Game Recap 12.21.2013

Thunder 113, Spurs 100

Box Score

  I mean, I'm not sure the Thunder will ever lose again. Looks like 78-4 is locked up. My expectations aren't extremely high, but if we ever  lose again I'm switching teams. Obviously, I'm kidding but right now is a great time to be a Thunder fan. They will lose again, they will lose probably at least 15 more times, but this is definitely the best te we have seen in OKC. Russ and KD are better than ever. Serge is a monster, Reggie Jackson is playing himself into a major payday. Lamb is shooting better than expected and Nick Collison is Nick Collison. They're playing together as a team and trusting each other. KD had 19 points last night, and the team still ended up with 113. If that doesn't send the rest of the league into the fetal position, I'm not sure what will. Once again, Russ was the best player on the floor. He had 31 points on 13 of 22 shooting, 8 assists, and 4 rebounds. Serge Ibaka put up 14 points and 14 rebounds for his 13th double double of the season. He had 15 double doubles all of last season. He's a grown man. Reggie Jackson was unstoppable again, he had 21 points on 8-14 shooting. 

  Pretty sure Sam Presti goes home every night and does this.

Snippets (I'm using the word whether you like it or not.)

• Thunder won the game during the second quarter where they had 40 points on a crazy 16-23 from the field....against the second ranked defense in the league.
• KD had 18-5-3-2(Pts, Reb, ast, stls). One of the worst games of the season for him, and that's a good night for actual humans. And a great MONTH for Kendrick Perkins.
• Boris Diaw couldn't wait to get home to eat chocolate cake.
• Kawhi Leonard was out this game, but I don't think he makes up a 13 point difference. Especially considering he guards KD and KD had an off night anyways.
• The Thunder have the best record in the NBA. Thats really fun to say.
• Tonights "Lol WTF" moment wasn't really "lol" as much as just "WTF", but after scrambling for a rebound it appeared Thiago Splitter hit Stephen Adams with a low blow. All men's reaction to that? WTF dude. Heres the gif, watch the far left.

Next up: Tonight vs Raptors at the Peake

Thunder Game Recap 12.19.2013

Thunder 107, Bulls 95

 Box Score

   Once again a game where there was never a doubt in my mind. Even when the Bulls cut it to three at halftime, I knew it was an easy win. The effort was uninspired pretty much all night, and you can't blame them. Playing a Bulls team without Derrick Rose, Luol Deng, and I guess ill count Kirk Hinrich, I could see it being tough to get pumped about. KD put up 32 points on 13-20 shooting (including 4-5 from deep) , 9 rebounds, and 6 assists with relative ease.  Russ had 21 points and 10 assists for his fourth straight double double and sixth in last seven games. The dude is on a roll, and when he puts emphasis on passing, the Thunder are 99.9% unstoppable. Serge Ibaka had his worst game of the season, only having 5 points, 3 boards, 3 blocks. But, I think he had the play of the night when he blocked Joakim Noah twice, leading to a transition KD three. I channeled my inner Derek Fisher and high fived myself after that one. Reggie Jackson was a world destroyer. He had 18 points on 8-12 shooting, with 15 of those coming in the first half. I love seeing him do good, but I'm getting nervous about his future with the team. He could be the next James Harden. *sigh* It's a shame for Sam Presti that he's so good at drafting players, that they get too good and he has to trade them. Then crazy people like Bill Simmons criticizes him for years about breaking up a dynasty. I could go on about this,  but I'll save it for a different post. 

  Snippets (is that a word? I just made it one. In my head, it means small pieces) from last night.

• Biggest suprise is the Thunder held Michael Jordan to 0 points. Quite an accomplishment.
• But.... that guy above had 23 points and 12 boards.
• Speaking of Noah, I feel like him and Britney Griner are long lost brother and sister
• Soon, the NBA will make a rule forcing Kevin Durant to shoot only from halfcourt. Then, he only gets 1 point every time he makes it, they have to level the playing field somehow.
• Sources tell me Jeremy Lamb's head hasn't grown since he was six months old.
• A Russ and KD fastbreak is the basketball equivalent of bacon.
• Check Darnell Mayberry of the Daily Oklahoman's nuggets about the incident after the game.
• Tonights "Lol WTF" moment of the game goes to Joakim Noah for his jumpshot. I know that should be moment (s) but it absolutely has to win.

Next up: Saturday vs The Spurs in San Antonio

Braves Offseason

Braves Offseason Update

  If you're a true Braves fan, the picture aboves cuts deep. It hurts. Not only do we have to watch Brian McCann with another team, that team is the dreadful Yankees. The Yankees are the Nickelback of the MLB. The casual fans love them, but people that pay attention,  know they're worse than Cruela De Vil.  McCann has been with the Braves since his rookie season, and has been their catcher ever since. Now we can't like him, its against the rules.  So, to me, he is now Brian McCannot. What an awful joke. Oh well let's talk about some pieces the Braves have added.

  I came into the offseason hoping for 3 things: lefty hitting second baseman, ACE starting pitcher, and a catcher. Looks like I won't get any of them so, happy offseason to me.

  Last week they signed 1B/3B Mat Gamel. Gamel is a 28 year old failed prospect coming off two ACL surgeries. With that said, his last full season with AAA Nashville, the dude went for .310 average, 28 bombs, and 96 rbi. So, the talent is definitely there, the Braves just have to hope it translates to the majors. Also, obviously have to hope for a full recovery as well. With the two knee surgeries his defense might be lacking at 3rd base. But with Andrelton Simmons next to him, they can probably get away with playing him there when Chris Johnson needs a day off. Low risk move and has the potential to pay off big time.

  Yesterday, it was announced that the Braves have traded minor league lefty Sean Gilmartin for Ryan Doumit. What a trade right? Doumit will likely be a pinch hitter and 3rd catcher. He is a switch hitter, but likely will be used mostly from the left side.  He hit .229 vs righties last year with 12 Home Runs in 340 at bats. On the season, he hit .247 with 14 Home Runs and 55 rbis. Safe to say this isn't the catcher I was hoping for. Losing Sean Gilmartin isn't going to hurt anything though. Yes, he was a 1st round pick, but last season in AAA he had a 5.74 ERA and 3.3 BB/9. That is not good for a soft throwing lefty.

  The biggest pickup of the Braves offseason so far is....wait for it....Gavin Floyd. Definition of ace pitcher, wait no that's wrong. He's coming off Tommy John surgery and only threw 24 innings Last season.  I'm dogging him, but I actually kind of like the pick up. Just not the ace I was hoping for, but as the number 5 pitcher, I expect him to be solid. His last full season in 2012, he sported a 4.29 era with US Cellular field. Widely known as a hitters park. So being in spacious Turner Field should help his numbers.  The real bright spot in the 9.2 K/9, but he had a 4.4 BB/9. But the Braves pitching coaches work wonders with strikeout pitchers. Craig Kimbrel, Jordan Walden, Julio Teheran are all examples of pitchers that the walks dropped and the strikeouts rose when joining the major league team. 

  The offseason isn't over yet, and I expect the Braves will make some more moves, but good chance it won't be anything major.

NFL Week 15 Recap

NFL Week 15 Recap

Hi there, this is my first contribution to our little blogosphere of sports so please, be gentle. As you have all read, my brother has been keeping you updated on thunder, so i'm going to talk some football! I will start with my, as mentioned above, recap of week 15..

Let's start with "America's team" the Dallas Cowboys as they, more than likely, head to another post season collapse.  Sunday, they blew a 23 point lead and lost to the Aaron Rodgers-less Green Bay Packers. Who were led by...Matt Flynn? Yes. The same Matt Flynn who was released by the QB deprived Oakland Raiders and Buffalo Bills? Yes, that Matt Flynn. I'm aware of how shocking that sounds. Dez Bryant apparently realized how depressing that was too as he left early for the locker room in tears.

In other news, Jamaal Charles is pretty fast. I would like to thank him, the only thing good that has come from the University of Texas, and the Chiefs screen game as he pretty much single handedly led my fantasy team to the Super Bowl. They also move back into a tie with Denver for first place in the AFC west after Denver's Thursday loss to the Chargers.

The Rams continue to surpise me with their ability to beat good teams and lose to crappy ones as they man handled the Saints. Rams are also making out like bandits from the trade that landed RG3 in Washington. He is riding the bench while his team collapses and Rams get their first round pick(currently second pick overall).

Well, i'm sure I may be missing out on some other news but those are just my takes from week 15. If you would like to check out other scores, here is the link.
http://m.espn.go.com/nfl/scoreboard?date=20131211&groupId=9

Game Recap 12.17.2013

Thunder 105, Nuggets 93

   That felt like the easiest win over a 14-9 team on the road that the Thunder have ever had. You can check the box score here.

   The first 11 Thunder points were scored by one player. And it wasn't Kevin Durant,  Russell Westbrook, or offensive powerhouse Kendrick Perkins. It was our favorite Congolian? Congolesian? Favorite player from the Congo Serge Ibaka. They didn't guard him and he made them pay. He cooled after the hot start and finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kevin Durant was good but not great. That's crazy to say considering he had 30 points, 6 boards, and 3 ast, but that's how good he is. He has spoiled us to where this was kind of just a yawn game from him. In December, he has averaged 29.4 pts, 8.5 reb, 4.5 ast, 2 steals, and 1.6 blocks. All while shooting 55% from the field, 51% from three, and 88% from the line. LeBron is definitely the best player in the league, but the gap gets smaller every game. But, the best player on the floor last night was Russell Westbrook. He had 21 points, 13!! Reb, and 8 assists on 9/16 shooting. He had 8 turnovers as well, but there were a few fumbled passes that weren't really his fault. In the past six games Russ has averaged 21 pts, 9.3 ast, and 9.1 rebs. Those are Oscar Robertson-ish numbers.

Some things I thought about during the game.

• The best thing that happens, is when Perk picks up 2 quick fouls. He gets to sit and rest while a better player in Collison or Adams gets to play. And when the other team's bigs are JJ Hickson and Kenneth Faried then Perk has no value anyways.
• I'm 98% sure Russ could back pedal faster than I could sprint forward.
• My favorite part of the game is when Reggie Jackson and Jeremy Lamb check in. Can a man happy cry? Asking for a friend.
• I find myself wanting to call JLamb "peanut butter and Lamb" but I refrain from it.
• Derek Fisher seems like a guy that still wears Old Spice and high fives himself.
• Once during the game, KD converted a sweet and-1, then pounded his chest towards the crowd. I fully expected the crowd to start throwing dollar bills at him.
• Back to Lamb, his arms are so long that you could take his arms, put them as Nate Robinson's legs, and NateRob would be an inch taller. (Allegedly)
• "Lol WTF" moment of the game goes to Timofey Mosgov. Well, first he gets a "wtf" for his first name. But, tonights award is for doubling Perk when he had the ball in the post. It resulted in an easy two points for Nick Collison.
• The best part about it is, KD didn't get doubled a single time. Randy Foye checked KD the entire game with no help. Poor guy. KD in the post one on one is school time. He's going to take you to school, he's going to be the one stealing your lunch money, and he's going to be the one giving you swats. Just how it goes.

Next up: Thursday versus the Derrick Rose-less Bulls at The Peake.

New Hobby

1. INTRODUCTION

  This is something new for me, something fun to try. I love sports, so I decided to start writing about them. After all, I like to discuss and I'm sure my dad is tired of hearing it. I would love people to check it out, give me some feedback, and have some discussion (or arguments). But its ok if not, because my mom will read it because she's my mom and that's her job.

    With all that being said, I'm going to introduce some statistics that the experts (obviously not me) use and I try to comprehend. I'll be using some in future posts, so I thought I would explain. If you already know and disagree, feel free to correct. My posts will mostly be about the Thunder and the Atlanta Braves, so I'll have "advanced" or metric stats for both sports.  Advanced/metric stats are what the movie "moneyball" was about. A different, more complex way to judge the quality of a player.

   So here it goes, lets start with the NBA.

PER (Player Efficiency Rating)- The most popular, and currently most effective way to measure a players value. It uses a detailed formula that I won't share (because I don't know it) that basically takes all positive and negative contributions into account. Using PPG (points per game) is very flawed because it doesn't matter how many turnovers and missed shots a player has. I know PPG wouldn't determine the best player anyways,  but that's what a lot of casual fans look at. So for example: Kevin Durant scored 28.1ppg last season on 17 shots a game. Carmelo Anthony, while scoring more (28.8), did it on 22 shots a game. Since KD shot 50%, give him those five more shots and that's another 5 ppg. That resulted in KDs PER being 28.3 to Melo's 24.8. League average PER is 15. We have both extremes on this Thunder team. KDs current PER is a really good 27.4, while Kendrick Perkins is putting up an awful 7. I could have a 7 PER (note: I absolutely could not have a 7 PER).

eFG% (effective field goal percentage)- This stat adjusts for the fact that three pointers are one more point then a two pointer. Example: Jeremy Lamb goes 4 out of 10 for 10 pts with two of those being three pointers, while Reggie Jackson goes 5 out of 10 for 10 points with zero three pointers. Both players have a eFG% of 50. League leader last year was 64%, and league average is around 50%. KD was at 56%

TS% (True Shooting Percentage)- Basically instead of FG%, 3P%, and FT% being calculated separately,  its all calculated together. League leader last year was 67%, and league average is 54%. KD was 2nd last season with 64%.

Per 36- Pretty self explanatory,  its a certain statistic divided by minutes played multiplied by 36. Example: Reggie Jackson this year is scoring 12 ppg in 24.9 mpg (we will call it 25 because math). So 12/25=.48 take that times 36 and you get 17.28 points per 36. It adjusts for how many minutes a guy gets per game.

Now for team stats. I swear its almost over.

Offensive Rating- how many points a team would score if they had 100 possessions which is slighty above an average NBA game. Trail Blazers lead right now with 109.1 while last place is 92.8 by the Bucks (barely an NBA team).

Defensive Rating- essentially the exact opposite of OffR. How many points a team would give up if the other team had 100 possessions. High side is Pacers 92.8, last place is 107.9 by the Jazz. Thunder rank 6th in OffR with 105.1 and sits at 5th in DefR with 97.6

Last one...

PACE- how many possessions a team uses per game. Highest is 102.2 from the 76ers. Lowest is 93.4 from the Grizzlies. OKC is 5th at 99.6. It pretty much tells you how fast a team plays. The teams up top usually take quick shots and get out in transition.  Slower teams play more of a slow paced half court offense.

Ok, that took way too long so ill save the baseball stats until closer to the start of the season. Feedback would be great (if anyone reads it). Positive or negative, just don't be too mean :) And I promise the next post won't be this boring.