4/14/2012 Thunder @ Timberwolves (regular season 60 of 66)

[Serge Protector]

"Durant... again... yes!" --Marv Albert

[Colonel Thunder]

Harden must be experiencing some knee soreness.
Bench Harden and send his beard to the court.

[Plainsman]

Man, KD played like a man possessed to get that win .

[KDisNotNice]

Harden definitely struggled, Brooks might have needed to pull him out long before his 31 minutes totaled. We clinched a top 2 seed with that win!

[Serge Protector]

Strong effort by the Thunder this evening, as they again received contributions from virtually everyone. Durant's performance in the fourth quarter gave me chills: this is the type of "closer" attitude he must bring to every playoff game. Westbrook had a strong game, as well. Worth noting is that the Thunder held a decisive (53-39) rebounding advantage, buoyed by strong efforts from Ibaka (12 rebounds), Perkins (10), Collison (8), Durant (7), and Sefolosha (5).

[KDisNotNice]

Lucky the T-Wolves sucked from the line. Collison the 3rd leading OKC scorer with 10?

[Colonel Thunder]

But the bench puked down it's leg.

[Serge Protector]

Lucky the T-Wolves sucked from the line. Collison the 3rd leading OKC scorer with 10?

It's true. Harden struggled (1-11 from the field), and though Ibaka made the most of his attempts (3-5 FG), he played sparingly in the second half, finishing with eight points. Collison played a strong game off the bench, which has been a recurring theme lately, as he's played particularly well since the month of April began. Perhaps he was inspired seeing his Jayhawks reach the NCAA Championship, despite their loss.

[KD 4 MVP]

Brooks should have taken the beard out alot earlier because it was clear coming off the sore knee he was not in the groove last night and Thabo was having a much better night on offense and his usual defense. IMO Brooks really needs to work on being more in tune with what's going on in each individual game and make his adjustments as the game goes on. Collison was having a really good night but even he was not playing at the level of Ibaka and they played the exact same amount of minutes. Ibaka was rebounding better and had five blocks to 0 for nick as well as gives you more options on offense and was a +15 compared to Nick at a -8. In a closely contested game like this was we have to get the right players on the floor at all times because in my mind every game is a playoff game from this point on. If KD didn't go MJ on them we definitely could have lost this game.

[Serge Protector]

Brooks should have taken the beard out alot earlier because it was clear coming off the sore knee he was not in the groove last night and Thabo was having a much better night on offense and his usual defense. IMO Brooks really needs to work on being more in tune with what's going on in each individual game and make his adjustments as the game goes on. Collison was having a really good night but even he was not playing at the level of Ibaka and they played the exact same amount of minutes. Ibaka was rebounding better and had five blocks to 0 for nick as well as gives you more options on offense and was a +15 compared to Nick at a -8. In a closely contested game like this was we have to get the right players on the floor at all times because in my mind every game is a playoff game from this point on. If KD didn't go MJ on them we definitely could have lost this game.

Completely agree on all points. Brooks rarely has a sense of how to adjust his rotation. He insists on ensuring that each player meets his "quota" for minutes played, with little or no consideration of each player's performance, or of how well the Thunder match-up with their opponent. His misuse of both Harden and Ibaka last night is the most recent example of his poor in-game management, but there have been numerous others.