First things first, I'm impressed with Ronny Turiaf. He's a hustler, and he hits those 15-18 foot jumpers with regularity when he gets a good look. I never thought a whole lot about him, but watching him play, I can see why so many people like him. I suppose it's a little unfair to say that the Warriors don't play ANY defense, but the defense they do play is more stat padding defense, which ultimately is the same as none. Every Warrior reaches on their man, and Turiaf always goes up for a block, so what that does, is make it extraordinarily hard to rebound. On a couple of occaisions, Jeff Green forces a quick turn around floater that comes up way short, and manages to get his own rebound, over 4 Warriors. I mean, I know he's more of a power forward than any one (except maybe Turiaf) on the Warriors roster (since Biedrins was out), but seriously, he's still only 6-9, sure someone can grab a rebound over him, surely one of four people can box him out, surely three of four people can box him out and let the other guy get the rebound. I'm going to say that probably 5-6 of the 8 rebounds that Corey Maggette got were the ones that literally fell into his hands, like those ones that would probably conk him in the head if he didn't catch it. Sure the Warriors will get a couple of steals here and there, but all that reaching really gives the other team a lot of good looks, granted the other team is the Thunder.
On the offensive end, the Warriors were better, marginally. Monta Ellis was doing his Monta Ellis thing, attacking the basket, getting to the rim. Maggette, well, he's good at getting fouled, but I think he relies on it too much. It's like he expects to get hit every time he goes up, which is what got him and Don Nelson early technicals, for questioning a no-call (in which no one was even near Maggette, yay for invisible brick wall). All in all, most of the game was pretty much a trading of 10-2 runs between the teams. Towards the end, Stephen Jackson tried to take over the game, something that now I know, Jackson shouldn't be doing, the result was a couple of points, a couple of turnovers, a number of bad shots, and some ugly basketball, as he barrels into 3 Thunder defenders. Though I have to say, I was kind of sad that he only did his jab step pull-up from 26 feet once in the whole game. Oracle is definitely used to it though, everytime Jackson jacks up a shot the entire arena was like, "No, no, no, no, why'd he shoot that?" and then they'd explode when it went in. I can imagine how frustrated Warriors fans must be when he shoots his average 35% games. Jamal Crawford is a great one-on-one player, amazing crossover. Also I noticed he's very much a rythm shooter, they need to get the ball to him enough so that he stays in rythm, but not enough so that he shoots them out of the game, they have yet to find that balance. He had a tough time finding his shot after they stopped going to him in the second half. After not touching the ball in the track meet of a game for most of the third quarter, it wasn't hard to see why he couldn't sink one later in the game. Double crossover pullup, that's his shot, but he needs a rythm, found it in the first half, lost it after halftime. So far as I've seen, Anthony Randolph can't really do anything except dunk, and set questionable moving picks.
The Thunder honestly weren't much better, they kind of gave this game away. Durant was stellar, the Warriors really couldn't do much about him, granted Jackson stripped him a couple of times, but I was kind of perplexed why Don Nelson kept putting Marco Bellinelli (instead of Kelenna Azubuike) on him when Durant kept draining those 15 foot face up jumpers. Bellinelli isn't fast enough to keep in front of Durant, and so gives him way too much space for those mid-range jumpers. It was almost an automatic 2 points. I get the feeling that Scotty Brooks doesn't call a whole lot of offensive playsets, because I think Durant should've gotten the ball a lot more. Jeff Green is solid, but I think he tries too hard, too often he'd try to force in the paint backing down Corey Maggette, I mean, he's a big guy, but Green isn't huge, and he has to work on that turnaround jumper. Russell Westbrook on the otherhand is the real deal. Also forcing the issue at times, I like when he does the quick pull up jumpers, a lot of the other shots though, like those off balance runners in the lane, I think he made a lot harder than he had to (as in, he should've passed the ball). Definitely not going to be one of those pass-first point guards, but I can see why people like him and why he was drafted so high. Earl Watson needs to go, really, I think he's trying to do too much in his limited playing time, and forced a couple of shots he had no right taking. Kyle Weaver and Thabo Sefalosha need to slow down, Kyle Weaver's shots were falling here and there, Sefalosha's weren't falling at all. Way too much isolation play, way too much. I also can't say enough how much I like Nick Collison, sturdy hustle guy, gets the boards, gets back, plays in his own game, doesn't try to be fancy. I think he'd be a great addition to a contending team, I hope OKC moves him somewhere where he can be used to his full potential. Nenad Krstic looked slow and kind of flat, I don't think he's 100% yet from the ACL surgery.
Aside from that it was pretty much an all-offense, no-defense game. It was a good game to watch, not great from a basketball perspective, but pretty entertaining. Tyson Chandler on the Thunder would have been crazy though, they definitely need a bigger rebounder, not sure if Green fits great, but he can. Green to me is more like the Al Harrington/Al Thornton kind of combo-forward, hopefully he develops better than the two above-mentioned. Randolph is still way too raw, but I can see he has potential, definitely has to add weight, a lot of weight. Aside from that, I like how CJ Watson and Kelenna Azubuike play within their own game and don't try to force anything, however, Warriors definitely need a facilitator to run the team and the offense. I think Don Nelson's offense might work (more effectively) if they had a more assertive floor captain.
Sorry if this was sort of here and there, those were just a few of my thoughts on the game.
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