Official Game Thread: Thunder "at" Hawks

[Diesel]

5 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This is unacceptable. Teams have been doing this for the last 5+ years. When are we gonna solve this? Who will step up.

This is where DJ and Bogi and to some extent OO have to earn that check.  Firstly, Coach Snyder has to put in some set plays when other teams Blitz.  Instead of a panic, we should recognize and have some type of easy score from it.   The problem happens when we don't have anything for Blitzing defense and we let the other team get stops. 

DJ has to be able to manage the offense without losing the ball.   He's going to get Blitz'd too.  Bogi, if he's on the floor, has to be a tertiary ball handler.   If your shot is not falling, create.  OO, needs to help.   I always wonder, why is Trae on that Island all alone?  Why is everybody else just watching?

[kg01]

5 hours ago, hylndr11 said:

sounds familiar

Perhaps but no one talks about us as a 'sneaky contender' or has given our guy mvp-love.  That's the difference. 

[kg01]

7 hours ago, Spud2nique said:

Can’t wait to watch the game stuck at work and saw boxscore.. JJ is nuts wtf. 4 steals???? 1 turnover.. 28 points 7 boards 3 dimes..

Did he sell popcorn too? 

He has to be one of the top 5 or so MOST IMPROVED IN THE LEAGUE, no? 
 

I know Maxey but .. wow. This dude has me talking about him daily. Great stuff! 

Yes, JJ sold popcorn and he stole 2 dudes' souks spectacularly.  I had to look away... 

2 hours ago, benhillboy said:

The Hawks dominated the glass as they should’ve.  They just gotta provide some late game drama tho.

Refreshing to see Trae finally realize how impactful his defensive play making can be, most notably in tight games versus upper tier opponents.  That chase down steal on Chet and the hustle charge he drew (forgot who) absolutely could be seen as the difference as opposed to yesteryears when he’d be nowhere near those plays.  Highest paid, highest minute guys gotta do those things.  Gotta break away from that Lilliard career trajectory he’s on: awesome stats, one deep playoff run, 0 intangibles and defense to fortify the team leading you to demand a trade and piggyback and get dominated by an upstart in your division (little mini rant lol I can’t stand Lilliard)

But yeah, Jalen Tyrese Murhaf&@kin Johnson.  He’s like an outlaw.  Opponents simply can’t stop him from doing whatever the hell he wants most of the time.  Gaining more and more national traction for MIP.

I am a hillbilly today.  Agree with all this.  I know, I'm scared too.  Hold me, benhilllll!!!!

On another note, I agree with @Diesel.  I like OKC.  Definitely a good collection of talent.  But their lack of bigs and their general softness is not going to serve them well in the playoffs.  Giddy is talented but that dude is sawft as tissue.  Love their good Jalen but I'm unsure their formula of SGA spamming free throws is sustainable in the playoffs.  They have the pieces to do more than that.  Perhaps they adapt?  Why doesn't anyone cast even a sliver of doubt on them? 

[Diesel]

1 minute ago, kg01 said:

Why doesn't anyone cast even a sliver of doubt on them? 

People haven't casted doubt on them because  they have an MVP candidate.  When you have an MVP candidate, the media takes it easy on you because the media doesn't take the time to figure out why you win games.   When you look at OKC, they win games because they outscore their opponent, especially at the line.  They are like us with IsoJoe back in the day.  They have that one guy who can always get a bucket because his offense is good but particular.   That works in the regular season, but in the playoffs, he will see some double teams, they will deny him the ball, etc, etc... and until he feels that type of pressure, there is no telling how he will respond. 

What we did to them last night (and what we do to most teams) is that we put a highly efficient offense on them.  At one point, we were shooting over 60%.  We have scorers everywhere.   By the time we get to the playoffs, We will have seen every type of Blitz, double team, etc...  If we learn how to deal with those things during the season, we will not only be a sneaky team, we will be a hard out.   We just got to stop the panick...

 

[Diesel]

2 hours ago, benhillboy said:

The Hawks dominated the glass as they should’ve.  They just gotta provide some late game drama tho.

Refreshing to see Trae finally realize how impactful his defensive play making can be, most notably in tight games versus upper tier opponents.  That chase down steal on Chet and the hustle charge he drew (forgot who) absolutely could be seen as the difference as opposed to yesteryears when he’d be nowhere near those plays.  Highest paid, highest minute guys gotta do those things.  Gotta break away from that Lilliard career trajectory he’s on: awesome stats, one deep playoff run, 0 intangibles and defense to fortify the team leading you to demand a trade and piggyback and get dominated by an upstart in your division (little mini rant lol I can’t stand Lilliard)

But yeah, Jalen Tyrese Murhaf&@kin Johnson.  He’s like an outlaw.  Opponents simply can’t stop him from doing whatever the hell he wants most of the time.  Gaining more and more national traction for MIP.

If we had 20 wins, Trae should be in the MVP conversation.   He is putting it all together.  

Tonight, we dominated a 23-10 team who had won 9 of their last ten and had a 5 game winning streak going.  A team who is considered to have the best defense in the game.   We dominated them.  But the naysayers will say.. it was the second night of a back to back... or well Atlanta almost lost. 

But we didn't lose.  We won.   Not just won, for 3.5 quarters, we dominated every facet of the game.   I don't want to hear any excuses for this win!

 

[kg01]

11 minutes ago, Diesel said:

People haven't casted doubt on them because  they have an MVP candidate.  When you have an MVP candidate, the media takes it easy on you because the media doesn't take the time to figure out why you win games.   When you look at OKC, they win games because they outscore their opponent, especially at the line.  They are like us with IsoJoe back in the day.  They have that one guy who can always get a bucket because his offense is good but particular.   That works in the regular season, but in the playoffs, he will see some double teams, they will deny him the ball, etc, etc... and until he feels that type of pressure, there is no telling how he will respond. 

What we did to them last night (and what we do to most teams) is that we put a highly efficient offense on them.  At one point, we were shooting over 60%.  We have scorers everywhere.   By the time we get to the playoffs, We will have seen every type of Blitz, double team, etc...  If we learn how to deal with those things during the season, we will not only be a sneaky team, we will be a hard out.   We just got to stop the panick...

 

Tonight we showed what we're capable of ... offensive dominance and 'enough' defense .... for 3.5 qtrs.

We also showed what we're capable of ... panic, disaster, not paying attention to detail, letting teams creep back up on us.

The whole package.

I imagine this is what frustrates Sni-duh.  I recall him shaking his head after a bad Trae turnover late.  Sure he shouldn't have those but we shouldn't be so dependent on him tha those plays become so detrimental.  It's maddening to watch us be incapable of breaking a general press.  It's maddening to watch our only method for holding leads be literally trying to let the clock run out. That's prevent defense which, as we all know, prevents you from winning. 

The clock will never move fast enough to overcome turning the ball over and panic-shooting.  Are we gonna learn that at some point? 

[JayBirdHawk]

8 hours ago, JayBirdHawk said:

This is unacceptable. Teams have been doing this for the last 5+ years. When are we gonna solve this? Who will step up.

Time to trust JJ in these situations...place him at the center 3pt line as the outlet from a Trae double and let him go to work. I trust him to make a play for himself or someone else. Teams will typically use lengthy defenders to trap Trae. JJ should have an advantage somewhere.

[kg01]

19 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Time to trust JJ in these situations...place him at the center 3pt line as the outlet from a Trae double and let him go to work. I trust him to make a play for himself or someone else. Teams will typically use lengthy defenders to trap Trae. JJ should have an advantage somewhere.

Sadly, we did trust him at one point.  And that glorious mfer promptly fired a pass directly into and okc players hands.  Smh, this is why him missing a full year of development hurts.

I agree he's one who'd help us but, sadly, he's still learning.

[shakes]

10 hours ago, Jody23 said:

A big part of the late game problems imo is they completely stop playing defense.  Guys are trying to win with offense, hit the big knock out punch shot.  And while they're unsuccessfully doing that, teams are racking up points because guys a mentally checking out defensively.

you've basically just summed up the last several years.

[bird_dirt]

4 hours ago, RedDawg#8 said:

No schedule favors coming our way. Building momentum is going to be hard. We needed this win to stay afloat.

We are solidly in the 9-12 seed tier in the East. Going to take some major improvements to get back to .500, and still need even more good fortune to climb out of the Play-In range.

#4-8 in the East (Mia, Ind, Orl, Cle, NYK) are all 4 to 6 games above .500.

There is a huge gap between them and the teams we are next to at the moment.

My only hope is that, by God’s grace, we can be at or slightly above .500 by the All Star break. We have 22 games before then, 14 home, 8 away. 14 of those games are against winning teams. 3 more games are against the Lakers and Warriors who are both only 1 game under .500 and will get the benefit of the superstar treatment. So at least 17 games where we would be the underdogs.

We have the benefit of a 5 game and 6 game home stands during that time, except we suck at home this year.

We have our work cut out for us just to get back to being average.

Go Hawks.

We have a history of playing up or down to our competition. Maybe it will actually help us to play better teams?

[JayBirdHawk]

13 minutes ago, kg01 said:

Sadly, we did trust him at one point.  And that glorious mfer promptly fired a pass directly into and okc players hands.  Smh, this is why him missing a full year of development hurts.

I agree he's one who'd help us but, sadly, he's still learning.

Nobody else seems to want it, so I'm OK with the On-the-job-training. We'll be better served 10, 15, 20 games from now 

[Jody23]

2 minutes ago, shakes said:

you've basically just summed up the last several years.

While true to an extent, it's been notably worse during this last stretch of games.

[Diesel]

1 hour ago, kg01 said:

Tonight we showed what we're capable of ... offensive dominance and 'enough' defense .... for 3.5 qtrs.

We also showed what we're capable of ... panic, disaster, not paying attention to detail, letting teams creep back up on us.

The whole package.

I imagine this is what frustrates Sni-duh.  I recall him shaking his head after a bad Trae turnover late.  Sure he shouldn't have those but we shouldn't be so dependent on him tha those plays become so detrimental.  It's maddening to watch us be incapable of breaking a general press.  It's maddening to watch our only method for holding leads be literally trying to let the clock run out. That's prevent defense which, as we all know, prevents you from winning. 

The clock will never move fast enough to overcome turning the ball over and panic-shooting.  Are we gonna learn that at some point? 

You bring up a lot of coaching issues.   I suppose that Snyder wants them to learn the basics of the offense first and then we can move to how to break the press??  It seems like we are novice at many situational basketball things.. and going to the prevent defense is not going to help.  The one thing that came from the Rick Adelman school of coaching is just don't stop doing what you been doing!  When you watched those Kings back in the day, they played the same whether they were up or down, whether they were dominant or losing, whether they were being pressured or not.  They were young and for them, (Until they met the Lakers and were cheated out of their chance to go to the finals) their main thing was seeing how much fun they can have.  White Chocolate was a great Passing PG.  Webber was THE MAN.  Their offense was built to score and they just kept scoring.

[Spud2nique]

Wow.. just finished watching. Team win for sure but JJ be a darn machine. Agree with @JayBirdHawk now that he has earned more trust and needs to be given that. His moves are clean, calculated, strong and fast.. that’s a tough combo to stop.

That Trae whip pass to Brate for the 3 from the corner was pretty. JJ behind the back and slam all by himself. 
 

The team is starting to understand roles and momentum and timing, love it. 
 

Some pics that were nice..

JJ dizzled on eem..

 

TRAE TAKES THE CHARGE!! 5th of the year! That’s our superstar folks, smallest dude on the team too..

JJ upstairs on Chet’s head!!!  

Ala Bogi one footer Dirky like.

 

Great game overall for us. New year new results! Get it!

 

GO HAWKS!!!

[kg01]

50 minutes ago, JayBirdHawk said:

Nobody else seems to want it, so I'm OK with the On-the-job-training. We'll be better served 10, 15, 20 games from now 

Shots fired at Murray?  Heh 

[Spud2nique]

When your background check as a male nanny (a manny) is denied … 

NO JOB FOR YOU!!!! And take this up ya arrrrssss!!! PEDO’S OUT!!!!

18 and under club only  

[kg01]

11 minutes ago, Diesel said:

You bring up a lot of coaching issues.   I suppose that Snyder wants them to learn the basics of the offense first and then we can move to how to break the press??  It seems like we are novice at many situational basketball things.. and going to the prevent defense is not going to help.  The one thing that came from the Rick Adelman school of coaching is just don't stop doing what you been doing!  When you watched those Kings back in the day, they played the same whether they were up or down, whether they were dominant or losing, whether they were being pressured or not.  They were young and for them, (Until they met the Lakers and were cheated out of their chance to go to the finals) their main thing was seeing how much fun they can have.  White Chocolate was a great Passing PG.  Webber was THE MAN.  Their offense was built to score and they just kept scoring.

Yeah well everybody deserves blame in these collapses, including Kwin.

I hate Eddie Johnson but he said something that stuck with me w.r.t. coaching late in games.  Basically said his coaches always told him if they build a big lead, it's my (the coach's) job to help them hold onto it.

The reasoning was that the coach is supposed to be the one to calm the emotions and reset things.  Players can get caught up in the momentum.  The coach is supposed to halt the slide, so to speak.

I'm not saying it's on Snyder, but it seems like he should be able to do something to help stop this same trend from happening.  Heyul, you got enough tape on it to study it all.  If this was iRobot, we would be calling for his head. 

[kg01]

5 minutes ago, Spud2nique said:

When your background check as a male nanny (a manny) is denied … 

NO JOB FOR YOU!!!! And take this up ya arrrrssss!!! PEDO’S OUT!!!!

18 and under club only  

This is wrong on so many levels. 

As a dad of a 16yo, F that guy if any of the rumors are remotely true. 

[macdaddy]

That was a great not-loss

Go Hawks!

[macdaddy]

 Second half plus-minus.   Can you guess who logged that +7?