Post Game Thread - vs Oklahoma City Thunder, Home

[bobheckler]

3 game road trip, first game back and shitty refs = loss.  Ok, maybe it wasn't quite that cut-and-dried but the reffing was absurd.  I know the reffing has gotten worse but doesn't it seem like the decline turned into a powerdive after Adam Silver took over from The Great Dictator?

Russell Westbrook is a force of nature.  Didn't hurt that he was getting superstar calls.  Still, gotta give it to him.  He took 25 out of OKC's 80 fgas and shot over 50%.  He also had 11 assists, so you couldn't just double him up and force him to give it up, he'd hit someone for a layup.  The MVP is a horse race between him and James Harden.  Westbrook is averaging a triple-double on the season.  The only other player to ever do that was The Big O.  My vote goes to Westy.  He plays the other side of the ball too and Har-en (no "D") does not.

The luxury Billy Donovan has of bring Enes Kanter off the bench.  He was a starting center in Utah, makes over $17M/year.  Pretty good quality for a bench player.  Still can't play defense but he is SO tough on offense.  When I look at him I think "Jahlil Okafor".  Great offense, especially down low, very mediocre defense.  Okafor is in his last contract year, next year he is an RFA, so he will be in the same price range next year (unless this new CBA changes that).  Imagine Okafor coming off of our bench, that's Enes Kanter for OKC.  I don't think Okafor would come off our bench, or anybody else's, but that's what it is like for OKC having Enes Kanter.

Sabonis is averaging 6.6ppg this season.  He got 20 last night and there really wasn't much we could do about them either.  He was 7-7 to start the game and dropping 3s like Ray Allen.  WTF!!  He's shooting 44.4% on the season but he is only average 2.4 3pt fgas/game, last night he was 4-6.  What a game by the rookie.  Ok, so he isn't his father, but who is?  Even Bill Walton in his prime would have had trouble with Arvydas.

That was OKC.  Westbrook with 45, Sabonis with 20 and Kanter with 20.  Nobody else did that much, unless you want to talk about Andre Roberson being the world's worst frito shooter at 29.5%.  Finally, someone who can make Marcus Smart look like Calvin Murphy.

Jae and Kelly were big zeros.  Ok, that is a bit of an exaggeration.  They weren't big zeros, they were big threes.  Jae Crowder had 3 points on 1-6 shooting and Kelly didn't score on 0-1.  In Kelly's defense, he did play good defense on Kanter, I don't think Kanter scored when Kelly was on him (hard to believe.  I might have to go back and look at the play-by-play to confirm that) but he only played 13 minutes total.  Jae Crowder played 32 minutes.  3 points in 32 minutes is, shall we say, unhelpful.

Our entire bench scored 19 points.  What had been a strength is currently a weakness.  The OKC bench should not be outscoring ours, but they did 37-19.  We are TOO overbalanced towards defense.  Jerebko played well but we need more scoring.  Rozier played 8 minutes.  Even Marcus Smart, who is averaging almost 30mpg this season only played 24.  He also shot a very Smart-esque 3-10.  The entertainment Andre Roberson brings to the frito line is Marcus Smart's jump shooting game.

Amir with the best game of the season for him, by far.  He was awake from the tip off.  This is the Amir from last year.  He's great on pnrs, both on offense and defense.  The NBA is a pnr league, why isn't he doing this every game?

We are tied with Charlotte for 3rd and only .5 games ahead of the Knicks. A win tomorrow against them would be a great gift beneath the tree.


http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400899887






bob


.

[cowens/oldschool]

Didn't see the game, went out with family to the movies.

Seems like Crowder isn't having a consistent year offensively and Kelly is Kelly, nuff said. Our perimeter defenders that can be soo good are not able to stop the elite players this year. In a couple more years when Jaylen Brown matures and we get a few more good pieces, we'll be really good.

[bobheckler]

Didn't see the game, went out with family to the movies.

Seems like Crowder isn't having a consistent year offensively and Kelly is Kelly, nuff said. Our perimeter defenders that can be soo good are not able to stop the elite players this year. In a couple more years when Jaylen Brown matures and we get a few more good pieces, we'll be really good.

Hey Cow, Happy Holidays! Don't see you around as much.

We need offense. In a league that is being skewed towards offensive players and refs calling ticky-tack fouls and all that you can have players like DeRozan, who isn't a great defender and is a toothpick, be an All-Star because he can shoot lights-out from mid-range.

We need to trade one of our perimeter defenders for another killer. I'd love a low post player, like Okafor or Noel or Cousins, but we need offense from somewhere.


bob


.

[sinus007]

Hi,
Merry X-Mass and Happy Hanukkah!

I agree with with Bobh. The refs were ridiculous, to say the least. OTOH, it's very hard to win a game when on one end Celtics can't make bunnies and on the other end Westbrook makes 3pts shots as if he stands next to the hoop.
Speaking of which, I can contribute a couple cases of vodka to convince OKC GM to trade Westbrook to Boston.... Do you think it's feasible?

AK

[dboss]

We knew Westbrook would get his.

They won because they have a better big off their bench than we do. Kanter killed us

Our bigs KO, Jerebko and Zeller combined for 4 points and 7 rebpunds.

dboss

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