Game 3 Recap: Oklahoma City 88, Minnesota 85

Halloween may be over, but Pumpkin pictures are cool year 'round!

NBA.com Box Score

Before I start this recap, let me just iterate the genius of my partner in crime. Okluschen (Ben Luschen) of Blue Blitz predicted the score of this game....EXACTLY. Exactly right. Why even go to other sites at all now? You might as well just forget it, captain. We got the experts up here in this crib.

The game tonight was awesome for Thunder fans. The presentation? Not so much. Now that all of the shine and glimmer of the home opener is gone, one realizes just how paper thin the game entertainment is. The drumline (by far my favourite part of the overall presentation) wasn't used during team introductions, and was only used once the entire game. During timeouts, the team really didn't have much to show. There was the Midfirst bank shot contest, but aside from that the entertainment mostly consisted either of looking at crazy fans or watching the emcee give free stuff to some guy who probably paid to get on camera. The music during the game was also horrible. Most of it just contisted of playing "Charge", "De-Fense", or "Everybody clap your hands". I swear, I think I'll have to kill whoever keeps playing "Everybody clap your hands". I mean, they played it literally 6 times, and thqat was only when I counted! Get something new! I think I'll get sick of Thunderstruck by the time the season is through, too.

Presentation aside, you've gotta love this game. The first 3 quarters went by a specific formula. The Timberwolves would get off to a huge lead, make things look like same-old, same-old for the Thunder. Then, the Thunder would come storming back to tie it by the time the quarter ended. By the 4th, the Thunder had things figured out, and a defensive battle ensued.

Needless to say, we we killed by Al Jefferson. Things never seem to change in Minnesota, becuase if you changed "Al Jefferson" to "Kevin Garnett", "Mike Miller" to "Ricky Davis", and "Craig Smith" to "Mark Blount", you couldn't really tell the difference between now and back in the day. But I digress. Al Jefferson with 24 Points, 11-17 shooting, 13 Rebounds, and 1 block easily earns the Thunder Plunderer Award tonight.

On our side of the ball, Kevin Durant had another horrible night with 18 points on just 7-21 shooting. While Darnell Mayberry thinks that his shots will start going in, it's my opinion that we're going to see a lot of off nights this season. About 1 of every 3 games he'll perform, but otherwise he'll stink it up to the extreme and hurt the team. Jeff Green was a little bit more productive, but was hardly deserving of the award with 13 points on 6-14 Shooting. Ditto for Russell Westbrook with 14 points, 6-13 shooting and only 2 assists. Granted, he did play some SG today, but that was for a short period at the end of the game.

Still, nobody had a worse night tonight than our lovable Frenchman, Johan Petro. In 17 minutes he had 4 Points, 2-4 shooting, 6 rebounds, 1 steal, and a -12 +/- ratio. The closest to him was Nick sollison at -6. He missed a couple of midrange jumpers tonight, and I really think he needs to get in the post more. Somebody give this man a lead pass! Or a screen! Here's hoping to better times, and more Thunder Blunderless nights, Johan,

Thus, the Thunder Wonder award has to go to Nick Collison. He didn't have a totally awesome performace, but he had a solid, liquid, and gas outing with 10 points, 4-8 shooting, 10 rebounds (7 offensive), 2 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. On top of that, he had a really awesome shot late in the 4th to put the Thunder up by 1, from which they never looked back. There's a reason they sell a "jersey shirt" for this guy.

The Thunder Down Under award is a tough one to decide. Whomever I give it to really doesn't deserve it. Since I'm infamous for hating inefficency, I'm going to give it to, you guessed it, Joe Smith. 6 Points, 3-4 Shooting, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and 1 steal all in 16 minutes. Early on he was getting burned a bit by Craig Smith, but it's nothing compared to the whopping that Jefferson was doing on Wilcox. He made a lot of hustle rebounds and recovering from steals in the mid 4th that really kept the Thunder in the game. Yeah, yeah, I know you guys are gonna call me a homer for this one.

Lastly, before I go, I'd really like to state that I miss Damien Wilkins. He's been getting next to none minutes, and appears to be stuck in Coach Carlesimos doghouse. Here's hoping he gets some minutes. His Pre-Season performance really makes him deserve a chance.

Next Game: Wednesday vs. The Boston Celtics

Game 3 Pregame: Timberwolves at Thunder

At last, a winnable game. Really, if you're the Thunder, I don't want to say "must-win," but it would definitely be a disappointment if you didn't. I mean, the T-Wolves at home? If you can't win this game, what can you win? In the NBA, nothing is for certain, but you have to like your chances tonight.

Backstory: Unsurprisingly enough, the Thunder remain winless all-time in significant games. The sloppy play from the preseason seemed to carry over to the regular season. But Thunder fans, please don't be disappointed. We all know this team sucks. It's not about wins and loses though. It's about NBA basketball in OKC. So sit back tonight at the Ford Center, grab a beer, soda, hot dog, pizza, whatever, and thank Mick Cornett for bringing us a team.

Match-Ups:
Earl Watson vs. Randy Foye
Edge: Watson
This is a close match-up, neither player putting up the kind of numbers that absolutely blow you away. Earl Watson is at home, so I gave him the edge. There are times, really, where he looks pretty good. Neither of these point guards would be starting on a play-off team though, so definitely a lack-luster match-up.

Kevin Durant vs. Rashad McCants
Edge: KDKD is the better scorer (though McCants is second on the 'Wolves in scoring thus far this season) and should be a handful against Rashad defensively, so I think this is a pretty decisive edge.

Jeff Green vs. Mike Miller
Edge: Miller
Well, if it were the Mike Miller of three or four years ago, this wouldn't even be close. Still, Mike's still got game and Jeff Green is arguably one of the weakest Thunder starters.

Nick Collison vs. Al Jefferson
Edge: Big Al
OK, so apparently Wilcox is coming off the bench this season. I guess I can live with that. Even if he was starting, I seriously doubt that he'd be able to beat Big Al out for the power forward match-up. This guy is for real. If he were in L.A., he'd be Andrew Bynum.

Johan Petro vs. Kevin Love
Edge: Love
He's only played a few games, but has been pretty efficient in them. Averaging 10 points and 6 boards, plus a danger from downtown. Plus, does Petro really win at anything in life?

Battle of the Benches
Edge: Thunder
Now that Wilcox isn't starting, the bench is much more solidified. Desmond Mason and Russ Westbrook give you good energy players off the bench at nearly every position.

Coaching and Intangibles
Edge: Thunder
Props to my boyz in the Ford Center. Just keep doin what your doin.

Player to Watch: I say watch Earl Watson. He plays inconsistently, but I have a hunch he'll do well tonight. At least he'd better do well, or we'll have a hard time capturing victory.

Predicted Result: Thunder 88 Timberwolves 85

Pre-Season Game 1 Recap: Timberwolves 88, Thunder 82

NBA.com Boxscore

If I had to describe this game in one word, I'd say: throwback.

First of all, the game was broadcast on KSBI-TV, channel 52. Back in the 90s, many teams had no FSN affiliate and broadcast their games on local stations. The presentation here reminded me very much so of that. The cameras were high-school football quality. The graphics were very minimal, and the musical theme, essentailly a thunder clap and a trumpet, sounded hilariously bad.

Secondly, the whole arena looked very old school. There was minimal floor design, and there was no moving advertisements in front of the scorers table. The highlight of the game was probably when Rodney Carney dived for a loose ball and knocked down the banner on the scorers table, and no one ever bothered to put it back up.

Thirdly, the game was a gruelfest. It was a combination of the fact that the players that were good were playing like crap, and the fact that both teams refused to shoot a lot of 3s. It reminded me a lot of those games in the 80s when they had just invented the 3 point line, but most teams were too scared to shoot the shot regularly unless they had Larry Bird or Magic Johnson.

When you get right down to it, this was a really bad outing for the Thunder. I know that it's hard to take anything of value from Pre-Season games, but lets just look at the Field Goal shooting of our starters:
Chris Wilcox 6-10
Jeff Green 1-7
Nick Collison 2-7
Earl Watson 1-7
Kevin Durant 3-13

Aside from the good game of Wilcox, the shooting was horrible. What's even sadder is that most of these shots were from mid-range. All 5 starters shot a combination of 2 3s. Yeah. On top of this, everybody from the starting lineup saw heavy, heavy minutes. You could see that they were tired, but coach Carlesimo didn't show much interest in bringing the signees off of the bench.

The roatation players were a different story. Damien Wilkins looked like he was doing everything that Durant was supposed to do: Actually making his jump shots, goin 7-12 from the floor and scoring 19 points. Russell Westbrook also looked good. He had 13 assists and 3 points, but his game was marred by a whopping 5 turnovers. He really didn't look ready at all to lead the team at Point Guard.

If you're going to take something from this game, here's 3 Key things:

1. The Thunder really, really, really, really need a true point guard. Most of the time, Durant had to create for himself, and he utterly failed. This isn't college anymore, and he needs someone to distribute to him and get him open looks. Watson certainly wasn't proving himself to do that, with just 4 assists in 28 minutes, with a whopping 5 turnovers. Westbrook had almost the same problem. It's painfully obvious that Sam Presti has to make some moves in order for this team to be successful.

2. 3 Point shooting is not our main problem. Teams can survive without scoring a lot, as evidenced by how we kept the game close even after getting so far behind in the first. Contrary to what the Oklahoma City fans want, this team will survive on a lot of defense and 12 foot jumpers.

3. We need to play our other guys. Carlesimo was giving a whole lotta minutes to the main guys. We played only 10 guys, with the only real non-rotationer being Courtney Alexander, who played for a paltry 6 minutes. I'd like to see what the training camp signees are made of.

Anyway, on to our Thunder Wonder and Blunder:

Thunder Wonder:
Damien Wilkins
19 Points, 7-12 Shooting, 1-2 3 Point Shooting, 4-6 Free Throw Shooting, 5 Rebounds, 1 Steal

Have to give the Wonder to Damien tonight. He essentially carried the team through the 3rd quarter after its 2nd quarter surge, and was really the only reason we stayed in the game. Weezy had a good night too, and was a close second.

Thunder Blunder:
Earl Watson
2 Points, 1-7 Shooting, 0-1 3 Point Shooting, 1 Rebound, 4 Assists, 5 Turnovers, 1 Steal

Kevin Durant was close to getting this award, but while he had similar shooting, he didn't have more turnovers than assists as a point guard, and he had no rebounds. Earl Watson was really, really useless today.

Well, there's not much more to say about the game at this point. The good people of Billings, Montana got their fair share of pro basketball, and we got our first taste of what the season will be like.

And as a side note, apologies for the pictureless recap. Pre-Season games aren't covered so well media-wise.