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These two pictures perfectly describe the feelings of Oklahoma City right now.
Yahoo! Box Score
Whew. They did it.
For a while, in the first half, and even in parts of the second half, I was afraid that we were actually going to win.
Look, tonight, one thing and one thing only killed us. The Grizzlies have no marquee big man, so it wasn't defense. It was rebounding. The guys on the WWLS post game show are rarely right, but they were somewhat right on this one. Tonight, we simply had too many turnovers and not enough rebounds. The Grizzlies had 8 turnovers, and we had 15. Kevin Durant was mostly responsible for this. I know he basically carried the team, but he did a really bad job of protecting the ball.
This brings me to my next complaint. The Thunder are relying far, far too much on Kevin Durant. He spend a lot of the time handling the ball, and nearly every time he gets it, he's gonna shoot it. Triple team him if you like, he'll still attempt the turnaround. He needs to dish it off when the shot looks bleak. I don't know how many times I saw Wilkins open on the perimeter. I mean, his statlines are bad because he never gets any plays run for him!
And, to play the old broken record, where's Sear Sene and Johan Petro? I want ot see these guys play? Maybe Wilcox's injury will open the door....
But, again, they only do all of these things if they want to win. And, who wants to do that? Another night, another loss. At least it's consistent. Forgive me for being so brief, but there's not mucvh new I have to say about this game. Big 2nd quarter lead, collapse before the half, mini collapse in the 3rd, and mondo collapse in the 4th as the Thunder get tired and are outwilled by the Grizzlies.
Another day, another dollar.
Getting the dollar, more commonly known as the Thunder Wonder Award, is Russell Westbrook. Look, I know Durant was an offensive monster, but the fact is that we lost the game because of turnovers. Guess who was the source of that problem? Hmmmm....It's not enough to put him into the blunder column, but that combined with his total lack of assists leaves him out of the awards tonight. Anyway, Westbrook had 15 Points, 5-10 Shooting, 3 Rebounds, 6 Assists, and 2 Steals. I used to be really down on this guy, but he's improved every fact of his game so much since soming to the NBA, and he fills up almost every stat column. Except one. He had 0 turnovers.
Pure satisfaction.
The Thunder Down Under goes to who else, Joe Smith. He finally got to take off the facemask tonight, and he looked fantastic in the limited action we got to see him in. 10 Points, 4-8 Shooting, 6 Rebounds, and 2 Assists in over 21 mnutes is really an amazing feat. He needs to be renamed Mr. Efficency.
Chris Wilcox gets the Thunder Blunder tonight not because he was injured, but because he had a really bad 6 minutes. I mean, 4 Points, 2-7 Shooting, and 3 Rebounds is not a good start to get off to, especially for a guy who thrives on offense.
Lastly, the Thunder Plunderer goes to Mike Conley. I know that Orange Juice Mayonnaise and Rudy Gay had better games, but Mike Conley really lead the 4th quarter charge. He had 16 Points (14 in the 4th), 5-8 Shooting, 2 Rebounds, 1 Assists, and 2 Turnovers. I know his numbers don't seem impressive, but when you consider the fact that he beat the Thunder almost single handedly and those stats were gotten in only 20 minutes of playing time, those numbers look a whole lot more impressive.
Next Game: Saturday at the Dallas Mavericks.
Road Trip, anyone?
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