At this time last year, the Thunder team was gearing up for the playoffs with their "big 3" of Durant, Westbrook, and Harden. Trying to picture the Thunder without James Harden was difficult to do, and most Thunder fans didn't even want to entertain the thought. And then the unavoidable happened.
James Harden had figured out his worth, and wanted to be given money and minutes accordingly.
OKLAHOMA CITY — It’s here. The match-up Thunder nation has been waiting for, and it couldn’t have come any sooner.
The Houston Rockets will look to spoil a reunion of old friends and the defending western conference champion Thunder tonight at Chesapeake Arena in game one of the Western Conference divisional playoffs.
Kevin Durant, despite losing to Carmelo Anthony this year in the race for the scoring title is focused and ready to go against one of his old teammates.
“We have to come out with a lot of energy, a lot of effort, make the second and third efforts,” said Durant during today’s morning workout.
Second and third and efforts shouldn’t come easy as both of these teams play a high paced offense and look to run the fast break. The dynamic duo of Russell Westbrook and Durant will look get a win over the Rockets after being scorched in their last meeting when Harden put up 46 points and 6 assists against his old squad.
Scott Brooks knows his team is ready.
“We had a great 3 day preparation. The focus and commitment to each other was at a high level. We’re excited,” said Scott Brooks during today’s workouts.
As for Harden and his 8 seed rockets, they fell into place just at the last second as they let one go against the Los Angeles Lakers in the final game of the season. the Lakers face the Spurs in the first round.
“I knew it was going to happen like this, for some reason,” Harden said. “That’s the beauty of it, that’s what basketball is,”
And the beauty is, they can all be friends off the court, but now its back to work for Harden and his boys.
“It’s all business now,” Harden said. “Those guys are competing for a championship, so it’s all business.”
Westbrook also shared his sentiment on seeing his former teammate in the first round.
In the battle between Oklahoma City and Houston it could come down to playoff experience. The Thunder have seen one more step in success each year, reaching the Western Conference Finals two years ago before losing to Lebron James and the Heat a year ago in The Finals. They are looking to make that last leap toward perfection, and they will do it without the reigning sixth-man of the year James Harden.
“It’s fun,” Westbrook said. “He has his team. He wants to win just as much as we want to win, so it should be fun and interesting.”
Game on.
Much has been said about various NBA players ranting about each other, even to the point that casting the blame on a team’s difficulties escalates to to the point where even parents join in on the fight.
I’m not talking about the little scuffles that go on day-to-day within the organizations of the small market teams, but the much larger debates within the locker rooms of the spotlight teams. I am talking about the Los Angeles Lakers.
The friction within the organization has recently fell upon co-stars Kobe Bryant and Dwight Howard.
This past week, in an exclusive interview with ESPN’s Jackie Macmullan, Kobe Bryant had some choice words for his team mate d in what has been a frustrating first half of the season.
“We don’t have time for [Howard's shoulder] to heal,” Bryant told MacMullan. “We need some urgency. [Howard] has never been in a position where someone is driving him as hard as I am, as hard as this organization is.
Of course, Kobe is not intending to damage the relationship he has with fellow co-star Howard, but he is trying to elevate his team to a new level; a championship level.
With five rings on his fingers and nearly two decades tenure with the Los Angeles Lakers, Kobe Bryant has earned the right to say how he feels with the Laker organization, and to a large extent, that is what Laker Nation expects from him.
Long time NBA reporter/journalist Skip Bayless feels that Kobe developed his uncanny ability to inspire by speaking out, saying what he thinks – encouragement through public displays of discontent, a quality that could be attributed to Phil Jackson, who mentored Bryant into absolute stardom. This of course is just a singular approach, one that has worked for some players, and destroyed careers of others.
Kobe Bryant’s discontent with the Laker organization may never be perfectly clear but he has clearly chosen sides on a few issues, one of them being the constant struggle of Laker Nation to accept the hiring of Mike D’Antoni over former Laker legend Phil Jackson.
Dwight Howard uncomfortably has sat out the three previous Laker games, all of which were won, and unfortunately the jabs keep coming on both sides. Kobe doesn’t think that his comments about Howard were taken out of context, but that he spoke with Dwight afterword to let him know his objective in saying what he said was purely to motivate.
The Lakers (24-28), lost to the Miami Heat (34-14) on Sunday night after Lebron James and Dwyane Wade put on an amazing show in the fourth quarter to close out L.A. in Miami. Kobe and Co. are just ready to move on. He he-said they-said we-said has got to stop if they want to win basketball games and become real contenders.
“It’s people who try to harbor and hang onto stuff all the time,” Bryant said of the dynamic between him and Howard. “He just has to do his job, rebound and defend. We do our jobs and our roles in what we have to do to help us win. It’s not rocket science.”
While the Lakers sort things out amongst themselves, the rest of the west if pushing forward, revving up to what should be an exciting All-Star weekend and then the second half of the season.
The larger picture will not be seen until Howard is one-hundred percent healthy, Pau Gasol comes back, and D’Antoni figures out how to use his personnel most effectively on the court, but Bryant is optimistic about the future of the team.
The man wants to win another championship, and at the end of the day, whether it’s Pau, Dwight, or Kobe taking the shot, Bryant’s goal is ring number six. No matter the cost.
NBA: FINAL – WARRIORS 98 THUNDER 119 via ESPN ScoreCenter http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/gamecast?gameId=400278449
I just wanna give a shout-out to one of my good buddies and co-worker Carson Perry. He’s an awesome dude and shares an insatiable desire for sports such as I do.
The timing of this post comes due to his recent call and soon departure to Italy, where he will serve as a full-time Latter-day Saint missionary for two years. As a missionary he will participate in the Mormon church’s effort to help share the gospel of Jesus Christ and bring souls closer to Him.
He deserves all the respect in the world for this and he will do a great service to all those that come in contact with him.
As a rival to my sports knowledge, equal in enthusiasm and debate, Carson’s decision to serve a mission is far more respected and revered than any other activity that would transpire in his life at this time and ranks second to none in importance.
Go get ‘em bud. I’ll see you on my sports debate show in a couple years as an honored guest.
Russell Westbrook is a beast. On the court, off the court, the man is a straight up animal. Proving himself as a strong leader and scorer in the league, the Oklahoma point guard is still learning to control his emotions.
Westbrook’s passion for the game of basketball has never ever been a reasonable concern for coach Scott Brooks or the Thunder lineup. However his actions during the second period did call for some concern as the season progresses.
Just under 9 minutes to go in the the third period, Westbrook exploded after a 5-second call in the lane in a 106-89 win over the Memphis Grizzlies Thursday night in Oklahoma City. He stormed off into the tunnel, apparently upset at fellow teammate Thabo Sefalosha and others.
He came back to play the rest of the game, cold shooting the rest of the night but still supporting his team.
“Russell’s an emotional guy. He plays hard. He plays every night. He plays for his team every night,” Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. “There’s no question he was frustrated. I’m not trying to downplay that. He has to be able to control his frustrations, but that’s part of it. It’s nothing that’s going to carry over until tomorrow, it’s over with, we’ve moved on.”
Perhaps the more important theme of the game, the lack of offense on the part of the Memphis Grizzlies, was overshadowed by the unexpected frustrated rage by Westbrook.
Kevin Durant understands Westbrook’s need for emotional release as well as anybody in the NBA. Who else better than to explain how its’s only a phase that will only make the team stronger in the future.
“It was a disagreement. It’s the game of basketball, you have so many different emotions on one team. You’re going to have disagreements. It’s not the first, it’s not going to be the last. You’ve just got to know how to respond to each other, and I think we always do a great job of that. It’s a disagreement. All teams have them, but luckily on our team we talk it out and don’t let it simmer for a long time. Russell came back and responded really, really well for us in the fourth.” Durant said.
Russell ended the game with 21 points and finished strong in the fourth to close the game out for the Thunder.
The Thunder, currently in second place in the western conference standings behind the Spurs, are seeking to maintain their league leading 15-8 road record when they play visitor to the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.
Absolutely one thing is for sure. Russell will be there to play. A tunnel trip will always be better than a thrown punch. Russell knows best.
Recap
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. — The Memphis Grizzlies looked embarrassed without their leading scorer on the court Thursday night in Oklahoma City. They weren’t able to stop the Thunder, who didn’t give up the lead, winning 106-89 to continue their hot play at Chesapeake Energy Arena.
The Grizzlies shocked players and coaches around the league when they traded Rudy Gay to Toronto Wednesday, creating cap space for the franchise’s future and avoiding luxury taxes. The case that this could change the course of the Grizzlies season is yet to be determined. But losing in a blowout to the defending western conference champions is never a good sign.
Durant, coming off a monstrous road trip averaging nearly 35 points per game had a great game, scoring 27 points on 10 for 16 from the field, grabbing 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
Westbrook helped the Thunder start off shooting 9-9 from the field with a couple of quick field goals. He went 9 for 17 from the field and finished with 21 points.
The Thunder led 58-34 at halftime and the game looked out of reach for the Grizzlies, who beat the Thunder on their home court on Nov. 14.
After a few days of rest and coming off a tough loss to the Lakers in Los Angeles, the Thunder were prepared to impress their home crowd and get their swag back.
“… uh we had some days off to refresh out legs,[we were] passing the basketball really well,” Durant said, speaking with Craig Sager after the game.
Midway through the second quarter Westbrook got called for a 5 second violation out of the break and was seen coming out of the locker room disgruntled. The Thunder quickly lost momentum and the Griz found their way back in the game.
In response Kevin Durant had some thoughts on the matter.
“West [Westbrook], he’s so emotional…he wants to give it all for our teams, Durant said. We’ll be fine.”
Ibaka was all over the floor, coming up with 6 blocks and nearly catching his career high of 7. He added 4 points.
The Thunder shot over 50 percent from the field and held the Grizzlies to just under 35.
Game Notes:
Durant was called for his eighth technical foul of the season to lead the league respectively, after being stripped while making a move to the basket with 7:54 left in the third…the Thunder went 9-9 to start the game, a franchise best since relocating to Oklahoma City.
