good point Iowaggie.

although, i think Perk is a good defender, but he was amazing in the system of the Celtics, and those guys just had a camaraderie that is seemingly lost

Also, two points of irony for Perkins for those to share with others as they watch the game.

A) Perkins originally committed to the University of Memphis before going straight to the pros from HS.

B) He was drafted by the Grizzlies with the 27th pick (but then traded to Boston).

And bonus:
Darrell Arthur was also a 27th pick by NOLA, who was then traded to Portland, who traded him (and U of Memphis player Joey Dorsey) to Houston for Batum. The Rockets then traded him to the Grizzlies for draft pick Dante Green (Lakers pick from Pau trade). Green and Bobby Jackson were then traded by the Rockets to get Ron Artest for one year.

I'm going to predict a 45 FT game for the home team

harden in absolute beast mode

quote:

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Also, two points of irony for Perkins for those to share with others as they watch the game.

A) Perkins originally committed to the University of Memphis before going straight to the pros from HS.

B) He was drafted by the Grizzlies with the 27th pick (but then traded to Boston).

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i don't think either of these qualify as "irony"

Irony may be the wrong word. Just two discussion points.

So far this game feels like OKC should be up 20 going into the 4th qtr.

OKC literally can't miss

Bench play

looks like the collective handjob the media gave to memphis after game 1 was a little premature

If they Thunder had played like this vs. Denver it wouldn't have been close. A good mix of everything tonight from OKC

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looks like the collective handjob the media gave to memphis after game 1 was a little premature

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I'd say it was well deserved. They closed out San Antonio, the 1 seed, in 6 games(would have been 5 if not for amazing theatrics by the Spurs). Then they went into OKC(everybody's darkhorse darling) on short rest and dismantled them in game 1 when nobody gave them a chance.

That being said, this was a much more expected result tonight. If the Grizz go TCOB at home, they are still very much in command of the series, and the same media HJ would be given.

This is an intriguing series.

they did play like this against denver, in game 2, when they were up by 20 in the 1st quarter.

denver was a pretty good team. so is memphis. both are/were hot teams playing their best ball at the right time. if OKC makes it to the WCF, they will have definitely earned it.

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I'd say it was well deserved.

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meh. i'm not taking anything away from how well memphis played in game 1, but it seems pretty clear that the media overreacted to one game in a 7 game series (big surprise huh?)

russ has a ton of potential, but i think his basketball IQ will limit just how much he can achieve

the styles of Memphis and Denver are so different, I think tonight OKC figured out what it needed to do, now lets see if they can keep it.

Missed dunk aside, these are the kinds of games I like from Westbrook. His hoops IQ is there (the guy's not Steve Francis) I just think he tries to do too much sometimes.

he's still very young and very raw, so i have high hopes for his growth. i think the sky is the limit for him. and tonight was a great game for him, for the most part

He actually finished at the rim...except the dunk. I'm perfectly okay with him attacking the rim like that.

Big props to Ibaka and Collison for their work on Randolph.

yeah collison was nails tonight.

I don't see OKC playing this well the rest of the series. I view this game as an outlier.

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I don't see Memphis playing as well as they did in game 1 the rest of the series. I view that game as an outlier.

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[This message has been edited by wacarnolds (edited 5/3/2011 11:33p).]

I'm guessing that coverage of the next game will have a few photos of the flood in Memphis.

I'm guessing this h.s. isn't going to be playing a lot of home baseball games the rest of the season. Or use these other fields.





nor using this shooting range.

Coach Brooks talking about Russ....

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With Russell, we analyze every possession. I do that myself when we break down the films. But it seems like everybody’s breaking down the film. They’re like in my meetings or in my head. It’s not fair to him. It’s really not fair to him. He’s developed into an All-Star in three years. Not a lot of guys you can say that played the 2-guard spot in college and only for two years and can come in and lead a team that had a bad record three years ago and become an All-Star and make the playoffs twice.

He gets criticized for every bad game. He’s not the only player that has a bad game. He’s not going to be the only player in the future that has bad games. But the only thing I can say about that is Russell knows what he needs to do. And we talk to him and he’s coachable and he wants to get better. He controls his improvement, and he has done that. He doesn’t listen to the critics because you can’t. You have to be hard on yourself and he is. And I’m hard on him. And we have an understanding that we only get better when he continues to improve and he has improved for three straight years. And that’s all I ask for.

[...]

He tries, he cares, he wants to get better and those are the issues I look at with Russell. He’s not a traditional point guard but who is now? I mean, Derrick Rose is the MVP of the league and he leads their team in scoring. He takes the most shots. He’s good. That’s how they play and that’s how they win, but that’s point guards now. Point guards are like that now.

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Well it appears ibaka's ankle is fine, good lord!

OKC takin it to the grizz right now

Fantastic half and the offense wasn't really clicking at all.

I REALLY hope good Russell shows up for the 2nd half too.

The only way the Grizz get back in the game is if Westbrook starts jacking shots.

these last 9 minutes are so huge. hang on and you force memphis to either win 3 in a row or beat you on the road in game 7

not so sure russ deserves the blame. we have absolutely no plan on offense right now. way too easy to defend. grizz know exactly what we are trying to do.

Someone wanna tell westbrook thaf the best scorer in the league the last few yrs is on his team

Scott to westbrook 'pass the motherfacking ball to durant'