Views from OKC: Thunder travel to Boston for a Friday night matinee
Mar 16, 2016; Boston, MA, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) reacts after his basket against the Boston Celtics in the first half at TD Garden. Mandatory Credit: David Butler II-USA TODAY Sports
Welcome to Views from OKC, Thunderous Intentions’ daily roundup of the best OKC Thunder news across the web.New to Views from OKC? Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll make this a daily destination. Well, let’s get started!
Thunder visit Boston, the team that hurt Oladipo
“While Boston enjoys momentum, health, and home-court advantage, our partners at numberFire give the Thunder (17-12) a slight 50.5% win probability for Friday night’s encounter. OKC is fortunate to meet a Celtics grouping on the tail end of a back-to-back set.”
I honestly don’t know how the Thunder are odds-on favorite to wins tonight. The Celtics are on a four-game win streak and are playing with Isaiah Thomas, who was absent in the first matchup. Oh and the game is in Boston. If Oladipo was playing I would understand the line, but Jonas Jerebko (a Boston Celtic) decided to clip Dipo a couple weeks ago. Maybe this is a Russell Westbrook revenge game on steroids.
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Jerami Grant is fitting into the Thunder culture perfectly
“By all accounts, the Thunder are invested in determining if Grant is a long-lasting piece. Donovan said he’s especially drawn to his work ethic, athleticism, length, size and shot-blocking, and noted both his shooting and defense have improved.”
Look at the attributes listed there: work ethic, athleticism, length and size. You can teach those. What you can’t teach young players is how to shoot and how to defend properly; Grant’s already improved on both facets in his short time in OKC. The sky is the limit for Grant, and I’m hoping Presti realizes this is a piece they need to keep around in the long-run.
More from Thunderous Intentions
Quarter season grades for all 15 players
“The Thunder are dead even in net rating, according to NBA.com, ranking 12th in the league. That figure proves that OKC is certainly holding its own against most opposition, but it also further substantiates the label of an average team. The balance to consistently beat inferior teams simply isn’t there yet.”
The introduction to this article is great, but I’m a little weary on these grades. I mean Enes Kanter was given a D+ while Anthony Morow got a B-. That’s blasphemy. Kanter gets a lot of shade from people who don’t watch this team night in and night out, but he truly has improved immensely this season. And anyone that gives Alex Abrines a D is dead to me (but only for personal reasons).
