Monday Bolts – 3.3.14
Berry Tramel: “Don’t misunderstand. The Thunder will miss Thabo. You don’t lose your best perimeter defender and not pay the price. But Brooks has often gone down the stretch without Sefolosha. So it wasn’t out of the ordinary when the Thunder, leading 96-89 with 7:27 left, went with a lineup of Durant, Ibaka, Westbrook, Reggie Jackson and Derek Fisher. Over the next 41/2 minutes, the Thunder outscored Charlotte 16-3 to blow open the game. Fisher had two of his four steals, and the Thunder finally slowed Al Jefferson, who took advantage of Perkins’ absence and scored 25 points. After Jefferson’s hook shot brought the Bobcats within 98-92 with 5:47 left, he didn’t get another shot, as Ibaka played tough and the defense stiffened on passes from the perimeter.”
Marc Stein of ESPN.com: “LeBron James’ own recent surge has certainly narrowed the gap between the top two MVP contenders and has thus managed to make the race even more intriguing than it already was after Durant’s initial eruption following the loss of Russell Westbrook, which unexpectedly vaulted him into the MVP lead. Yet when we’re purely looking at the West’s contenders, as good as the likes of Love and Griffin have been lately, there just isn’t much to discuss.”
Darnell Mayberry: “PJ3 was OK in the starting unit. Not great. Not bad. Just kind of out there for the most part. He had four points, one rebound and two assists in 22 minutes. He made two of six shots. Defensively, he started on Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, which isn’t much of a challenge (MKG scored one point, missing both his field goals in 20 minutes). But it seemed that Brooks wanted to give PJ3 another crack at it after starting him at the beginning of the third against Memphis. Consistency, you know. He’s big on that. And rightfully so. Also, it seemed Brooks didn’t want to disrupt too much of the second unit by inserting Lamb. He could have gone with Roberson as he has in the past. But he settled on Jones. And with Brooks viewing him as his “utility defender,” it’s likely that he saw Jones in somewhat of the same mold as Sefolosha, a long an agile defender to complement the team’s two offensive stars with dirty work on the other end. It’ll be interesting to see where Brooks goes from here with the starting 2-guard spot. No matter how “fluid” he says it is, I just can’t see him shuffling players in and out every game.”
Stan Van Gundy on advanced stats: “I don’t trust most of it. I read some of the stuff that people write on ESPN.com, you know, I’ll read stats on pick and roll defense and stuff that came off Synergy or somewhere else — I don’t know who the hell is recording that information! I read a thing in the playoffs last year that said that New York isolated like 17 percent of the time,” he continued. “I’m watching their games, they isolate half of the time, at least. So I don’t know who’s recording that. If there’s a pick and roll, and they throw it back to Carmelo and he holds the ball and isolates for eight seconds, that’s a pick and roll play, not an isolation? And a lot of pick and roll stuff … you know, I read a thing today from ESPN the Magazine on Paul George being the best pick and roll defender in the league on the ball handler. Look, a lot of pick and rolls … there’s pick and rolls designed to score, and there’s pick and rolls you run to get into something else. If you’re recording it and you’re treating those two things the same, then you don’t know what you’re doing.”
Ben Golliver of SI.com on Thabo: “A four-week timeline would sideline Sefolosha for Oklahoma City’s next 14 games. A six-week absence would cause him to miss 21 games and place his return date in the final week of the regular season.”
