ClutchFans Game Thread: Thunder @ Rockets 11/2/2015

We started that season 9-0 and then started struggling with injuries, Max's suspension, and over confidence.

 

He looked like a guy who was out of shape, given he hasn't seen the floor. Let him get his legs under him before we automatically run with the "is Dwight injured" questions

 

Great team mentality and I get it at the beginning. But there's also a reason we wanted to bring him on board. Enjoyed seeing him play his style last night. Make more free throws and it's icing on the cake.

 

good win.

 

Was at the game. Liked Harden and Lawson attacking the basket early.

Still have my doubts about smallball, though. We got killed on the glass and if OKC doesn't turn the ball over that many times, don't think we pull it out.

 

Kept thinking this last night, but that OKC bench group is not that good.

Augustine
Waiters with some Murrow
Singler
Collison, when he gets back
Kanter

Augustine is an average back up point guard which is okay when WB is going to get 35+mpg. He is okay at that position.

Waiters is just bad. It would be one thing if he wasn't talented but he is pretty talented. The problem is he just thinks he is a top 5 SG on the floor. If he played within himself and the team, he would shine but he keeps thinking he can isolate whenever he wants. They should start Murrow, by the way. Roberson is a waste on offense and he isn't good enough on defense to make up for it.

Singler is below average for his position on the bench. Not a great shooter or defender. Like Westbrook with Augustine, since KD is going to play the bulk minutes, Singler is an ok option as a backup.

Collison plays his role very well. Ibaka still gets a lot of time with the bench group so his play is marginal.

Kanter is bad. So OKC gave a max contract to a bench player, who doesn't play any defense and while he is good on offense, no one is confusing him for a top 5 offensive PF. I get that they had to give Kanter that money to keep him but wow, that's a waste of cap.

 

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Nothing better than being a Rocket fan and living in OKC, I have to admit that I turned the game off at halftime. Was so happy to see the score this morning.Sooo tired of having to hear about the Thunder 24/ 7.

 

Any chance we can get Lawson highlights?

 

did billy donovan let wb sit for too long early in the 3rd when he got 4 fouls? their lead went away in the time when he sat out.

and okc's rotation just didnt look right to me. who is this waiters guy? and their backup pg looked horrible. since when augustine looked this bad...

 

I will say this I was more surprised at how long he rested Westbrook and durant in the 2nd quarter. Sure they still built a 15 point lead with there bench and when Russ and finally KD came back houston cut it down to 11 going into halftime. I still just thought billy d let them rest a little too long.

The 3rd quarter i wasn't surprised, I had a feeling the rockets were in a groove and going to come back Russ or no Russ.

As crazy as this sounds to me atleast. The thunder go as far a Russ takes them, this is no longer KDs team. Russ IMO is the better player now, it could be court rust for KD but man he was getting locked down by Ariza in that 2nd half, no one can stop Russ.

 

definitely disagree with that. Great individual player but not good enough to be the #1 guy to lead okc. that was evident last year.

 

maybe a little too early to conclude, imo.

last yr they ended up like one game short to the playoffs, iirc? and it wasnt just durant they were missing.

wb isnt a pure conventional pg, for sure. but there're quite a few successful ones just like him in the league. have been there for a while now.

and if i were an okc fan, i wouldnt really care whose team this is. for 2 superstars like durant and wb, their coexistence is as good as it gets, i'd say.

 

Glad the effort was there and Harden had his shot going a bit. 18 steals was impressive and Ty finally looked in attack mode. Drexler said he shouldn't try to be a playmaker and just play ball Howard definitely not there yet and rebounding suffers way too much when we go small. We were horrific from the FT line, Ty is 77% on his career and shot 2-7 (what is going on in Houston?), and still saw a lot of lazy defense. When Howard went for the block, it was over. Bad help side defense and guys can get by our backcourt with ease. Still, it was overal much improved and let's hope it's a turnaround.

 

Anyone else notice the heated exchange between Ariza and Howard last night? I had pretty good seats behind the bench and think it's safe to say those two don't like each other much. I didn't hear what they were saying but it looked like Ariza was pissed about a blown play by Howard.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">From last night, a pregame talk led to action. Harden: &quot;If we play with that type of energy, that togetherness, we'll get a lot of wins.&quot;</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/661567079770820608">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The Rockets 18 steals vs. Oklahoma City were their most in a game since 2007. Had 20 vs. Charlotte.</p>&mdash; Jonathan Feigen (@Jonathan_Feigen) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jonathan_Feigen/status/661419852414910469">November 3, 2015</a></blockquote>
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[Harden: "If we play with that type of energy, that togetherness, we'll get a lot of wins."]

since this was PRE-game talk, what type of energy was he talking about? post-game, maybe?

 

OKC sucked, we played better than in first 3 games. Win. But can't expect everyone to suck like OKC, and underrate us like OKC.

 

The first of 60+ wins was last night. And no, I never lost faith. 50 wins is a lock, of course barring injury.