Thunder Week In Review: November 1st-November 9th

  When life sends you obstacles, the best thing you can do is work your hardest to get through them. That's exactly the motto the Oklahoma City Thunder have adopted this season, as the injury situation for the team has regressed from bad, to worse, to unbelievably terrible. On November 3rd, against Brooklyn, Andre Roberson suffered a sprained foot, and is day-to-day, according to the Thunder training staff, and hasn't played since then. Then, against Toronto the next day, Perry Jones, who was contributing in a major way for the Thunder, offensively, left the game with a knee injury, and hasn't returned yet, either. With a total 5 players out for the Thunder, the NBA granted a grievance for the organization to go out and get another player. Enter former Rockets backup point guard, Ish Smith. Smith has been with 7 other teams in his career, and the Thunder make it his 8th to be with. He has never averaged over 4 points a game in a season, and has averaged under 10 minutes of playing time for most of his career as well. Not exactly a superstar, but an able body that produced 7 points and 1 assist in the Thunder's 2nd win of the season, last night, against the Sacramento Kings, 101-93.

Thunder player, Perry Jones (#3) and Andre Roberson (right) are now
also on the injured players list that keeps growing for OKC this season.

  As for all the other games the Thunder played this week, the only thing to pair with the injuries in some of the games, losses came with it. OKC went 2-3 this week, but played close in a loss at home to Memphis, and could have easily gone 3-2. Fortunately, Oklahoma City has 3 winnable games in a row on their schedule, so a 4-game winning streak could be in affect when they host the Houston Rockets on November 16th. Another positive for OKC, is that Reggie Jackson and Serge Ibaka have come together and picked up the slack in the absence of so many of their teammates. But like all good things, this may cause Reggie Jackson to pull a James Harden, and ask the organization for a huge contract. Sorry Reggie, you're not James Harden, and never will be, but is losing Jackson going to hinder this team like the loss of Harden did back in 2012? Not even close. Jackson has been inconsistent in his career, even if he has been there for the team in some huge spots, and in order to pitch the idea that he should be given a major deal, you need to bring consistent production to the court. Furthermore, Jackson pushed and pushed to try and obtain a starting position for this season, only to be beaten out by Roberson, who is now injured (who isn't?). So Reggie, enjoy your starting role while it lasts, and if you really want that contract extension, carry this team to a winning record before KD's return in late December. It's just something to think about, as the injury-stricken Thunder continue to press onward through this grueling NBA season.

West-BROKEN: Westbrook Suffers Broken Hand in Thunder Loss

   In the harshest of environments, a bug, not just an ordinary bug, is hovering and then lands onto the leaf of a Red Bud tree in front of the Chesapeake Arena in Oklahoma City. The arena is infested with these pesky bugs. But what kind of bug is tormenting the residents of the Thunder's domain? The injury bug. It stung a member of the team, once more, and left in its wake, an injured Russell Westbrook. The superstar point guard was examined and evaluated in the locker room during last night's game agains the LA Clippers, and it was determined that he has suffered a fracture in his right hand early on in the first quarter. Team Trainers expect Westbrook to be back in 4-6 weeks, but the devastation of this injury could be the death sentence for the Thunder's playoff chances. Before any playoff games can be played or not played by the Thunder, they had a Clipper team to take care of without any all-star on the floor for them, and two all-stars who were healthy, that were trying to beat them.

Thunder guard, Russell Westbrook, left Thursday
night's game with a broken right hand. He will
miss approximately 4-6 weeks with the injury.

  The Clippers never led by more than 10 points, and once again, poor 3-point shooting let OKC hang around in this one. Without Russell or Kevin, Perry Jones led the team in scoring with 32 points, and Oklahoma City had a chance to tie the game at the buzzer, but Serge Ibaka's shot from long distance hit the back iron and the Thunder fell to the Clippers with the final score showing 93-90. Ibaka finished the game with 17 points and recorded 9 boards. As far as overall team play goes, the Thunder turned the ball over 22 times and shot below 30% from beyond the arc for the second game in a row. These first 30 games of the season become very critical for OKC because by the time Westbrook returns, the team will have played 20-25 games, and still won't have Durant back until after Christmas. The tall task of being playoff eligible without Kevin just got even harder without Westbrook being available, and it leaves the team with only 8 healthy players out of the 15 on the active roster. Head Coach for OKC, Scott Brooks, will show just what he is made out of, and will have to produce wins with players that other teams would't even start. If Brooks can get the team to 25 wins before Durant is back into the lineup, then the Coach of the Year Award should be mailed to him before the season has even concluded, and Brooks should be the coach for the Western All-Star Team in February. Realistically though, the Thunder could only win 12 games by December 26, and those games are against the Bucks, Jazz, Pistons, 76ers, Hornets, Timberwolves, Kings, and Celtics. Oklahoma City plays a few of those 8 teams, twice, so that should be to their advantage, but the thought of a 12-17 record is totally sickening for a team that had championship aspirations.
  Moving forward for OKC, they host Denver as their home opener on Saturday, and the crowd should be into it for the whole 48 minutes. Though the Thunder could be blown out of their own gym, the likelihood of that occurring has simmered down after the 2 road losses that Oklahoma City has tacked on have only come by an average of 10 points. Honestly, if Scott Brooks doesn't sit Westbrook at the beginning of the 4th quarter against Portland on Wednesday, and then Russell didn't get hurt last night, OKC could be 2-0 instead of 0-2 to start their season. But now, everything having to do with Westbrook (and Durant) will have to cease since neither of them will see the floor until November 28th. For now, it's time to focus on Sebastian Telfair, Andre Roberson, Perry Jones, Serge Ibaka, and Steven Adams. Those are your Thunder starters for Saturday's game, and will most likely (barring ANOTHER injury) be the starting lineup until late November or early December. I don't think any OKC fan could have predicted that lineup would be the one showcased in the home opener, and I think that could be the most truthful statement made by anyone, at this point.
  Looking ahead to tomorrow night's match-up against Denver, the local media shrugged off the Nuggets when the question was asked if the Thunder would beat them in their first game at home, three days ago, but now, the murmuring of home loss is overriding those predictions. The Thunder are undefeated in their home openers (3-0) within the Chesapeake Energy Arena (established in 2011) and look to improve that record to 4-0. That's just something to think about, as the Thunder take Halloween off in order to travel back home to OKC in preparation to play against the Denver Nuggets at 7CT on Saturday.

BLAZED: Thunder Lose Season Opener in Portland

   As the Oklahoma City Thunder took to the court for the first time in the 2014-2015 season, there was no Kevin Durant, no Anthony Morrow, no Jeremy Lamb, and no Reggie Jackson for head coach, Scott Brooks, to utilize during the Thunder's 106-89 defeat. Considering the outstanding play of Russell Westbrook, who ended the night with 38 points, it was OKC who led at the end of the first 3 quarter. But a speedster like Westbrook needs his breather too, eventually, and Brooks sat him at the start of the final quarter, and that's when things got hairy for Oklahoma City. The Thunder couldn't hit a basket to save their life, and once Russell was inserted back into the game, the Portland Trailblazers caught fire from behind the 3-point line, and OKC just couldn't catch up. The perimeter shooting for the Thunder had been a concern coming into Wednesday night's game due to the fact that the team shot so poorly during the preseason, and that showed very obviously as they went 2 for 18 The starting lineup, which consisted of Russell, Andre Roberson,  Perry Jones, Serge Ibaka, and Steven Adams, started the game very well, and Westbrook was unstoppable throughout most of the evening. OKC got some help though, because the Trailblazers shot very poorly from beyond the arc for most of the evening, and without the barrage of 3-pointers that fell on target in the waning moments of regulation, it was a pretty pedestrian showing for the team that won over 50 games last season. But it was opening night, and there are now 81 games left for OKC and Portland to play, so for Thunder fans already pushing the panic button...just stop it.

Russell Westbrook converses with an official in last night's
loss to the Portland Trailblazers. The Thunder guard finished
with an astounding 38 points in 44 minutes of play.

   Coming into this game, most NBA fans knew that Durant was going to be out until Christmas (possibly), and that Anthony Morrow's sprained MCL isn't going to be ready for another 2 months or so. Along with those injuries, 6th man candidate, Reggie Jackson, didn't even make the trip up to Portland due to his sprained ankle, and the back-up shooting guard, Jeremy Lamb, was also absent with a minor back injury that could allow him to play against the LA Clippers on Saturday. With all these injuries, the first 20 game of the season are crucial to OKC, and the expectations for them are very low. If the Thunder go 10-10 for the first 20 games, that will be a monumental accomplishment. With the performance last night though, it's easy to see that this team will go as far as Westbrook can take them. Most national media members picked the Thunder to go 14-6 through the first 20 games, but assumptions have sen made that they didn't know of Jackson or Lamb's absence. I'm sure their predictions will change as the season continues to unfold.

  As far as they game on Saturday is concerned, the Thunder are not favored at all, and respectively so. Without another offensive powerhouse next to Westbrook, the next man up to become the second leading scorer for this team is up for grabs. Lance Thomas, a late edition to the team, had a solid night off the bench and scored 14 points, but Serge Ibaka, the projected second leading scorer on the team, only finished with 10 points. Serge did also grab 8 boards and blocked 4 shots, but the final score indicates that those numbers just won't cut it, especially against the Clippers. Los Angeles has a very strong front court that Adams and the Thunder's other center, Kendrick Perkins, will have to deal with, and judging from the 27 points they gave up to Portland center, LaMarcus Aldridge, they will have their hands full. Just something to think about, as the Thunder take the today to travel to the City of Angels and look forward to playing the Clippers at 9:30 CT, on ESPN, tonight.