Thursday Bolts – 2.14.13
Steve Kerr on the Thunder’s weakness: “I still want to see a more composed version of Russell Westbrook. I think the internal improvement there really starts with him, both with his offensive efficiency — there is no reason why he should shoot 41 percent; he’s just too good of a player — and there is just no reason for his tantrums. It may not kill them as a team. They are so mature that they seem to weather those emotional outbursts, but it’s not helping them. I’d like to see him just show a little better leadership and maturity, and I think that’s probably the next step for him and the team as a whole, just seeing how they can make that improvement emotionally.”
Alok Pattani of ESPN.com: “LeBron James has garnered a lot of praise for his six-game streak of scoring and shooting percentage. However, if you look at a complete statistic that takes everything a player contributes to his team over the course of a season, James actually trails Kevin Durant. The statistic is “Win Shares”, developed by Basketball Reference building off the individual offensive and defensive rating framework established by ESPN Production Analytics’ Dean Oliver. Win shares quantifies a player’s overall impact on his team’s winning – taking into account a player’s individual box-score statistics in the context of his team’s offensive and defensive performance.”
ESPN Stats and Info: “LeBron’s PER is 6.6% higher than Durant’s, and his Estimated Wins Added – the estimated number of wins a player adds to a team’s season total above what a ‘replacement player’ would produce – is 3.6% more than Durant.”
Mike Prada of SB Nation on Westbrook’s media thing: “Most athletes will respond to an inane question like “Did your team lose this game or did the other team win?” politely. A few might give a short answer that says nothing. Then, there’s Russell Westbrook, who will respond to your query by raising his eyebrows and making it seem like you told him the world was flat. I approve of this, by the way. Ask better questions, reporters.”
Erik Spoelstra: “This is a game that everybody will be wanting to watch,’’ Spoelstra said. “The last game before the break, sometimes as a coach you would be worrying about whether your team will be engaged or thinking about the break. But our guys will not be thinking about the break and I don’t think their guys will be either.”
Bil Haisten of the Tulsa World on Matt Pinto: “As the Thunder routed Phoenix in Oklahoma City last Friday, the Tulsa World recorded and transcribed Pinto’s call during the third quarter. There were 4,259 words. Over the course of an entire game, Pinto’s play-by-play description amounts to more than 17,000 words. Over the course of an 82-game season – about 1.4 million words.”
Dirk on playing the Thunder: “Well, last week they blew us out. But other than that, it has been fun games all the way around. Before they really, really got good, we used to have their number. We used to always beat them, here or there. In the championship year, those close games, we knew we were going to pull it out and win in the end. And these last two years, we just can’t get a win.”
5-on-5 talking Thunder-Heat with Tom Haberstroh taking Miami in a seven-game series: “As Erik Spoelstra said the other day, the Finals were way closer than a five-game series. Still, I’m not sure the Thunder’s postseason chances improved when they dealt James Harden but the Heat’s closing lineup with Ray Allen has been downright terrifying. I think the Heat still have the upper hand here.”
