They lost a few games early in the season. 2.5 games behind isn't much, even in a shortened season like this one, and their most recent game was a win against this same OKC team. They'll be fine overall, though it seems pretty clear that they've taken a step back from their crazy finish last year.
For all the proof you need, go back and look at the 4th quarter play-by-play game logs of several of the playoff games they lost last season. In several games, he completely froze Durant out and tried, and failed, to be "the man". Playing with two great shooters like Durant and Harden, he should be averaging about 14 APG. Against most teams, Durant simply catches the ball on the perimeter and shots over the defender like he's not even there. That's the easiest assist in the league and even easier than the Stockton to Malone pick and roll. How hard can it be to bring the ball up the court, pass it to Durant and watch him shoot over his opponent? Yet, Westbrook refused to get the ball in the hands of the two-time scoring champion with the game on the line in last season's playoffs. Sooner, or later, that's going to have to change or there will be a mutiny in that locker room. BNM
I didn't get to see the game, but what has me really excited is that not only did we be OKC, not only was it on the road, but Camby only played 18 and a half minutes. Our center position is a bit... nonrobust, injury-vulnerable. IMHO, we have to show more that we can win without Camby playing heavy minutes every game, and tonight we did!
I know what his tendencies and his stats are, I'm just talking about what's going on between his ears when he's on the floor. I'm guessing his endorphin levels spike when he scores and not so much when he throws a sweet dime.
I posted earlier in this thread that he's become Mr. Instant Offense with the turnaround jumpers. I've been impressed to see him coldly sinking his quick release daggers about 3 times per game. Catch and shoot, it's over in one second. His box score lines, per minute, have been very good. Consistently good efectiveness points per minute.
That's sort of matchup dependent. Neither Ibaka or Perkins are great threats to score. There are going to be plenty of times when Camby is going to need to be out there to matchup against the better scoring power forwards in the league.
I think most people, including the Dallas front office, underestimated the importance of Tyson Chandler to last season's success. He gave them the tough interior defense and rebounding that you need to win games. He had the second highest PER (18.4) and second highest total win shares (9.4) on the team last season. He had an insane TS% of 0.697 and actually led the team in WS/48 at 0.218. The difference between his ORtg (131) and Drtg (102) was off the charts. He was their best defender, period and by far, their best rebounder (19.7 TRB%). He basically gave them everything you want from your starting center, rebounding (5th in the league in TRB%), interior defense (2nd team all defense) and efficient scoring (led the league in both TS% and ORTg). And they let him walk and got nothing in return. And, I know it's a small sample size, but he's playing even better this season (PER = 20.4, TS% = 0.792, ORTg = 145, WS/48 = 0.256). That, IMHO is what happened to Dallas. BNM
In effectiveness points (ESPN definition) per minute, the best players in the game were Camby and Harden. Note that they're the only ones whose ESPN points exceeded their minutes. http://espn.go.com/nba/dailyleaders/_/gameId/320103025
I think your right on boob^, you gotta be big in the West to Win. Very impressive indeed. When he first came in the game I was like no way can he just come in cold and shoot, we need to start him, turns out he can and he's solid off the bench. Extremely versatile, he'll be a Blazer for a long while.
Do the asterisks mean that those teams have clinched a playoff birth? On a different note, that Batum three was sick. I have never seen a shot like that before. If that could become consistent, he would be deadly when others are being doubled.
If you look at it again, you see that the play the whole way was for Batum. (Felton went left to pretend to pass but the play didn't have a target Blazer over there.) It wasn't as instant of a shot as it looks. He had 5 seconds to prepare mentally to shoot. Maybe he shoots better with 5 seconds, so McMillan designed the play for Felton to stall 5 seconds before passing to him.
I really liked their color guy; he kept explaining why the ref was right to call a foul committed by a OKC player!
I was watching him throwing up forced shots on tape and I thought, "Oh boy, I bet MM is getting pissed off!"
Seems like he made a bad decision not getting out of that congested area; he needed to dribble right instead of left.
Yeh, despite not finishing a lot of layups, it seems Wallace is really a load for Durant, defense and offense.
Felton finally tried his first lob to Aldridge early in the game; it went about 5 feet over the backboard (supposedly tipped by Westbrook); so I doubt if we will see many lobs to Aldridge this season, except from Camby.
