Bricklayer
Don't Make Me Use The Bat
Boxscore
Salmons ( C ) -- Not really buying any revisionist hey we won John sure played great! storyline to this one. In fact he was terrible for much of the night. Was missing easy shots on one end, and not making Durant miss his on the other. Or Harden either when he was on him. Got one three pointer on a tough kick from Reke, otherwise it was back to brick city. Messed up a fastbreak trying to show off and go behind his back too. At one point he and Marcus were a combined 4-19 and the 4rd and 5th best players the Thunder had. But late in the game deserves some credit for changing the dialog. Defense picked up, suppose he deserves a little credit for even though he forced a poor drive as he found a way to cleanly squirt it around Ibaka., somehing none of our big three guys coul do all night. He helped out with some defensive boards down the stetch, something that is nto a strength normally. And then he created a huge three point opportunity by Thronton at the 2:10 mark., driving and kicking to the corner for the game tying three. Still not going to call a 2-10 shooting night and getting outscored 27-5 any sort of accomplishment, but he contributed when it mattered to help us get the win.
Thompson ( B ) -- good energy and hustle around the glass early helped us survive Boogie's early foul trouble. Got victimized himself by a shaky blocking foul when he was perfectly set up for the charge on durant, but exrended his arms too far forward, which is a bad tendency he had since his rookie year. Howitzer touch on his early post moves, but was going after his misses, and made some nice passes as well to make himself offensively useful.. In the second half seemed like he should have been a bigger weapon as Ibaka was leaving SOMEBODY open for all those flying blocks, but only had a couple of moments. Lost more minutes late in the game to smallball then he did to any of the other bigs, but this was a solid energy roleplayer effort kind of sliding under the radar as all the good and bad fireworks took place elsewhere.
Cousins ( B ) -- another adventuresome evening for Boogie, for whom its never boring at least. Hit a series of long jumpers to start the game, and even got the bonus by tempting Perkins to try to respond with an airballed 18 footer of his own. But then tried to go inside, and met Mr. Ibaka repeatedly in what would become a gamelong struggle. An even bigger concern was hsi pikcing up 3 fouls in various ways in the first quater as we got in trouble again. Smart even left him in for a minute or two after the thrid, perhaps daring the refs to call a 4th and determine the outcome of the game with their whistles. Was not heard from again until the third, and then began an active second half with a big dunk down the lane. Kept getting blocked on those off balance below the rim shots he throws up where he is maybe 6'5" from the angle he is thowing it rather that 6'11", as Ibaka took full advantage of our best players beign below the rim guys and ptu up only the 17th double figure shotblocking game of this millenium (and the 2nd vs. us -- Kirilenko in 2006 did it too). Like many of our guys though played a gutsy game, and jsut refused to stop attackign or be intimidated. Drew several great charges in the 4th, playing with 4 fouls on one, 5 fouls on the other, but still stepping in to make the right play. After not rebounding in the early minutes, started picking it up down the stretch although he was not as dominant as usual. Grabbed a huge board of the missed Durant three at the 30 second mark, got fouled, and drained both FTs to close his night and help close out the Thunder. Not one of his dominant efforts (mind you "all he did was put 19pts 9reb in 28min), and the problems with shotblockers and shooting below the rim remained, but he never quit, made a number of big plays, and seemed to impress the TNT crew with his ability to help out with across the board production, for whatever that is worth.
Thornton (C- ) -- 6-16 shooting, 15pt night. Eh...not great, but not awful right? Wrong. This was a TERRIBLE performance for Marcus Thornton...right up until it wasn't. Hit a three to cap the Reke/Cousins run out of the gate and give us the early 11-2 lead, but it was a long time before he would do anything else posiitve. Was missing his shots, forcing, sloppy inattention to detail and pressing too hard. in any order you want to list them. When he gave up on the shooting and tried to slash inside he, like the rest of our guys, was met repeatedly by Ibaka . What made it worse is you see that big number next to Westbrook's name? That was largely Thronton's doing as well as he was often on Westbrook and just got torched. Could not stay in front of him at all, and could not challenge his jumpers, which were unusually on. Actually got chased from the game for defense too as the Thunder added insult to injruy running a series of screens which we switched leaving Thronton having to guard Durant each time He obviously had even less chance there than he did against Westbrook, and combined with the shaky play on the other side, it was time for a breather. After returning it was largely back to the struggle with multiple selfish bad forces...and then all of a sudden Reke found him popping out to the three point line off of a screen with under 3 min to go, he had time and a clean look, and he drained it to make it a 1pt game. A possession later Salmons again found him open at the 3pt line, this time from the corner, and he again drained the backbreaker to tie the game up just that quick. And just like that a truly poor game for Marcus became...well, still a poor game, but a poor game where he stepped up and hit maybe the two biggest cltuch shots of the game for us. Which is of course what Smart has been saying about Thornton. He's lightning in a bottle, so you have to keep him out there even when he's struggling, because you never know when he's going to explode and turn things for you.
Reke ( B+ ) -- this was a strong game, but perhaps more importantly it was a relentless one where Reke came up big in big moments and very much belonged on this stage. Got off to the strong start with back to back hoops, but early turnovers just trying to do too much helped kill our momentum. Pretty good job staying in front of Westbrook in the early going, and a lot of Westbrook's second half fireworks came against Thornton, not Reke. Was moving well off the ball in the early going, and got several baskets that way. Great setup of Hayes for the final hoop of the half, as he had several of those drive and wraparounds to his bigs when the help came -- that should be a potent weapon for him, and us, going forward as opponents are either going to have to let him get to the hoop, or leave a big open behind them as they come to help. Played some good defense on Durant when caught on a switch to start the third. But the fun was just starting on offense, as Serge Ibaka went positively nuts as a shotblocker and threatened to knowck us out of this one. Time and time again Reke would turn the corner and get to the rim only to have Ibaka swoop over an dknock it away. or he'd charge down the court on the break, clip to the rim, only to have Ibaka run it down from behind (same thing Gerald Wallace does that bothers Reke in that matchup). With Ibaka also swatting the heck out of Cousins (Reke and Cousins were blocked a combined TEN times in this game) I was worried we were going to have no answers, as we couldn't go inside with our to the rim guys, and if you make us jumpshooters we are just about the worst in the league. But that was where Reke never quit. Down 7 late in the third and teetering under the combined Ibaka on defense/Westbrook on offense assault, Cousins and Thronton subbed out, and Reke steepped forward in a big way closing the 3rd and opening the 4th with a series of big plays to bring us right back and let the Thunder know we weren't going away. To close the third just cleanly picked Westbrook with those long arms and went the other way for the tough finish. A series of nifty drives and passes followed, and it was game on. After returning in the mid 4th set up Thornton for the first of his big threes, and once Donte took care of the Ibaka problem by fouling him out, Reke attacked at will in the final minute, and knocked down all but 1 of the intentional foul FTs as we iced the game. The numbers aren't monstrous here, but without the insane Thunder shotblocking they might have looked very nice indeed (imagine say a 28pt 5reb 5ast game on 11-21 shooting). And for us tonight Reke was there when we needed him.
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Bench
Hayes ( B- ) --this was an upside down little performance by Chuck, but in the second quarter in particular did enough to help us weather the early Boogie foul trouble. The irony of course was that for the night all those primitive little offensive things went in for Chuck, but on the other hand he was having a heck of a time grabbing a rebound. Meanwhile cats were dogs, and dogs were cats. Even odder, it looked like it was going to be another offensive embarrassment after he began the night missing an easy easy little 6ft flip that was wide open. But he hit everything else as he waited for setups and scored off offensive boards. Was struggling on the boards as the Thunder went over him and balls were bouncing off his hands, but was helping Hickson on defense and making enough contributions that we survived until we could ge tour main guys back in there. Not much after half as JT was playing well, and Donte was logging a lot of smallball PF minutes checking Durant.
Fredette ( B- ) -- after an odd start dribbling around in circles as maybe he got caught up in the want to show something bug as well, settled in and made several good passes before pulling up and canning a three on the semibreak to give us the lead back in the mid second. Limited minutes, limited production, but not a bad showing overall. Had a couple of his recurring problems when he did his drive into the lane, jumpstop and get swarmed by bigger guys thing, as well as a bad effort not stepping in front of Westbrook on defense as Westbrook went in for the dunk. But he ran the break well, working with Reke to both set up and be set up, and whatever he may have been lacking as an offensive presence(including an airballed three as his final shot) he was making up for with passing.
Thomas ( B- ) -- stat sheet says all he did was score, but it was the how and when of it that mattered. Was a bit out of control, but scrappy as always and hit a key three to break the Thunder momentum in the mid 2nd. Back in in the late 3rd and squirted all the way to the rim for the layup to get the lead back to 2 in the early 4th. Came in for Thornton after Marcus fouled out in the final 30 seconds and played the defense to create the Westbrook turnover that finsihed the Thunder. One dimensional game: as in all he did was make big plays.
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