NBA Basketball Sports Fan Blog

Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals were oddly similar on paper. Both games the Heat played a solid first half and took a fairly comfortable lead into half time. Both games the Thunder were carried back into the game by Kevin Durant. The individual stats of each star player were also similar. Lebron, Wade, Durant and Westbrook all finished with very similar numbers in both games. Chris Bosh and James Harden, who are each considered the third part of the tricycle on their respective teams, had weak performances in Game 1 and strong performances in Game 2. The difference between the two games? The Thunder won Game 1, the Heat won Game 2.

So what happened? The biggest difference between the two games was what happened in the paint. Despite Bosh playing center for most of Game 2, the Thunder shot just 17-49 (35%) on shots in the paint. Compare that to Game 1 where they shot 26-50 (52%) on shots in the paint. In Game 1, they had 56 points in the paint; in Game 2, they had just 32. In Game 3, the Thunder will have to make the Heat pay for playing Bosh at center by continuing to get to the rim. Whether or not they can finish their shots will most likely decide the game and ultimately the series.

While most NBA teams acquire their talent through free agency and trades, the Oklahoma City Thunder took a different approach and it has paid off handsomely for them. The Thunder have built there team almost exclusively through the draft. Their best player on their current team acquired through free agency or trade is either Thabo Sefolosha or Kendrick Perkins who combined to average 10.4 points per game this season.

Their drafting expertise started in 2007 when they drafted the now three time defending scoring champion Kevin Durant 2nd overall. It continued in 2008 when they drafted Russell Westbrook 4th overall despite Westbrook averaging just 12.7 points and 4.3 assists the year before at UCLA. They also used the 24th pick to draft Serge Ibaka from the Republic of Congo. Ibaka had only started playing basketball recently and didn’t speak a word of English. In 2009, they would use the 4th overall pick to select James Harden. These players are now the four leading scorers on the team.

No team’s perfect though, the Thunder have made a few mistakes in the draft. The only mistakes I could find was: 1. In the 2009 draft they traded the draft rights of Rodrigue Beaubois to Dallas for the draft rights to Byron Mullens; 2. In 2010 they traded the rights to Eric Bledsoe to the Clippers for a future protected first round pick (not exactly a mistake yet, but Bledsoe’s been a nice player.); 3. You could argue drafting Cole Aldrich 11th in the 2010 draft was a bad move, but really there wasn’t much after him: There was Avery Bradley who went 19th and would have been a solid bench player for them, Landry Fields who went 39th and really just would have been a younger version of Sefolosha and Lance Stephenson who went 40th and could have made choking signs at Lebron in the Finals.

These mistakes are all minuet though and because of the Thunder’s impeccable drafting abilities they look to possibly have a potential dynasty. There only challenge will be keeping all their drafted players.

Before the season began, this match up would have heavily favored the Thunder. But as the old sports adage goes: that’s why we play the games. This was supposed to be the year that young teams like the Thunder and Heat finally took the reigns from older teams like the Spurs and Celtics. However, it doesn’t look like the old guys are ready to pass the torch quite yet. The Spurs come into the Western Conference Finals riding an 18 game win streak including an 8-0 playoff record. The Thunder also come in hot having lost just one playoff game, but they haven’t looked quite as invincible as the Spurs.

The Thunder are familiar with this situation. Just last year they faced a similar scenario when they squared off against the “supposed to be too old” Mavericks. Dirk Nowitzki and the Mavs made easy work of the young Thunder eliminating them in five games before eventually winning the NBA Championship. The Spurs seem likely to follow the same path as the Mavs as they could certainly make quick work of the Thunder before eventually beating the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals.
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Despite the Lakers outscoring the Nuggets by eight in the fourth quarter and despite 43 points from Kobe Bryant, the Nuggets found a way to stay alive in L.A. But was this loss actually a good thing for the Lakers?

On April 2, Metta World Peace’s elbow connected with James Harden’s beard in a move that would have made Hulk Hogan proud. He was suspended seven games by David Stern meaning he would miss the last regular season game along with six playoff games. Tonight will mark the last game of his suspension.

Once the Lakers win this series they’ll move on to play the Oklahoma City Thunder, a team the Lakers match up terribly with. The Thunder are one of the few teams that can deal with the size of the Lakers and no one on the Lakers can match up with Russell Westbrook. The Thunder also have Kevin Durant, the NBA’s three time scoring leader. Metta is the only Laker who has a chance of containing Durant.

Whether or not the Lakers win tonight, Metta will be back next game. Whether or not he can stay on the court is up to him.

Back when the Thunder were 3-29 last season, the notion of the playoffs coming to Oklahoma City any time soon was unimaginable.

But it was that same miserable stretch that made general manager Sam Presti confident that coach Scott Brooks was the right man to lead his team into the future.

While Oklahoma City struggled to the worst start in the NBA, Presti was impressed by the way Brooks stayed the course and never tried to force immediate changes in hopes of making the Thunder better. He now has taken the youngest roster in the league and turned the team into a 50-game winner and a playoff team just one season after the horrendous start.

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com

It would be nice if they could have closed out the final night of the regular season in finer style.

It would be nice if the Oklahoma City Thunder offered a little more of the way they were playing before and after the All-Star break than they managed down the regular season’s final stretch.

On the other hand, who thought they’d get here so fast? Who thought the Ford Center would be the site of meaningful April basketball?

Wednesday night it was Memphis visiting.

Click here to read the full article – By Clay Horning of The Norman Transcript

The Oklahoma City Thunder seemingly have found a winning formula — Kevin Durant and a lot of defense.

Durant matched his season high with 40 points and the Thunder defeated New Jersey 105-89 Monday night, sending the Nets to their 10th straight loss — their second double-digit losing streak of the season.

The key for the Thunder was the final 17 minutes when they limited New Jersey to 17 points, including 13 in the final quarter.

“I was so pleased with the how we played in the fourth quarter,” said Durant, who made 15 of 22 shots and excited the road crowd with a couple of big dunks. “No matter if I got 40 or not, we played so hard in the fourth and limited their touches, limited them to one shot and out and we got some easy baskets. That was a great effort in the fourth.”

The win was a season-high third straight for the Thunder (16-14).

“We have a long ways to go,” Durant said. “We still have a lot of slip-ups in games, but we are getting better. Hopefully, we peak at the right time.”

Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com