Russell Westbrook, and Serge Ibaka). The Defensive Player of the Year bid starts now (Serge Ibaka and Thabo Sefolosha). The 6th Man of the Year bid starts now (Reggie Jackson). The Rookie of the Year bid starts now (Steven Adams). The Coach of the Year bid starts now (Scott Brooks). The NBA championship process starts now. And it couldn’t get here quick enough!

fisher perkins burks thunder jazz

The Oklahoma City Thunder open up their season against the Utah Jazz on the road. The Jazz are in the beginning stages of a rebuild and will probably be one of the bottom tier teams in the Western Conference, if not the league. The Thunder won the season series last year 3-1, but this is a completely different Jazz team. Continue reading Oklahoma City Thunder at Utah Jazz Preview (Game 1 of 82) →

Oklahoma City Thunder at Fenerbahce Ulker Preview

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durant reggie jackson thunder

  • When: Saturday, 05 October 2013 at 8:00 AM CST
  • Where: Fenerbahce Ulker Sport Arena, Istanbul, Turkey

The time has finally arrived. After getting spoiled with 2 trips to the Western Conference Finals and 1 trip to the NBA Finals, last season’s second round exit made the offseason seems exponentially longer. But thankfully, the basketball gods listened to one of our prayers and gave us the first preseason game of the season (at 8:00 am CST, to boot).

The Oklahoma City Thunder will be playing Fenerbahce Ulker, one of the premier teams in Turkey. Its kind of cool when you think that Oklahoma City didn’t have a team 6 years ago and now, they are opening up the league’s preseason schedule in Turkey as one of their premier teams. The Thunder have a lot of work to do with Russell Westbrook being out for at least the first month of the season. They have to incorporate a couple new players and have to implement a couple young players into the rotation. Work aside though, I hope they take this experience (on the road, together) and build a ton of chemistry that will last them throughout the season.

bo ulker

Regarding FB Ulker, there’s nothing much I can tell you about the team. Their point guard, Bo McCalebb (pictured above) is not Turkish. He’s from New Orleans. Their starting small forward is Linas Kleiza, who was a pretty good player when he was in the league with the Denver Nuggets and the Toronto Raptors. He was usually used as a spark off the bench and could quickly catch fire from the outside. Ulker has a couple players that have been drafted by NBA teams, but they have yet to play a game in the league. Izzet Turkyilmaz was drafted by the Denver Nuggets in the 2nd round of the 2012 draft and Bojan Bogdanovic was drafted by the Miami Heat in the 2nd round of the 2011 draft. Continue reading Oklahoma City Thunder at Fenerbahce Ulker Preview →

Spinning the Westbrook Setback

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russell westbrook chandler parsons thunder rockets

Everything was a go. There may have been a missed game here or there to begin the season, but everything was set for Russell Westbrook to return from his torn meniscus. According to anyone from the Thunder organization who dared to speak, Westbrook was on schedule with his rehab and was starting to mix in some practice time with the team.

But then the news dropped on October 1st, that Westbrook would be needing arthroscopic knee surgery and would be out another 8-10 weeks (a.k.a. the first 4-6 weeks of the season). He had recently been suffering swelling in the knee and the team decided to find the source of the inflammation. It turns out that the meniscus had healed properly, but one of the stitches that was holding the meniscus in place had gotten loose and was bothering the joint to the point of inflammation. If that is truly the case, then that is a bit of good news shrouded in the midst of bad news.

As the saying goes, “when life gives you lemons, attack Patrick Beverly.” What? That’s NOT how the saying goes? Oh, okay. Oh, yeah, I remember now. When life gives you lemons, make some lemonade. Would you rather have Westbrook in uniform or on the bench in street clothes? Of course you’d want him on the floor. But considering the circumstances, this may be a blessing in disguise. Here are a few ways, as hard as it may be to imagine them now, that this latest setback could be beneficial for the Thunder come playoff time.

1. It’s October, not April.

From all accounts, Westbrook’s meniscus healed properly and he was on schedule to return before the inflammation occurred. But, there was still the possibility that he would miss some time in the beginning of the season. It’s better that this occurred now, and not in the middle of the season. I would rather the team treat the first half of the season as an extended training camp (assimilating Russell, acclimating the rookies and the young guys, and setting up a consistent rotation) than to have a hiccup happen in February that completely throws the chemistry of the team off heading into the playoffs.

2. More starting and crunch-time experience for Reggie Jackson.

Jackson showed last season what he is capable of. When Westbrook went out with his initial injury in the playoffs, Jackson plugged into the starting lineup almost seamlessly. If he was learning on the fly, he was, indeed, an apt student. In the 9 games that he started in the playoffs, Jackson posted per game averages of 15.3 points, 3.7 assists, 5.3 rebounds, and only 2 turnovers on 47.2% FG shooting and 89.7% FT shooting. And most of it was done against the Memphis Grizzlies, the best defensive team in the league.

reggie jackson playoffs

Another component that became apparent was that Jackson was not scared of the moment. On several occasions he had to either ice a game or aid in a comeback from the free throw line. He was nearly perfect from the line in those situations. The stat line Jackson put up is very comparable to the stats Westbrook put up in his first 2 seasons. Jackson’s assists should increase with more familiarity and his shot selection should get better. Continue reading Spinning the Westbrook Setback →

5 for 5: The Rivalries

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harden sefolosha durant thunder rockets

5 for 5: The Longest Shortest Season  |  5 for 5: Tragedies, Courtrooms, and Beginnings  |  5 for 5: The Run  |  5 for 5: The Thunder’s Godfather

This past season, the Oklahoma City Thunder completed their 5th season in the state of Oklahoma. In a world dominated by round numbers, getting to the midway point is always a cause for celebration. In any relationship, you look back at key moments that made it possible to arrive at certain anniversary marks. In the next few weeks heading into training camp, I’ll be looking at 5 defining moments that made it possible for the Thunder to not only roar into the Plains, but also to do it in winning fashion.

For the third part in this series, I wanted to focus on the rivalries. Sports are only as good as the competition they incite. Playing driveway basketball against your kids when they are 5 years of age can quickly get boring (although palming misdirected shots in midair like you’re Serge Ibaka can be entertaining for at least an hour or so). But, try playing your kids when they are 18 years old and have had 12 years of playing experience. Then it becomes an entirely different ballgame.

When it comes to competition, I’ve always looked at the career of Floyd Mayweather Jr. with a sliver of disappointment. That he’s a great boxer with arguably the best defense in the history of boxing is without question. The issue that I’ve had with his career has been the level of competition of his opponents. Now, I’m not saying that falls squarely on Mayweather. The guys in his weight classes have not been particularly consistent in the past decade. He’s also “luckily” scheduled the right fights at the right times, choosing to fight boxers that were either on the downward slide of their career (Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosley) or fighters that were too inexperienced to compete with him at the time of their fight (Canelo Alvarez and Victor Ortiz). He’s never had that one opponent that defined him. Mike Tyson had Evander Holyfield. Arturo Gatti had Mickey Ward. Mayweather has…… (and therein lies the problem with his career).

mayweather alvarez boxing

If fans are the life blood of sports, then rivalries are the engines that keep them running.  You naturally root against your opponent because they are competing against you and you want to win. Pretty simple concept. But if you add something more to that competitive fire, it can act like an accelerant, creating an even bigger blaze. Rivalries, and the differing reasons for them, can be that spark. When it comes to the Thunder, I’ve categorized their rivals under 4 different categories.

1. Regional Foes

Geography and competition are probably the easiest ways to breed a rivalry. Whether it’s an intracity game between two high schools or a game between professional sports teams 200 miles apart, that desire to be superior to those closest to you is an innate characteristic of the human psyche. Even if the two teams aren’t on equal footing at the time of the game, the rivalry aspect of the game often lends it to be a close affair. Continue reading 5 for 5: The Rivalries →

5 for 5: The Longest Shortest Season

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thunder western conference champs

5 for 5: Tragedies, Courtrooms, and Beginnings | 5 for 5: The Rivalries  |  5 for 5: The Run  |  5 for 5: The Thunder’s Godfather

This past season, the Oklahoma City Thunder completed their 5th season in the state of Oklahoma. In a world dominated by round numbers, getting to the midway point is always a cause for celebration. In any relationship, you look back at key moments that made it possible to arrive at certain anniversary marks. In the next few weeks heading into training camp, I’ll be looking at 5 defining moments that made it possible for the Thunder to not only roar into the Plains, but also to do it in winning fashion.

The first part of this series focused on the beginnings of the Thunder organization in Oklahoma  City. For the second part of the series, I want to focus on what was the apex for these first five years of Thunder basketball, the 2012 NBA Finals. For a little comparative perspective, there are 9 NBA teams (in their current city/team format) that have never reached the NBA Finals. The Toronto Raptors, Atlanta Hawks, Sacramento Kings, Memphis Grizzlies, Charlotte Bobcats, Minnesota Timberwolves, Los Angeles Clippers, Denver Nuggets, and New Orleans Hornets/Pelicans have never tasted the fine champagne of a conference championship. I’m excluding the Brooklyn Nets from the list because they’ve only been in Brooklyn for one season and went to the Finals as the New Jersey Nets twice. The proximity of Brooklyn, NY to Newark, NJ (about 15 miles apart) negates a huge change of fan base because of distance. I’m also excluding the Washington Wizards because they made it to the Finals as the Bullets, but decided to change the team’s name in 1997 due to the negative connotation between actual bullets and WashingtonDC being mentioned in the 90’s as the murder capital of the US.

The road to the Finals that season was like the Grateful Dead’s greatest hits album; that is to say a long, strange trip. To begin with, it was a season that almost never was. Although this lockout never reached the DEFCON 4 levels the ’98-‘99 lockout did, it was still nerve-wracking to watch every labor meeting end with the two sides having separate press conferences to disparage the other side. It was like watching your parents, after a nasty divorce, arguing over your custody.

nba lockout

When you are a fan of a team that is drastically improving and just entering the prime of its championship window, the last thing you want is a work stoppage. Anything that cuts into a year of your team’s development when you are close to becoming a perennial contender is the ultimate of detriments. The chemistry built from the previous seasons basically gets thrown out the window if players are allowed to sit for 15-18 months with no access to team coaches or trainers. Not to mention, the veteran players would be a year older and there would be a ton of questions regarding roster moves.

But alas, on November 26th, 2011, after months of hearing about BRI, luxury tax, hard caps, and mid-level exceptions, cooler heads prevailed and an agreement was reached between the NBA and the players’ union. Instead of playing an entire 82 game schedule, the regular season would be trimmed to 66 games with the first day of the season beginning on Christmas. If seeing your team in the NBA Finals is Christmas in June, then seeing the NBA come back from a lockout was, literally, Christmas on Christmas. Continue reading 5 for 5: The Longest Shortest Season →

DeAndre Liggins Arrested

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Oklahoma City Thunder guard DeAndre Liggins was arrested late this afternoon on domestic abuse charges. Police say Liggins assaulted a woman believed to be his girlfriend. Officers booked him into Oklahoma County jail on complaints of domestic abuse with a deadly weapon and domestic assault in the presence of a minor. No word yet from the Thunder on this matter.

This is the mugshot:

Deandre Liggins mugshot 2

Andre Roberson, Employee of the Month

Offseason Beat, Random Thoughts, , ,

andre roberson thunder

When I heard that Thunder rookie Andre Roberson had agreed to collect only 80% of his first year salary, I thought he was crazy. I mean, he’s a professional athlete coming into his first year in the league. There are a myriad of things that can happen from here on out that can affect his playing future. He could go outside to get the mail and get hit by a passerby on a bike. He could completely shred his knee playing two hand touch football on the beach. You get the picture. My thinking is that, as an athlete, you better optimize any opportunity you have to make money because nothing is guaranteed past the first two years of your contract (if you are a first round pick). So for Roberson to leave up to 40% of his salary on the table (a rookie can receive up to 120% of his possible salary), is quite arbitrary to the ethos of professional athletes.

But then I went into a my local Staples, and it all made sense to me…

roberson

Many athletes go the length of their careers without having a back-up plan. But for Roberson, the NBA is his back-up plan. The man is already vested at Staples. That was easy.

5 for 5: Tragedies, Courtrooms, and Beginnings

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kd russ

5 for 5: The Longest Shortest Season  |  5 for 5: The Rivalries  |  5 for 5: The Run  |  5 for 5: The Thunder’s Godfather

This past season, the Oklahoma City Thunder completed their 5th season in the state of Oklahoma. In a world dominated by round numbers, getting to the midway point is always a cause for celebration. In any relationship, you look back at key moments that made it possible to arrive at certain anniversary marks. In the next few weeks heading into training camp, I’ll be looking at 5 defining moments that made it possible for the Thunder to not only roar into the Plains, but also to do it in winning fashion.

For the first defining moment, you have to, of course, start at the beginning. But, it’s not the beginning that you think. While the Thunder were established in 2008, the road to having them in OKC began in December 1994. It was during that time that Timothy McVeigh visited and decided that the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building would be the site of his mayhem.

After meticulously planning and gathering the necessary materials, McVeigh, and his accomplice Terry Nichols, put their plan into action for April of 1995. They rented a Ryder moving truck on April 15th in Kansas and packed it with its deadly payload on the 17th and 18th. The next day, they drove down to Oklahoma City where, at 9:02 AM, they detonated the 4,800 pound monster that resided inside of the Ryder truck. The blast completely dismantled the north side of the building leaving countless people injured and 168 dead in its wake. It was the deadliest terroristic attack on US soil that the nation had seen up to that point.

okc bomb

Once the smoke cleared though, the choice was clear. We would not stand to be known by the evil of the tragedy, but by the fortitude with which we recovered. We chose to be known by the way we rose together, instead of by the way we momentarily got knocked down. That mindset, which comes naturally to Oklahomans, galvanized us to remember those lost, while also promising them that we would rise stronger than before. The possibilities were there, but the question was how would be we get there?

While the Metropolitan Area Projects Plan (MAPS) had already been approved for by the beginning of 1994, the bombing acted as a catalyst to make MAPS a rousing success. One of the things that MAPS brought with it was a state of the art arena called the Ford Center that could host concerts and sporting events, especially hockey and basketball. Opening in 2002, the Ford Center served its purpose hosting top notch concerts, preseason basketball games, and minor league hockey. Continue reading 5 for 5: Tragedies, Courtrooms, and Beginnings →

Welcome back Fish

Offseason Beat, ,

derek fisher thunder jeremy lin rockets

The Oklahoma City Thunder have announced that they have resigned Derek Fisher for the 2013-14 season. According to reports, the deal is for the veteran minimum, which will not put the Thunder past the luxury tax line. Fisher has been a late season addition for the team the past two seasons, while providing perimeter scoring off the bench. According to his Instagram page, this will be Fisher’s 18th and final season in the NBA. With this move, the Thunder’s roster sits at 15 heading into training camp. The only question that remains is what number will Fisher wear?