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Anonymous. 04-13-2017, 09:42 AM (3) Houston Rockets vs. (6) Oklahoma City Thunder
Game 1 – Sun. April 16 Oklahoma City at Houston, 8 p.m., TNT
Game 2 – Wed. April 19 Oklahoma City at Houston, 7 p.m., TNT
Game 3 – Fri. April 21 Houston at Oklahoma City, 8:30 p.m., ESPN/R
Game 4 – Sun. April 23 Houston at Oklahoma City, 2:30 p.m., ABC/R
Game 5 * Tue. April 25 Oklahoma City at Houston, TBD
Game 6 * Thu. April 27 Houston at Oklahoma City, TBD
Game 7 * Sat. April 29 Oklahoma City at Houston, TNT
Laramie 04-13-2017, 06:36 PM Condensed version via: okcthunder@news.thunderinsider.com
Here's the full Thunder http://www.thunderfans.com/vforum/images/smilies/okc.gif schedule for Round 1:
Game 1 Away Sunday, April 16 | 8 p.m. FOX Sports Oklahoma/TNT
Game 2 Away Wednesday, April 19 | 7 p.m. FOX Sports Oklahoma/TNT
Game 3 Home Friday, April 21 | 8:30 p.m. FOX Sports Oklahoma/ESPN
Game 4 Home Sunday, April 23 | 2:30 p.m. ABC
https://cdn.nba.net/nba-drupal-prod/styles/landscape_320w/s3/2017-04/Russell%20Westbrook%20James%20Harden%20split%20ima ge.jpg?itok=ZjuOcfeX
If necessary:
Game 5 Away Tuesday, April 25 | Time TBD
Game 6 Home Thursday, April 27 | Time TBD
Game 7 Away Saturday, April 29 | Time TBD FOX Sports Oklahoma/TNT
.
Anonymous. 04-17-2017, 09:23 AM Well last night went pretty much how I expected. Except instead of getting murdered from 3 point land, we got murdered in the paint.
Everyone has to play 4 perfect quarters Wednesday night to have a shot. Roberson is the only one to show up, and he really turns up for the playoffs, much respect to that guy, he is right back in 2016 WCF form.
king183 04-17-2017, 10:07 AM Well last night went pretty much how I expected. Except instead of getting murdered from 3 point land, we got murdered in the paint.
Everyone has to play 4 perfect quarters Wednesday night to have a shot. Roberson is the only one to show up, and he really turns up for the playoffs, much respect to that guy, he is right back in 2016 WCF form.
Yep. That was embarrassing. Roberson was great--best player on our team last night. Adams and Kanter were awful and Oladipo was way off the entire night. If Roberson can continue playing like he did, Oladipo gets back to his normal self, Russ takes care of the ball better, and Adams doesn't look lost and intimidated on defense, we have a chance. That's a lot to ask.
shadfar 04-17-2017, 11:19 AM we got murdered in the paint.
this i was not expecting..
Colbafone 04-17-2017, 11:22 AM Man, if any of you guys frequent r/NBA, do not go there today. They are all just DESTROYING OKC. Everyone is blasting Westbrook as the MVP choice. Lolololololol.
SOONER8693 04-17-2017, 11:27 AM Roberson looked like the only Thunder player remotely interested in playing any defense. Seemed to me the Rockets were shooting layups most of the game. When Adams got switched onto Hardon, which happened frequently, Hardon simply went right around Adams, like Adams was stuck in cement, to shoot layups.
shadfar 04-17-2017, 11:27 AM I was expecting people to be on Harden's side now..Just wait, when Westbrook has a good game everyone will come back.
shadfar 04-17-2017, 11:28 AM Roberson looked like the only Thunder player remotely interested in playing any defense. Seemed to me the Rockets were shooting layups most of the game. When Adams got switched onto Hardon, which happened frequently, Hardon simply went right around Adams, like Adams was stuck in cement, to shoot layups.
We can't have our bigs on Hardon. He went right around them like it was nothing..
OkiePoke 04-17-2017, 11:30 AM Well, the MVP voting has closed. Not sure why there were so many MVP chants. In Houston & Boston.
Oladipo's and Adam's extensions are looking....interesting right about now...
sooner88 04-17-2017, 12:42 PM We lost by 32 to the spurs game 1 last year and went on to win. There's still a lot of basketball left.
dankrutka 04-17-2017, 03:01 PM I was patient with Billy for messing around with his rotations during the regular because he was so good last playoffs, but playing Semaj Christon off the ball (or at all) is unacceptable. Christon is a D-league player who is now getting playoff minutes. His shooting, dribbing, and playmaking are so bad. He's a worse offensive player than Roberson and not near the defensive player. And where are these Norris Cole minutes coming from? I don't think this entire series will be like game 1, but Dipo needs to step it up. He looked hesitatant and bricked every wide open three. Hopefully the team comes out fired up.
Thomas Vu 04-17-2017, 03:13 PM For the minutes Sabonis got in the regular season, I'm surprised I didn't see him til garbage time. Did he play before then?
Bellaboo 04-18-2017, 07:43 AM For the minutes Sabonis got in the regular season, I'm surprised I didn't see him til garbage time. Did he play before then?
No. He doesn't match up well with the Rockets small ball. But it didn't look like any of our bigs did.
Laramie 04-18-2017, 01:52 PM When we look back on Presti's decision to sign Ibaka and let James Harden walk, it has haunted the Thunder.
https://uproxx.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/rsz_x2_27ac584.jpg
Harden & Mayor looking like pimps on Houston's Pearle Street.
It was rumored that Harden & Maynor were partying following games against Miami in the 2012 Championship series; therefore this may have played into Presti's decision on James Harden & Eric Maynor.
Harden was exceptional in game one; he has the pieces around him like Trevor Ariza, Patrick Beverley, Clint Capela & Lou Williams to cover for his defensive weakness.
We need a few experienced inexpensive vets to help Westbrook while we develop a core of rookies.
Bill Robertson 04-18-2017, 02:29 PM We need a few experienced inexpensive vets to help Westbrook while we develop a core of rookies.Do you think Westbrook will stick around long enough for us to develop rookies around him. Especially considering the lack of building around him or him and Durant up till now. I don't.
dankrutka 04-18-2017, 02:35 PM Do you think Westbrook will stick around long enough for us to develop rookies around him. Especially considering the lack of building around him or him and Durant up till now. I don't.
I am not sure what you mean by the lack of building around him or Durant... OKC had loaded teams around Russ and KD that might have several titles if there were not injuries during the 2013, 2014, and 2015 season. OKC beat the winningest Spurs team of all time and then almost beat the winningest team of all-time just last playoffs.
Russ is signed through next season and this offseason will be the Thunder's first real opportunity to make changes to the team since KD left. Remember, this team was built to have KD on it. However, I agree that the Thunder need to make moves to build a team that is maximize Russ' prime. Trading a young player who is still developing might be necessary.
Laramie 04-18-2017, 08:53 PM Do you think Westbrook will stick around long enough for us to develop rookies around him. Especially considering the lack of building around him or him and Durant up till now. I don't.
Durant's actions have made many Thunder fans skeptical of Russell when he (K.D.) jumped ship. Now we cast a doubtful eye on Westbrook.
I don't know; however we will find out as this plays out.
dcsooner 04-18-2017, 09:02 PM Do you think Westbrook will stick around long enough for us to develop rookies around him. Especially considering the lack of building around him or him and Durant up till now. I don't.
No
Bill Robertson 04-19-2017, 09:31 AM Durant's actions have made many Thunder fans skeptical of Russell when he (K.D.) jumped ship. Now we cast a doubtful eye on Westbrook.
I don't know; however we will find out as this plays out.Before KD leaving a good 3 point shooter, a solid defensive stopper and a good backup PG and you have a championship contender. Now you still need those three plus someone that can replace KD. That's a tall order and we're going to have to make some serious moves in order to do it. If we don't and Westbrook wants a ring he has no choice but to leave. Maybe, hopefully he's content being The Man here and is good with that.
dankrutka 04-19-2017, 12:12 PM Before KD leaving a good 3 point shooter, a solid defensive stopper and a good backup PG and you have a championship contender. Now you still need those three plus someone that can replace KD. That's a tall order and we're going to have to make some serious moves in order to do it. If we don't and Westbrook wants a ring he has no choice but to leave. Maybe, hopefully he's content being The Man here and is good with that.
I wouldn't expect OKC to win a title any time soon. If all players are going to make their decisions based on the guarantee of winning a title then there are only 2-3 teams in the NBA that have a chance (Warriors, Cavs, maybe Spurs). It's time for people to readjust their expectations. There are 30 NBA teams and 25 or more of them won't win a title in the next decade. Having said that, lots of players stick with teams that are not realistically going to compete for a title... sometimes for their entire careers. OKC is still (barely) a top 10 team. OKC can offer Westbrook the most money by far. There's a good chance he'll take it as long as OKC is legitmately trying.
tsou89 04-19-2017, 09:43 PM Just fire Presti now.
_Kyle 04-19-2017, 09:45 PM Well..... we choked
emtefury 04-19-2017, 10:30 PM Just fire Presti now.
That is a little drastic. Good things take time.
kswright29 04-19-2017, 10:38 PM Well..... we choked
Yep, their run at the end of the third did it...without Hardin is what's disappointing. That lineup we had out there at that point was absolutely brutal. I don't understand why McDermott didn't get more minutes in the second half when we were having such trouble offensively, the guy had 11 points in 14 minutes. He's not a great defender, but the name of the game is to get the ball in the hoop. Oh yeah, has anyone found Victor? Still waiting for him to show up.
Thomas Vu 04-19-2017, 11:41 PM Yep, their run at the end of the third did it...without Hardin is what's disappointing. That lineup we had out there at that point was absolutely brutal. I don't understand why McDermott didn't get more minutes in the second half when we were having such trouble offensively, the guy had 11 points in 14 minutes. He's not a great defender, but the name of the game is to get the ball in the hoop. Oh yeah, has anyone found Victor? Still waiting for him to show up.
Yeah, I thought that was odd. Get Kanter/McDermott in there. The team was already bleeding points, at least get some offense out there.
Anonymous. 04-20-2017, 12:04 AM This game proves Russ is the MVP. We are giving three rookies and Kyle Singler legit minutes in the playoffs. That blown 12 point lead in about 2 minutes hefore Russ subbed himself back in, is this entire season in a nutshell.
SOONER8693 04-20-2017, 07:47 AM 1 is always going to have a hard time beating 5.
Bellaboo 04-20-2017, 07:50 AM 3 rookies plus Oladipo and Grant who have never been in a playoff series. Hard to compete with this much inexperience.
d-usa 04-20-2017, 07:57 AM Sucks burning out this early, but it's experience for a team that was never supposed to make it to the playoffs to begin with according to most this season.
Anonymous. 04-20-2017, 08:16 AM If Donovan can find a lineup that works this weekend, then there is still hope. But if we drop either of the next two, it is over.
Trotting out Semaj, Singler, and Sabonis was incredibly damaging toward the end of the 3rd. Too bad Doug was so bad on defense, he was a good threat @ 3p.
FighttheGoodFight 04-20-2017, 08:41 AM That loss in on Westbrook. He has to trust his teammates more. Plenty of open shooters to pass to and he just shoots 43 times. Not great.
dankrutka 04-20-2017, 09:35 AM Sucks burning out this early, but it's experience for a team that was never supposed to make it to the playoffs to begin with according to most this season.
Almost everyone predicted OKC to make the playoffs. I only saw one national basketball writer who didn't.
dankrutka 04-20-2017, 09:37 AM That loss in on Westbrook. He has to trust his teammates more. Plenty of open shooters to pass to and he just shoots 43 times. Not great.
Russ forced it and was bad, but we trotted out some of the worst shooting lineups I've ever seen with Russ yesterday. Whenever Russ gets fatigued he has a tendency to take worse shots. That combined with playing with Semaj, Singler, and even Oladipo (who can't hit anything) pushed Russ to just start firing it up.
shadfar 04-20-2017, 01:40 PM Russ forced it and was bad, but we trotted out some of the worst shooting lineups I've ever seen with Russ yesterday. Whenever Russ gets fatigued he has a tendency to take worse shots. That combined with playing with Semaj, Singler, and even Oladipo (who can't hit anything) pushed Russ to just start firing it up.
18 shots in the 4 quarter alone by Russ. I can understand with the line up that was in (eventually Oladipo needs to come out of his slump). Why wasn't Abrines or McDermott in?
Thomas Vu 04-20-2017, 02:32 PM That loss in on Westbrook. He has to trust his teammates more. Plenty of open shooters to pass to and he just shoots 43 times. Not great.
Yup, sucks that he can't trust them after playing with them for ~34 minutes with a lead. Sit for maybe 2 minutes, and the lead is gone.
dankrutka 04-20-2017, 03:06 PM 18 shots in the 4 quarter alone by Russ. I can understand with the line up that was in (eventually Oladipo needs to come out of his slump). Why wasn't Abrines or McDermott in?
That's a fair question. Donovan clearly went with an uber athletic/defensive lineup (Russ-Dipo-Roberson-Grant-Adams), but with almost no shooting. I guess the plan was to play great defense and let Russ take over offensively. It didn't work, obviously, but it has at times this season. I just think Russ was fatigued and frustrated so he wasn't patient enough to keep working for better shots.
sooner88 04-20-2017, 03:17 PM McDermott and Kanter played almost exclusively when Harden was off the court so they wouldn't be caught in those high pick and rolls that killed us in game 1. This is only ~10 minutes a game, and they were both still in negative on a +/-. Kanter really can't play against the Rockets unfortunately, and it is frustrating that someone with that big a contract is rendered effectively useless. Oladipo has played god awful, and he is a big reason we can't win. Semaj has been terrible and the backup point should be given to Oladipo, but he has shown he can't produce much yet.
Easy180 04-21-2017, 10:26 AM If they don't pick another star this summer we will get to see if Westbrook is more interested in money or a ring at this point in his career. Heard he can make around $57 million more on a max deal with the Thunder if he stays.
_Kyle 04-21-2017, 11:17 PM Whew...
emtefury 04-22-2017, 09:09 AM One of the most important aspects of the game last night was Westbrook shooting midrange jumpers. This is his area and needs to stay away from the three point line.
Laramie 04-22-2017, 10:06 AM Dankrutka mentioned an important observation about Westbrook's fatigue factor. In game 2, Russell exited the 3rd quarter with less than 3 minutes left when the Thunder had a 12 point lead. He played the whole 4th quarter as the Thunder entered nursing a 3 point lead.
Westbrook did get the needed rest between the 3rd & 4th quarters in game 3 to lessen the fatigue factor. He didn't shoot as many 3s as he did in the 2 previous games thus relying on teammates.
Donovan substituted for speed to counter the Rockets attack in the final 3 1/2 minutes. He went with a smaller line-up that included Roberson, Gibson, Grant & Oladipo to accompany Westbrook.
OKCRT 04-22-2017, 10:13 AM Don't forget about that huge Adams tip in down the stretch. If Adams doesn't get that the game is prob. lost.
Laramie 04-22-2017, 10:16 AM .
Oklahoma City 115 - Houston Rockets 112
Box score: http://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=400950406
Westbrook recorded his 2nd playoff Triple double (32 pts., 13 rebs., 11 assists)
Laramie 04-22-2017, 10:28 AM Don't forget about that huge Adams tip in down the stretch. If Adams doesn't get that the game is prob. lost.
Good point OKCRT!
We do need more offense from Adams; 4 points he scored accounted for the lowest points scored by any Thunder who scored in game 3--however the Rockets did double team Adams just like they did Westbrook.
turnpup 04-22-2017, 12:14 PM The noise level in that place last night was unbelievable! It's great to see (and hear!) how much enthusiasm we have for our team. Hopefully Sunday will get us a win as well.
Laramie 04-22-2017, 05:51 PM Hi Turnpup,
Here are some comments from Houston Rocket posters about the noise level at the Peake last night:
https://i0.wp.com/thunderdigest.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/meltdown-16.jpg?w=621
Man, their home crowd is WAAAAAAAAAY better than ours
I wish the Toyota Center would fill up like that
And their crowd is already louder than ours has been the entire year.
rockets look shook, thats a loud crowd
Man, Thunder’s crowd is so much better. Not even close.
The thunder home court is kind of scary though not just for the fans. they are LOUD
Rockets Playoff Game 3 Meltdown! http://thunderdigest.com/2017/04/22/rockets-playoff-game-3-meltdown/
turnpup 04-22-2017, 07:00 PM ^^^^^
Cool, thanks, Laramie!
It was (at least it looked like) a very full house. Truth be told, it took us quite a while after we got home to "come down" from the level of noise and excitement we had just been in. I can't remember the last time I went to bed after 1:00 a.m. Good thing it was a Friday!
Roger S 04-23-2017, 07:27 AM I'm going to take some credit for the game 3 win..... I hadn't broken out my Thunderwear for game 1 or 2 but i wore them to the game Friday night..... Never understimate the power of the Thunderwear!!! ;)
I just hope the officiating is better today. I'm not the kind of fan that complains much about officiiating but there were some horrible calls made against us Friday..... Taj Gibson gets T'd up when he had a legitimate reason to complain yet Beverley jaws at the officials with his arms out questioning them the entire game and never gets T'd up.
Had a good season given the circumstances.
Westbrook shot the ball 28 times, and didn't make it nearly enough to justify it.
Roberson had a good defensive game, horrible offensive and FT game. Nene destroyed our bigs. Donovan didn't do a good job with subs, etc.
The Rockets are just a more complete team than the Thunder. Sucks, but it is what it is.
SOONER8693 04-23-2017, 05:12 PM How does a professional basketball player, a person paid a LARGE amount of money to play nothing but basketball, make 2 of 12 free throw attempts? Unbelievable.
_Kyle 04-23-2017, 05:13 PM Are you ****ing kidding rn?
OKCRT 04-23-2017, 05:21 PM Coaching prob cost the Thunder this game. Keeping Roberson in caught up with them. Was it 4 possessions the Thunder lost with him at the line? He is just a liability that you have to take out at that critical time. Good coaching by the Rockets but a horrible rule. Those should be intentional fouls and go to the line and retain possession. That would put a stop to this kind of stuff.
dcsooner 04-23-2017, 05:30 PM Coaching prob cost the Thunder this game. Keeping Roberson in caught up with them.
Late game execution cost the Thunder this game and many more over their history. IMO this is the second or third game bad Russ showed up with sloppy play at the end after an otherwise decent game. This one's on Russ' heckle jeckle play at the end
OKCRT 04-23-2017, 05:40 PM Late game execution cost the Thunder this game and many more over their history. IMO this is the second or third game bad Russ showed up with sloppy play at the end after an otherwise decent game. This one's on Russ' heckle jeckle play at the end
Can't put this one on Westbrook when an obvious coaching blunder sticks out like this.
Bench was non-existant. The team doesn't have a viable 2nd point guard.
There are a lot of reasons.
Bellaboo 04-23-2017, 06:29 PM Late game execution cost the Thunder this game and many more over their history. IMO this is the second or third game bad Russ showed up with sloppy play at the end after an otherwise decent game. This one's on Russ' heckle jeckle play at the end
Not Russ's fault. He shoots the ball because the others either can't or the ones that can don't get open. Russ was the only reason we were in the game at all. Robes going 2 for 12 at the line did not help. If Donovan would have replaced him with Grant after the first intentional foul it might have been different. When Russ is off the court, the ball just gets stuck. This loss is not on Russ.
And I was at the game.
_Kyle 04-23-2017, 06:50 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEg7CYH_87s
SOONER8693 04-23-2017, 07:15 PM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XEg7CYH_87s
That was Bewwy Twammel asking the question. RW in a very polite way told Bewwy to shut the **** up. Well done Mr. Westbrook.
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