Quote:
Originally Posted by jthig32
This was a hell of a win. A HELL of a win. People claiming the Thunder are overrated are missing the point a bit. They're a good team with a big home court advantage, and the Mavs just took them down on the second night of a back to back.
Tyson freaking Chandler. I mean holy cow. He needs to start playing 35 minutes a night, foul situation allowing. He went for 18/17 and I STILL don't think that accurately reflects the impact he had on this game. Just an absolute beast.
Shawn Marion defends Durant better than anyone in the NBA. He had a huge impact on the second half of this game. The ball flowed when he was in the game, he flashed to open spots, he crashed the boards and he guarded one of the best players in basketball. Not too shabby.
Dirk..I mean...he's Dirk. Fantastic game. I wont' even ding him for the boards because we owned the boards and it just seemed like a case where Chandler was gobbling up everything.
Kidd has GOT to fix his shot. Quickly. But he ran the offense flawlessly in the fourth and it shouldn't be overlooked how well he defended Westbrook.
This was a nice game for Butler and he STILL needed 13 shots to generate 15 points. He's just not very good anymore.
Subpar game for Jet and Barea, horrible, horrible game for Haywood.
Final point...the five that blistered the Thunder in the fourth? Kidd/Jet/Marion/Dirk/Chandler. That five should close just about every single game. I'm willing to accept some matchup changes in rare instances, but by and large that should be your five.
|
Agree with most of this. Chandler was amazing tonight. When he, Marion and Kidd are out there, the defense can be pretty darn good.
I think the 5 you mentioned should definitely close games until Roddy gets back. When that happens, I'll be very interested to see what Carlisle does. I could see Carlisle alternating between Roddy and Marion depending on who's playing better.