Hoopinion: Quotes, Notes, and Links: Thunder 94 Hawks 91

[Hawksquawk]

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Highlights

Team	Poss	Off Eff	eFG%	FT Rate	OR%	TO%
OKC	83.4	1.128	47.4	34.2	35.0	13.2
ATL	83.4	1.092	42.2	16.7	34.6	9.6

Speaking immediately following a loss Mike Woodson blames, you'd never have guessed it, effort:

"They were the more aggressive team. They came out to play, and we just didn’t."

Woodson on fourth quarter shot selection and jump shots in general:

"When you’re making them, they look good. When you are not making them, you have to get to the rim and try to at least get to the free throw line, and we just didn’t do it."

Not quite the response I suspect the die-hards would like to hear as getting the ball out of the hands of the guys missing shots* and into the hands of Al Horford and Josh Smith does not appear to be a legitimate option.

*Shots that, frankly, don't look that good, from my vantage point, even when they're going in.

Josh Smith:

"We should have kept going inside-out. It would have opened up the 3-point shot."

A fine idea behind which we all can rally.

Mark Bradley addresses the issue I brought up briefly* in yesterday's game thread: the pace at which the Thunder have built a good team compared to how long it took the Hawks. The difference is mostly drafting Durant but the importance of not wasting other lottery picks as the Hawks did with Shelden Williams and have (essentially) with Josh Childress. Bradley's still clearly of the opinion that Marvin Williams is less capable rather than under-utilized:

“We always got smacked in the face for not drafting [Chris] Paul,” Woodson said, but it’s the whiff that keeps on missing. Even with a new contract, Williams remains inessential. He’s averaging 10.4 points and 5.1 rebounds, both marking significant sags off last season’s yield. On Monday he played 21 minutes, scored seven points, took two rebounds and managed no assists. (Durant: 29 points, five rebounds, five assists.)

*and apparently not very coherently

Marvin's a tough case. He obviously can't put himself into games in the fourth quarter to create a more balanced lineup but at what point does he begin to shoulder the blame for the career-low usage rate and accompanying drop in offensive production and/or do his supporters (me included) begin to view his willingness to fit in and subordinate his own talents as a real limitation?

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