Thursday, December 11, 2008

Same song, second verse

Mrs. Angus & I ventured out to see the Thunder again. Last time they blew a 17 point lead and lost to Phoenix. This time they blew a 21 point lead and lost to the Grizz.

Some observations:

Thunder don't know how to use Durant. At this point, he's a catch and shoot guy and is good in transition. They keep running isolation plays and post ups for him. He is no good with his back to the basket. Since they have absolutely no inside presence (take THAT Chris Wilcox), they can't go inside out at all and it hurts them.

Thunder are hurting at point guard. Earl Watkins just cannot stop himself from driving the lane, jumping into the air and then trying to decide what to do with the ball. Russell Westbrook takes way too long to get the offense started and seems uncomfortable running the show.

OJ Mayo is GOOD. Mrs. Angus commented that he had a super smooth shot and that the ball always seemed like it was going to go in. He's not flashy but he is the real deal. I really like his game.

Mayo and Rudy Gay appear to hate each other. They were fussin' at each other during the game, after which Gay appeared unwilling to pass the ball to Mayo and we could see him grimacing and rolling his eyes when Mayo got the ball in the half court set.

Marc Iavaroni has a strange rotation. He played down the stretch (last 8 or 9 minutes) with one starter, Gay, in the lineup. Kyle Lowery started at the point but Mike Conley finished there and absolutely destroyed the Thunder in the fourth quarter, just like Steve Nash did in the forth quarter of the Phoenix loss.

It's gonna be a long year but we have tickets to see the Cavs, Jazz, Spurs, Lakers (twice) and Wizards, so that should be fun!

1 comment:

uk theses said...

what about some real?? I mean rock. Not soul, jazz and other stuff - some hard as a rock. it could be nice