This coming after they beat Toronto who lost their best player? We shall see. Martin is still Fool's gold though. Their bench has got weaker. They aren't getting past the Spurs, especially since Harden was a large reason they even got past Spurs....Martin isn't doing that. He's going to hit his shots and that is it. But they are the 2nd best team in the west IMO.
Lowry injured his ankle when Toronto was down by 17 points. I don't think Lowry would matter much. It's early in the season. I don't get why so many people care what happens in the first week or even the first month. Do people really think NY Knicks are a contender? Or Lakers/Boston won't make the playoffs? It's 4-5 games. This won't mean ANYTHING in the grand scheme of things for the majority of the teams unless you're Detroit or Charlotte. Martin is a stud scorer, and he's been scoring for OKC. They'll be fine. KD is taking over Harden's playmaking responsibilities and hopefully he'll get better. The only team who can beat them is a fully healthy and gelled Lakers team, and that's a huge if.
17 points is not much of a lead in the 2nd quarter. Not saying they were going to win...but the NBA, early leads like that always diminish. The moment he went out though that game became a laugher. I don't think it has any thing to do with the start of the season. It has a lot to do with people comparing what they lost to what they gained. As a Rocket fan, it's rare I ever miss a single rocket game. Martin is not in any way shape or form the caliber of player Harden is. They are not replacing that, no one is going to convince me of that...well Martin is the only person that can convince me of that. Remember those years the Spurs lost Manu? They were not even close to the same team. Every year that Manu went out for a injury you pretty much ruled them out of making a run at a chip. Pop can get anyone in there to come in and score...but to lead the 2nd unit and make them better than the opposing 2nd unit is big. Martin is not going to bring that. Durant's playmaking and WBs playmaking is far behind Harden's. Ahh the Lakers.... I really think this is a race between the Spurs and Thunder. Mike Brown is a big dummy and Nash has been showing his age, he's not the same Nash and not only that his defense still sucks. A bad thing for the Lakers for a 7 game series against WB or Parker. Good thing for them, Kobe is still a stud somehow. They do have that frontcourt too...but Brown and almost literally no PG defense will doom that team. Again, this is not about them being 2-2 for me. This is about them losing Harden and expecting Martin to fill pretty large shoes there. Martin puts up the numbers...but here in Houston when the team needed him to make the big shots he either bricked them or passed it off...and then did not play defense to top it all off. Whenever you lose your 3rd best player and that player is a all-star level player that's not easy to replace. Remember the Miami series and how much trouble they had against Indiana with the absence of Bosh. If they lose Bosh again it's not even a cakewalk for that team with Wade and Bron. What Harden bought to that team will be missed I feel. Not in the regular season no, but in the playoffs I think you'll see it and it'll become obvious then.
Thank you, Russell Westbrook severely annoys me for the fact that he is listed as a point guard, takes the ball up the court, but instead of passing he just runs at full speed and does that dumb stop and pop jump shot, ALL the time. I can't stand OKC's country bumbkin team or fans so I should be happy that he is destroying his own team but he's a pain to watch. The most selfish point guard I've ever seen. Harden is a wing but he's a better PG than Westbrook will ever be because of his dinosaur/turtle/neanderthal looking big head that's hollow other than the chestnut inside. Like on the cartoons lol
Dumbbrook? Really? You couldn't come up with anything better than that? I mean....dumbbrook? That is just terrible. Watch some stand up comedy or something because you really need to step your game up dude.
The prevailing excuse for OKC's losses this year will be because they traded Harden. Amazing that all the other factors that go into winning a game are somehow discounted.
No, the record does not matter. They will finish 1-3 in the west, I'll be surprised if they do not. But to expect them to replace star talent with a role player and expect the same results if not better...I can't expect that.
Westbrook taking 19 shots per game for a 48% True Shooting percentage. Durant taking 15 shots per game for a 56% True Shooting percentage. Lulz.
Ibaka is mad that he took a pay cut for the sake of the team...I wonder if Presti wants the rest of our rookies for Big Serge?
This is a situation you expect when a team with high expectations gets off to a less than stellar start. If/when they start winning, everything will be fine at least until the 2nd season starts (the playoffs).
