James Harden's rendition of "When I come around"...

Darnell Mayberry pointed out how Harden was a bright-spot in the Mavs game:
"James Harden. Turnovers. Steals. Blocked shots. Just a few positives that you can take from this one."

Forum talk about Harden coming around at okcthunderfans

You can see that Harden's stats are improving a lot recently. Over the last 8 games he's averaging over 15 ppg and he's doing it efficiently. He's also collected 19 steals over those games which is quite impressive and goes to show that his defense is improving also.

It really seems to me that he's playing with more confidence. I know I'm not the first one to say that, but it's true. I'm going to take a gander at where his confidence is coming from though. I think it was this:

We knew he had the skills all along. Basketball is so much mental it's not even funny. Confidence is the kind of thing that separates the great from the mediocre. Let's face it everyone who is under 7' tall and makes the NBA has worked really hard. And anyone (under 7' rule applies again) who can make an NBA roster is athletically gifted. But there are a lot of intangibles that separate the all-stars from the mediocre 4 years and done player. But I'll save those thoughts for a future post... In the meantime, I'm thinking about renewing my commitment to the "Harden for 6th man of the year award".

Mavs comes to town

Mavs are 11-1 on the road and gave us a whipping the last game we played. Nowvitski is out with injury at the start of the fourth. Dallas is currently up by two. It should go down to the wire!

Shaun Livingston in action vs the Thunder at 6:15 left in the 1st

Good to see him getting playing time. He's a feel good story returning to the nba after that gruesome knee surgery.
*** Livingston has hit a few jumpers mid-way threw the 2nd quarter and looks good! Are we really better off with Royal Ivey than Livingston???

Kwame Brown seems to pushing Serge around inside.
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/serge_ibaka/index.html
http://www.nba.com/playerfile/kwame_brown/index.html
He's giving up 35 lbs so that could be the difference.

Moving on.. 12/21/10 vs Bobcats

Man ... what a stinker vs the Suns. I wanted to blog about it, but couldn't bring myself to. I was slightly depressed after the game. It should have been a gimme, but we ended up making Lopez & Hill look like Duncan & Robinson. And we also continued the trend of opposing point guards having their way with our defense. Anyways....
Charlotte only averages scoring 92ppg and might be just what we need to make our D look better. They are balanced but not necessarily deep. Also they don't have a guy who is a real threat to go off for 40. Tyrus Thomas might give us fits. Definitely if Augustin and Thomas have good nights, it's likely to be a close game. But for us to really dominate this game we've got to play some D!
Thunder Up!!!

Thunder take on the Sacramento Kings tonight (12/17/10)

Story of the night might be how well can Thabo hold Tyreke Evans? Evans seems to be in a bit of a sophomore slump, and that's not good for the Kings who count on him to kick-start their offense. I'm betting Thabo/Harden hold him to 15pts or less. Another telling factor in the game is going to be Demarcus Cousins. He's a big force under the basket when he's not sitting on the bench in foul trouble. I'd like to see us go straight at him early and try to pick up some fouls before he takes advantage of us in the middle. I think Serge is man enough to give it a go, but he's giving up 40 lbs to Cousins. I know Serge is strong but that much beef wearing on you through-out the game can be tough. I bet we'll use Collison to guard him a large portion of the game, and I'm also betting that will be an effective strategy.
For my prediction, Thunder continues their hot-shooting and win: 110-95 !

Oklahoma City Sports & Outdoors on wimgo

Durant wins "Oklahoman of the Year" honor

The Oklahoma City Thunder do a great job of being a team the reflects their community. The principles that the ownership and coaching staff preach all the time are hard-work, humility and team-work. This really endears the team to the community and Bennett, Presti & Co know it. The best part of all is that our superstar himself embodies these attributes somewhat naturally. Maybe it was his upbringing? Or his personality? Probably both. But the Oklahoma City people love Kevin Durant and chose him as the "Oklahoman of the Year" given out by Oklahoma Today magazine (published by the Oklahoma tourism department). Even though Durant's only been around Oklahoma for a couple years and past winners were born Okies, I'm giving the choice of Durant two-thumbs-up. And maybe it goes to show that being an Okie is more a matter of character and just happen-stance of where you end up living.

Thunder vs Rockets tonight

Things to watch for in tonight's home game:

• How well can Thabo hold Kevin Martin? Martin scored 40 points on the Cavs a couple games ago. He's averaging 23 ppg and if Thabo can hold him below 15 that's a big win for us. The Rockets don't have many explosive scorers with Yao & Brooks probably out.
• Do we have anyone how can stop Louis Scola? Every good power forward in the league seems to have a monster offensive game against us. Nov 28th at home we held him to 13 points on a poor shooting performance, but Nov 17th in OKC he had a great game against us. Jeff Green will probably be guarding him. Jeff is better at guarding on the perimeter, but Serge is much better at guarding in the post. And it seems to me that most of Scola's points come in the post. What's the chance Scott Brooks will put Ibaka on Scola?
• Can we keep the Rockets off the offensive boards? It seems to be a running trend with the Thunder in giving up a lot of offensive boards. The Rockets don't have a large presence inside like Cleveland with Varajeo or the Bulls with Boozer. Maybe we can right the ship in this game?
• Will Aaron Brooks play? And if not can the Rockets put anyone in the game to keep up with Westbrook. Two simple answers: probably not & probably not.

Oklahoma City Sports & Outdoors on wimgo

Thunder up by 30 against Cleveland

This is a great game for us. We needed a blow out in my opinion. We've been playing too many close games even to inferior opponents. Harden is playing well off the bench. Westbrook once again got chippy with an opposing point guard and dominated him. The only downside seems to be for DJ White who is having a hard time getting a bucket to go down. 6 mins left in the game though so we'll see.

Half time Hornets vs Thunder

Wow, Chris Paul is being a real punk. Looks like he's trash talking RW0 and trying to get to him. They are getting real chippy with each other. I wouldn't be surprised if the refs have to hand out some technicals before this is over.
I just want to say for the record I can't stand how CP3 flops around so much trying to get fouls. When he used to play here I called it "smart" basketball. Now it's just annoying. Especially the play he pulled down Nick Collison on top of him. Luckily the ref had a good angle and called the foul on CP3.

Thunder down by 1 end of 1st to NO Hornets

Our offense has looked really good so far specifically Durant and Ibaka, but what I'm confused by is our defense. Our pick and roll defense is so bad it's not even funny. CP3 and West ran the pick & pop 2 plays in a row with West swishing it through the net.
I expect Chris Paul to do his thing against anyone guarding him, but we've made a lot of point guards look really good against us this year. I don't understand why everyone keeps talking about Westbrook's great defense.  I'm not dogging on Westbrook's on the ball defense, but it doesn't seem to me like he fights hard through picks. No one probably gets ran off picks more than Sefalosha but you ALWAYS seem him fight hard through screens. I'm not sure if it's a defensive strategy or a lack of effort, but point guards keep torching us on the pick game. What's up with that?

Ibaka with 8 blocks!

That's the most ever by a Thunder player. It's the most for this franchise since 2004. Ibaka is developing nicely as an interior defender.

Here's a neat link for block shot records.

So the record for the most blocked blocked shots in a game is 17 and belongs to Elmore Smith in the Los Angeles vs. Portland game, October 28, 1973. Serge was almost half way there. Serge played 35 mins, and just to give perspective on how hard that record is to break he would have had to come up with a block every couple minutes ( .52 blocks/minute necessary ).

Thunder at Minnesota Timberwolves

My thoughts for the game:
1. Tonight is a big game. Okay, that's an exaggeration. It's not really, but it's still important to win. Why? B/c Minnesota is a younger team than us. Also b/c they are in our division. Let's keep them playing catch-up to us.
2. Kevin Love is turning into a great pro.  I liked his game in college and thought he might be a good pro, but after watching his first 2 seasons I thought he was going to be a major flop. But I have to admit he's a real quality 4. He can space the floor with his shooting and is an amazing rebounder. I'm curious about his defense so that's what I'll be watching tonight.
3. James Harden is coming around. I think ... but I shouldn't hesitate. Darnell wrote a great article for today's paper about him. I was expecting him to be our 3rd scoring option this year and a 6th man of the year candidate, but feel pretty disappointed so far. I still think he's a great player and fits into our team, but I think he needs to pull the trigger more from downtown - just let it fly.

Anyways, I'll be at church tonight so I'll only probably get to catch the final 10 mins of the game or so. I'm seriously considering buying the nba league pass for its streaming dvr functionality.