10/22/2009 Kings @ Thunder (Preseason 7 of 7)

[KDisNotNice]

This is the Thunder's final preseason game before starting their regular season next Wednesday. Gametime is 7pm for the Sacramento Kings (1-4) and Oklahoma City Thunder (2-4) at Ford Center in OKC, OK. There is no TV broadcast but you can listen to it on the Thunder Radio Network or attend the game in person.

It sounds like from this article that ex-Thunder's Desmond Mason will be the starting small forward for the Kings this season.

http://nba.fanhouse.com/2009/10/19/mason-looking-like-kings-starting-sf/#

[Tydude]

thunder 90
Kings 80

[HotRocNRol]

would it be wrong to wear my Mason THUNDER jersey from last season?? LOL

Thunder 94
SacKings 89

[Clangus]

105 Thunder
87 Kings

Blowout

[Plainsman]

90 Thunder

89 Kings

Since they play again opening night, I've no idea what to expect tonight. If this were football, I would expect something very very vanilla.

Is Scott going to play the starters long minutes ?

[KDisNotNice]

Plainsman, I think it is different in the NBA as you play all teams 2 to 4 times so it is near impossible to keep any secrets about strategy from the other teams. We'll see all our main guys playing tonight. Frankly, they all need the time playing together to get ready for the season. Durant and Westbrook already look improved individually but I haven't seen much improvement as a team.

[Plainsman]

I have to disagree. I don't think football teams hide any " secrets " . I think they don't want weaknesses to be exposed.

We've read all off season about Brooks being now able to install his system by going through his first training camp. And I heard Grant Long on the telecast the other night say that the Thunder would not show anything to Sacramento Thursday night.

And IMO, we've not seen anything in the preseason except for players working on their games. It all changes next week.

[Brandon Rush]

Sactown 84
OKC 91

[Tx Thunder]

Thunder 103
Kings 89

[borracho]

i got upgraded to courtside for this game... it'll be cool to see how the rich folks live for once ;–)

[Rumble]

i got upgraded to courtside for this game... it'll be cool to see how the rich folks live for once ;–)

OH, dude!! That is sweeeeeet!!! ONe of these days, one of these days......

[Rumble]

It looks like I'll be there tonight! I'm anxious to see what my new seats look like. I bought them without seeing them, but I was told they were the best $10 seats available at the time.

Section 304. I hope they're not too bad!

[KDisNotNice]

Thunder 95
Kings 94

tiebreaker: 6 (assists by Westbrook)

[Fast | Break]

i got upgraded to courtside for this game... it'll be cool to see how the rich folks live for once ;–)

Too bad no TV tonight:(

sacto 95
Thunder 99

[Rumble]

Thunder: 103
Kings: 99

[Rumble]

Well, we're getting ready to head out! Leaving here in about 15 minutes! See you guys at the game!

[Plainsman]

Plainsman, I think it is different in the NBA as you play all teams 2 to 4 times so it is near impossible to keep any secrets about strategy from the other teams. We'll see all our main guys playing tonight. Frankly, they all need the time playing together to get ready for the season. Durant and Westbrook already look improved individually but I haven't seen much improvement as a team.


Well, Brooks says its all about execution , except that practice for the next few days is “pretty important for us.”



DEJA VU
Rarely in the NBA will a team open the regular season against the same team it ended the preseason against. But that’s the position the Thunder and Kings are in this year. Cleveland and Boston have also managed to pull the scheduling quirk.

Brooks, however, said tonight’s game shouldn’t have any bearing on Wednesday’s season opener. Because of exhaustive scouting departments, he said, NBA teams, don’t have anything left to hide.

“We know what they’re going to run and they know what we’re going to run,” Brooks said. “We have to do a great job of executing it and using effort in our execution.”

Brooks did say Wednesday’s packages will be different than tonight’s because he plans to implement more wrinkles in the final few days of practice before the two teams meet again. He called the next five days of practice “pretty important for us.”


http://blog.newsok.com/thunderrumblings/2009/10/22/the-scene-at-shootaround/

[Plainsman]

Seems to me that this is different than even playoff basketball, because there's so much time between games and your starting a season with some new personnel. This really is almost football like .

[Betts]

I'm going early tonight, hoping to get a chance to say hi to Desmond. He came in to coffee this morning like he used to last year every day and I missed him:(. It's going to be sad to see him on the opposing team.

[Clangus]

this is going to be a long season if the boys don't learn how to defend the 3 point line

[RicanThunder]

this is going to be a long season if the boys don't learn how to defend the 3 point line

I'm RicanHornet, and I approve this message.

[Plainsman]

this is going to be a long season if the boys don't learn how to defend the 3 point line

I just got in from the game, the wife had to get home early .......... and I'm afraid this is going to be a long season .............. period.

I'm not a great evaluator of basketball play, but what I saw looked downright ugly.

This better just be the preseason BS.

The Kings did not even have Kevin Martin.

[Clangus]

yeah listened to it and it was just depressing

[Plainsman]

I feel a little better after looking at the minutes distribution, reserves got most of the minutes.

Box score here .......

http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/boxscore?gid=2009102225


But not a whole lot better.

Kevin Martin should play in the opener next week. Scotty Brooks has is work cut out for him tween now and then.

[RicanThunder]

I feel a little better after looking at the minutes distribution, reserves got most of the minutes.


What does that say about our reserves??? OUCH!!!!! They played mainly their reserves also and they whooped our butts.

[Plainsman]

In the second quarter, Kings had guys open for 3's ................and I don't mean just " open " ............ they were almost all alone on one side of the court. The guy could've made a phone call and then got his shot off.

That did not happen just once , it seemed like it was over and over and over.

Maybe the Kings are going to be much better than anyone thinks. Or maybe they have a really good coach in Paul Westphal.

This is preseason, but I'm at a loss.

[Plainsman]

I've seen three rookies play vrs the Thunder who played better than Harden has shown so far, that being Chase Budinger, Dejuan Blair, and tonight Tyreke Evans.

Budinger really impressed me knockin down those three's, the Thunder are a poor three point shooting team and could've really used Budinger. Harden has shown me nothing.

[Clangus]

I cannot even see a positive from this. Sacto are going to be one of the worst teams this season, and they SMASH us?

[KDisNotNice]

I cannot even see a positive from this. Sacto are going to be one of the worst teams this season, and they SMASH us?

Just keep telling yourself, its only preseason, its only preseason.

The reserves did fight back in the 4th quarter to make it respectable. Prior to that, it was almost like the final days of the PJ coached games.

[Rumble]

Very disappointing game. Not much to cheer about, really. We looked decent in the first quarter, but we were letting the Kings have the baseline for 3 or 4 slams it seems. Then they started with the 3's, and it was over pretty quick.

I guess we're still in for another season of some growing pains. I was excited by winning the 2 pre-season games, but then reality set in when we played the Spurs the other day, and now tonight.

[KDisNotNice]

The Thunder finish the preseason at 2-5. They were 1-6 last season. Attendance at home game #1 (preseason) was a little over 15,200 and the attendance at home game#2 (preseason) was a little over 16,000. That's very good. Of course there weren't that many actually there but it means there were quite a few season tickets bought which all count in those 2 game totals (plus any single game buyers).

As long as they don't go 23-59 again, attendance should be very good for years to come.

[KDisNotNice]

I'm just glad the Thunder kept all their big play strategy and 3 point defensive moves a secret tonight so we will catch the Kings off guard next Wednesday. ;)

[KDisNotNice]

Did you notice when Rumble jumped on the 'trampoline' over those 5 Thunder Girls to dunk a basketball, they picked the 5 shortest ones to do that stunt? :)

[Clangus]

yeah we were just playing possum for the season opener

[Plainsman]

I'm just glad the Thunder kept all their big play strategy and 3 point defensive moves a secret tonight so we will catch the Kings off guard next Wednesday. ;)

Yeah that was a typical basketball game, no strategy , just organized chaos ............ except the chaos wasn't even organized.

[Rod4soonrs]

Let's hope it's not a sign of things to come, we could see a repeat of what happened to PJ, just in case, anyone own "fire Scott Brooks.com"?

[Plainsman]

I'm still tryin to digest what we saw last night, I don't know what to think ...........but I'm gonna wait till December before I start the John Wall watch and begin counting ping pong balls.

I'm glad it wasn't on TV so I won't be tempted to watch a recording. Maybe its best to pretend we never saw that.

[KDisNotNice]

Its only preseason, its only preseason. Our record is 0-0.

(repeat 3 times)

[KDisNotNice]

Lets not forget Westbrook got in early and severe foul trouble in this last preseason game. With the regular refs (very likely) back for the start of the regular season, we'll have our main players out there for most of the game. Our 'big 3' may need to average 37 minutes a game though.

[Wrap10]

Listening on the radio, I was thinking to myself, "they just don't care tonight." I hope that's all it was, although they should care enough to give more of an effort than that, even if it is a preseason game. Sacramento darn sure cared. Hopefully when the lights come on next week, the effort and the outcome will both be different.

[DAK!]

So, let me get this straight. In all the games this preseason, Summer League included, Westbrook has shown improvement in his decision making and assist to t/o ratio in a dramatic fashion yet he has one poor game due to being in foul trouble and people are already talking about not talking about John Wall and ping pong balls until December and wondering if anybody has the rights to firescottbrooks.com.

Fans?

[KDisNotNice]

No one is criticizing Westbrook, just the team as a whole. As Yogi Berra said, 'It's Deja Vu all over again'.

[Plainsman]

So, let me get this straight. In all the games this preseason, Summer League included, Westbrook has shown improvement in his decision making and assist to t/o ratio in a dramatic fashion yet he has one poor game due to being in foul trouble and people are already talking about not talking about John Wall and ping pong balls until December and wondering if anybody has the rights to firescottbrooks.com.

Fans?

Nice stretch.

BTW, I only used John Wall's name because both NBAdraft.net and DraftXpress have him as #1 on their mock drafts. Never thought what I wrote would be taken literally, it was merely metaphor. I promise to be more serious in the future.