As most people expected coming into this one, this game was all about Chuck Hayes. His skill and athleticism, his good looks and charm, his fashion sense, did you know his favorite movie is Yentl? It was amazing. He is amazing.
But I suppose once you get past the awesomeness that is Chuck Hayes, this was also a game about finding just enough from just enough guys...and then capping it with one of THOSE quarters from Isaiah. You know the ones I'm talking about. 3-4 times a year he has a quarter where he starts getting more excited than a rained on rooster, and the game descends into a strange push away the keyboard and watch playground exhibition of one man against the world. The Thunder, who's stars BTW were both much worse than their statlines, especially Westbrook who doesn't look fully back yet, kept sputtering and puffing and surging and going ice cold and never did get into a sustained put them away rhythm. Finally the door was held open long enough for Isaiah to almost storm through it with a 21pt 4th quarter explosion. But to get there you need a quick early push by Greivis, and kind of somewhat steady work by JT as the last big big standing. And you needed Williams to shoot and defend Durant in the earlier game, and Patterson to try to make up for a crap shooting night with work on the boards and defense. You need the rookie to flash early before fading late (why does that shot look so good yet end up off target so much?). You needed Thornton and Salmons to each hit a big three despite more bad nights, and yes, you needed Chuck to make his case that HE should be the starting center and begin the Trade Cousins bandwagon. Guys chipped in, including Westbrook, and we ended up almost stealing one down the stretch. About as much as you could have hoped for given the circumstances. Well except for Pretty Girls. They did blow that.
Your Consoritum Graders tonight:
Bricklayer
Uncia03
Bajaden
Capt. Factorial
Henkel
Boxscore
Stats: 27min 13pts (5-10, 0-2, 3-4) 0reb 0ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
Williams ( C+ ) -- This was a hard one to judge. Williams did some very good things in the game, especially playing pretty good defense on Durant. Not perfect by any means. In one sequence, he left Durant open on the perimeter to help in the post, and it cost the team a 3 pt basket. But for the most part, he did enough to make Durant uncomfortable. It was a combination of Durant being cold, and Williams encouraging him to stay that way, that added up to a pretty good defensive effort. Offensively, he finally showed that he could hit a jumpshot. He started the game by hitting a 12 foot fade away. On the next offensive possession he got a little too fancy with his ballhandling and Durant stole the ball. A bit later he made a very nice defensive play when Westbrook threw up an alley oop, Williams smelled it out and batted the ball to Hayes. On a continuation of that same play, William continued to drive to the basket and attempted a flying dunk, but was fouled. I will say that the added athleticism, gives the entire team a different look. After missing a corner three, he came off a screen and hit a pullup 17 footer. He went to the bench with 33 seconds left in the first. He returned at around the 4 minute mark of the second, and immediately hit a pullup 18 footer. A bit later, he used a crossover to hit a 20 foot pullup. He started the second half almost exactly the way he started the game by hitting a 14 foot fade away. In one possession he went one on one with Durant on the left perimeter, and forced him into a missed shot. He went to the bench at 1:53 of the 3rd quarter, and unfortunately was done for the night. I was hoping for a return, but I assume that the team on the floor was playing so well, that Malone decided to ride them to the end. Williams came close to a B tonight, but he had zero rebounds, and that's unacceptable. On a night when we didn't have Cousins, I expected him to step up in that dept. However, once again he displayed some reasons to be excited about his possibilities for the future. --Baja
Stats: 34min 10pts (4-10, 0-0, 2-3) 10reb 2ast 0stl 2blk 2TO
Thompson ( C+ ) -- Other than the start of the 1st & 3rd quarters when Malone had Hayes in, JT played Center along-side PPat for the stretch runs of this game. He ended up with lowest double-double that you can get with 10 points and 10 rebounds, but unfortunately he only made one basket in the 4th quarter and beyond that basket none of the baskets were at critical times which didn’t make them seem as impactful. He picked up his 4th foul at the 9 minute mark of the 3rd quarter and Malone sat him for the rest of the quarter. He didn’t get back into the game until 10 minutes were left and unfortunately other than hitting that one bucket didn’t do a whole lot to help the team. He made a critical mental error by picking up a T with the Kings down by 6 with 6 minutes to go. On defense he had some good moments and some bad moments. He had nice block on Ibaka and managed to keep the ball inbounds to secure an extra possession and there were some good defensive rotations that he made which prevented the Thunder from getting the offensive looks they wanted. On the other hand and he gave the Thunder an extra possession when he needlessly pushed in the back on a rebound the Kings were clearly going to secure and he left Jeremy Lamb in transition which allowed Lamb to hit a huge 3pt shot late in the game to help the Thunder to go up by 6 again. So he did his work on the boards, got some points with-out being too inefficient, made some good plays and some bad plays, but unfortunately he’ll be remembered most for that unnecessary T I think.--Uncia
Stats: 18min 6pts (3-3, 0-0, 0-0) 9reb 0ast 2stl 0blk 0TO
Hayes ( A- ) -- was obviously the big difference maker as we jumped out to an 11-2 start in this. Did not miss a single shot during that first quarter, going 1 for 1 with his devastating little flips, and of course drawing the sort of defensive attention that gets everybody else open. Demarcus Who? I made a note that he was starting to get on the boards in the early 3rd, and then we had our hallelujah moment, when all of the power and glory that is Chuck Hayes came fully online, and for about 6 minutes he was the single best 6'6" center on the floor. He began gobbling boards, could play a 1 man zone because he didn't have to guard anyone, and just simply refused to miss from the field. Let me ask you, has DeMarcus ever shot 100% from the field? Has he? On one sequence battled for an offensive board after which he fell to the ground and called a timeout. Then out of the timeout we rewarded the hustle and ran a play, an actual offensive play designed to feature Chuck Hayes in a professional basketball game, and got him one of those patented flips again. Added a tip from about 4feet beneath the rim, which when you think about it is a really tough shot from way down there, and was a significant factor as we refused to crumble away and clawed back to take the lead back from the Thunder after it looked like we'd had our moment. It can hardly be coincidence that after Chuck left we rapidly disintegrated and our ourselves 17 down with a matter of 5-6 minutes, necessitating the late IT show. I think the only reasonable conclusion to draw from this is that the only problem for Chuck since he's been in Sacramento was role. We signed him off a season where he had been starting at center down in Houston, and clearly if we were just to start him here, we'd get our money's worth and then some. So I'm jumping on the trade Boogie for Iman Shumpert bandwagon. Or possibly Chuckwagon. --Brick
Stats: 29min 14pts (4-12, 2-6, 4-5) 3reb 3ast 1stl 0blk 1TO
McLemore ( B- ) -- McLemore had some trouble shooting the ball tonight. His first shot was the memorable one - off a steal in the passing lane he ran the full length of the court past Kevin Durant and got an easy dunk with Durant apparently so surprised by his speed that he didn't even try to contest the shot. His second shot was also in the lane, but after that his final 10 shots were all jumpers. It was on the defensive side of the court that Ben made his biggest contribution tonight. He was given the difficult task of guarding Russell Westbrook (a good - no, GREAT - move considering our PGs and their defensive woes) and he did a fabulous job, putting in easily the best defensive game of his NBA career. In the first two possessions of the game the Thunder went straight at Ben and despite Westbrook's best efforts he was stymied into two jumpshots (one hit - what are you gonna do?) Altogether, McLemore held Westbrook to 7 points in the first half. In the third quarter, the Thunder started to try some different looks at Ben. IN the first two possessions they went to a high pick-and-roll with Ibaka, but after getting nothing on either of those, they (briefly) took a page out of the Jamal Crawford playbook and attacked Ben by cutting off the ball. The result? Two possessions, two layups for Westbrook. Then they quit the only thing that was working. For the game I only saw Russell successfully drive on Ben without a screen twice, and he didn't get anything on either one. Westbrook finished with 13 points off McLemore (off 12 shots) and given that it's Westbrook, that is basically shutting him down. --Capt.
Stats: 27min 14pts (4-10, 2-2, 2-2) 1reb 7ast 0stl 0blk 1TO
Vasquez ( C+ ) -- Had one of his better stints of the season to start this one off. The ball movement was great in the first quarter and Vasquez was a big part of setting that tone. As usual ran some nice pick and rolls while more surprisingly getting into the paint and making plays against one of the leagues better defenders, although Westbrook still looks a little rusty. Defense wasn't an issue in this one as he was matched up against Sefolosha who's doesn't do much more then hang out behind the three point line and run the floor. Got thrown back in with momentum going the Thunders way and while he wasn't having the same impact he did early on was still getting guys shots. Pretty much the same deal in the second half. Was in control and finding open shooters, but for the most they weren't finishing for him. Was still getting into the paint but his was unable to finish and took some contested and probably ill advised shots down low. So in the end not a great shooting night but got us off to a great start and played a mostly mistake free game.--Henkel
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