BOX SCORES

at TORONTO RAPTORS (W 123-102)

25 MINS | 10 PTS (5/8 FG) | 5 REB | 2 AST | 1 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 3 PF

vs SACRAMENTO KINGS (W 110-94)

35 MINS | 16 PTS (6/7 FG, 4/6 FT) | 13 REB | 3 AST | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 2 TO | 3 PF

vs GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (L 111-95)

22 MINS | 9 PTS (4/5 FG, 1/4 FT) | 1 REB | 2 TO | 1 PF

vs PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (W 122-97)

25 MINS | 6 PTS (3/7 FG, 0/5 FT) | 5 REB | 2 STL | 1 BLK | 1 TO | 1 PF

NEXT WEEK

at HOUSTON ROCKETS, 8.30am Monday (NZT)

at DALLAS MAVERICKS, 1.30pm Tuesday (NZT)

at ORLANDO MAGIC, 12.00pm Thursday (NZT)

A MESSAGE FROM THE STACHE BROS

We interrupt this weekly roundup of the iconic Kiwi Steve and his Oklahoma City Thunder to bring you this urgent message. It appears that the NBA’s Most Valuable Player stakes are heading into a tight conclusion and the case of one Russell ‘Triple-Double’ Westbrook could use a healthy boost. Thus we now take you live into the living room of Steven Adams and Enes Kanter…

King of the Prairie. Yes, that one’s immediately hitting common parlance status. Along with Salutations. Shout out to Nick Collison on the clicker too, not to mention the Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck imagery. Ah, you can watch it 100 times and still spot new things…

But there aren’t the minutes in the day for that, not after this tweet (and several others like it) emerged:

[*eeek!*]

Sure enough, the King of the Prairie had another dedication and we can only hope there’s more still where these came from. The fact that they haven’t got a Netflix special yet is a travesty of international culture. Guys, tweet at us. The Niche Cache will produce the hell outta your late night talk show.

at TORONTO RAPTORS (W 123-102)

OKC were coming into this one with three wins in a row, all backed by RW TDs. They were in good touch, playing well, but in Toronto against a very strong Raptors side they can’t have imagined they’d get it done here like they did… although a 34th triple double for Westbrook would have been high on the list of feasible outcomes and that’s exactly what he did.

A Steven Adams hook shot to kick it all off? That might have been predictable as well. Jonas Valanciunas blocked him when he tried to repeat the dose next possession and points were then hard to come by for both teams. Adams grabbed another bucket before blocking all-star DeMar DeRozan’s little running floater but then missed a second-effort chance after Oladipo missed. Hectic stuff, a quick look at the scoreboard showed OKC up 8-2 after four full minutes though. That’s some solid defence there. Ooh and how about this pass?

Clearly the Raptors were missing point guard Kyle Lowry, who continues his recovery from a wrist injury, however this looked like one of those clichéd effort games where one team wanted it more (TOR had a 30 minute team crisis meeting afterwards). Obviously the Raptors were gonna get a few to drop eventually and they did… until in the second quarter the Thunder went on a 18-6 run in which Westbrook scored or assisted on every single point. That’ll win you games if you’re doing that. Might even win you MVP.

Adams had a good rest from 20-9 up in the first until 38-34 in the second. It was right as he checked back in that the big streak happened, shooting out from 35-33 and 38-36 to a 14 point lead, which was clawed back slightly to a mere ten points at the break.

Then they won the 3Q by a margin of 39-22 and the starters got to sit for the final frame. They flippin’ earned it too, all five of them scored in double digits with a combined 80 points. Adams had 10 as did Taj Gibson, Andre Roberson added 13 and Russ scored 24 with 16 assists and 10 rebounds. Vic Oladipo was fire with 23 points himself and Enes Kanter put some icing on it with 14 off the bench. DeMar DeRozan scored 22 for Toronto and that was about it.

ESPN: “The Thunder led wire-to-wire from Steven Adams' hook shot 1:09 in and were rarely challenged, extending their lead to a game-high 32 points in the fourth quarter before running out the clock. The win split the season series with the Raptors.”

Daily Thunder: “Adams had a great night tonight on both ends. He was aggressive on offense getting up 10 shots, and making 5, to go along with 5 rebounds.  And, on D, he held Valanciunas to 5 points under his season average and was very physical with him down low, consistently moving him off his spots.”

vs SACRAMENTO KINGS (W 110-94)

Right so remember when the Kings traded away Boogie Cousins for not all that much immediate help? And remember how they’re trying to save a protected pick this season? Yeah… they’re not trying to win much any longer and so true to form the Thunder came out and fustigated them.

One day it’ll be worth seeing what the Thunder’s win/loss record is like when Steven Adams scores the first bucket of the game. Doubt it has any real influence on the rest of any particular clash but it could reflect a sort of mind-set that they’re looking to set things up inside. Stevie hit from four feet to get this bad boy underway and he was sharp as OKC logged 63 points in the first half. Like this. Which was helped by the Kings not even scoring a point until 3:13 into the game and even then it was a technical free throw thanks to Steve getting whistled for a defensive three-second call. Oops.

But Adams got his own back on Darren Collison, who made the FT, with a block on a deep ball soon after. Get it in ya, son. Adams had 6 rebounds in the first quarter, keep that in mind when you get onto his next two games. Plus he was there with a dime to Russ, with another field goal from in close, with the defensive pressure… it was cool to see.

Buddy Hield scored to give SAC it’s first lead at 10-9 in the game, then an Adams dunk started an 11-0 run for OKC and the Kings never again got their noses in front. Never even got within 8 points again. Hield was a college star in Oklahoma though, so he at least got a roaring reception. That guy popped one from three right after Adams had emphatically dunked to pad that lead before the big break. That’s when Oladipo and Westbrook each countered with treys of their own and the lead had ballooned to 22 points at HT.

There may not be a Boogie to worry about but Willie Cauley-Stein was a worthy adversary in his absence. WCS is one long sonofagun and the dude’s got more hustle than people realise. Case and point, this one probably stung a little…

But on this occasion, poor Willie had nothing going and he’d score just 4 points all night. Georgios Papagiannis did some damage at C with 14 points and 11 rebounds, while young blood Skal Labissiere continued his emergence at the four with 13p/4r but for the first time in a while, the best centre on the court was hailing from Rotorua, New Zealand.

And since the Kings hit enough shots to keep it close, neither Adams nor Westbrook could afford to sit early. Meaning stats were nicely padded and their combination, which was on absolute fire against an inexperienced Sacramento frontcourt, got to flex. Wasn’t enough for a fifth straight triple-double for Russ but it was enough for a fifth straight win for OKC.

Enes Kanter added 14 points himself. Doug McDermott scored 21. Meanwhile Westbrook ended with 28 points, 9/20 shooting, 8 rebounds, 10 assists, 4 steals and 7 turnovers. Nobody even noticed that Victor Oladipo shot 4/15.

Just goes to show when you chuck the big kiwi up against fellas he can straight up bully, he tends to do that. Against more refined opposition he’s been up and down. This game though, this was statistically one of the best he’s played all season. Only missed one shot from the field, was 4/6 with his FTs, had multiple steals and assists, plenty of points and rebounds, no real foul trouble. That’s the ideal Adams game in many respects. That’s double-double #13 for 2016-17.

Welcome to Loud City: “Defensive anchor may always be the job title on Adam’s business card, but the uptick in his offensive production has not gone unnoticed, and additional playing time has been the result. With 16 games remaining in the season Adams is just 9 minutes under the 2014 minutes he logged last season and seeing the floor an additional 5.2 minutes per game.

Along with an improving scoring touch, Adams has seen his PER rating steadily increase throughout his career as well. The PER for an average NBA player is 15. Adams surpassed that mark last season at 15.5 and improved to 16.8 this season. Improved free throw shooting and the eventual development of a jump shot should keep that stat growing in the future.”

Daily Thunder: “For about the past month, Adams seems to be struggling with something. Be it nagging injuries, fatigue, or just the frustration from constantly having bodies around him every time he touches the ball, the Thunder big man has been a shell of himself for much of the past month. For January and pre All-Star February, Adams was a near double-double machine, averaging about 12 and 9 for that time. But since the All-Star break, Adams’ numbers dropped to 9.7 points and 6.9 boards.

Tonight’s performance is hopefully a break out to where Adams needs to be heading into the playoffs. He was 6/7 from the field, but most importantly, 4/6 from the line. That’s probably his biggest struggle since the turn of the year. If he is able to get a couple points from the free throw line every game, that should help out his points per game average. Adams played within himself and didn’t try to force anything.

His offensive rebounding in the first quarter set up the run that basically put the game away for the Thunder. His ability to offensive rebound when all eyes are basically on Westbrook, is a big part of the Thunder’s offensive schema. If he can do that consistently, the Thunder can hang with a lot of the contending teams in the West.”

vs GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS (L 111-95)

You may remember that the Thunder have a few dramas with the Warriors this season. Something about a certain player leaving for a certain other team… feelings were hurt and all that. Except that Kevin Durant is injured and unavailable for this clash. After getting thoroughly destroyed in the first few clashes, does a lack of KD make much difference though? Stevie thinks nay.

Meanwhile file this under: Typical Wozzas

Back in OKC for the second time (and probably the final time) this season, the Dubs were always likely to run away with this. They won their first three games against OKC 122-96 and 121-90 in Golden State and then 130-114 in the infamous KD’s Return game. That’s a combined 83 points between them after three games. This one was close… for about a quarter. Then Draymond hit a free throw for a 26-25 GSW lead and that was the last lead change of the night.

There may be a rivalry between these two fuelled by last season’s playoff series, Kevin Durant and a general basketballing feistiness. But in terms of match-ups, the Warriors are impossible for the Thunder. OKC can’t defend their perimeter guys and the Dubs will score with anything Russ can offer.

What was fun was watching Stevie score a couple buckets in the first minute and a half. He’s miss his third attempt but the Thunder were up 6-3 and Adams had 4 points. Then OKC went two and a half minutes without a field goal and the Warriors had more than levelled it up. Draymond picked off Steve, whoops. When Steph and Klay then started making shots there was trouble brewing.

Adams checked out with an 18-14 deficit. It was 31-26 when he came back in, so not too much damage done but also nothing gained from the second unit. Usually parity is enough for the Thunder bench, not so much today. They were down by 20 points at the half.

Nah but seriously, Curry and Thompson were just magnificent and Westbrook frankly was not. Russ only had 15 points for the game, shooting 4 of 16 from the field. 8 rebounds and 7 assists. It was a shocker from him and it was even worse when you watched it and saw Steph Curry running rings around him on defence. As for Adams, he did a bit of this (see below) but he also had to watch this game slip away from his team in the first half from the three point line – the Warriors were 15/33 from 3pt as a team (45.5%). Both Curry and Thompson made seven threes each (so actually the rest of the team was 1/6).

Argh but this was Thunder vs Warriors, so nobody really cared about the game. We just cared about the fights. No KD to instigate things here but as Taj Gibson and Zaza Pachulia were lining up for a jump ball, Steph Curry and Semaj Christon got slappy with each other. Really slappy, they had to be broken up.

And frankly when you need to be breaking something up, you can do worse than ask Steven Adams to get involved. Russ was the guy who stormed into the middle of it, naturally, but Adams strolled in casually and plucked two guys at once, dragging them to safety. Zaza and Steph too, bit of a size imbalance there. If this basketball thing doesn’t work out, Kiwi Steve will have a hell of a career as a firefighter waiting for him instead.

Steph Curry: “Your normal jump ball, fight for position situation. I was just trying to get in between Russ and -- trying to get in between those two. I felt him push me. I kind of let that first one go, and then I kept going, and there was another little push, and I tried to hold my position.”

Russell Westbrook: “I think Curry tried to get into it with Semaj, and tried to push him, and I stepped in right between. Once I see something going down with my teammates, I'm hopping in.”

Thunderous Intentions: “I love the Big Kiwi. And he certainly uses his strength to his advantage during the game. But look what Adams does when that little scuffle begins? He stands on the outskirts and helps pull Zaza and Steph back (okay so kinda admirable). Alas, a true tough guy like Gibson gets in the middle to break things up.

Here’s another question I have. Why hasn’t Adams tried to cheap shot Draymond yet? Dude…he kicked you in the cojones TWICE and you won’t do anything? Even when Adams gets in little scuffles he usually walks away once they start to escalate into something more.”

NewsOK: “Russell Westbrook sat on the scorer’s table as Thunder assistant Maurice Cheeks walked over to talk. Steven Adams rubbed Semaj Christon’s head and said he loved him. It was consolation after crossfire. With 5.3 seconds left in the second quarter, Christon and Curry shoved each other as each team awaited a jump ball feet away from the Thunder’s bench. Westbrook intervened, pushing back at Curry. Draymond Green arrived on the scene. Westbrook, Christon, Curry and Green each picked up technical fouls.”

But yeah, the Warriors led by as many as 27 points. Adams played enough of the third to miss three of four free throws and grab a rebound but that was it and he left the game with 4:50 still on the 3Q clock. No need to waste energy on a game that was all over but the shouting. Although that rebound came in handy because it was his only one of the night.

For a centre who boxes out as well as he does, it’s crazy that he doesn’t get more boards but first of all he’s not that good comparatively at getting up and hauling them in, he’s more about that low pressure, and secondly he tends to clear out space for a guy like Russ to claim them anyway. In this game we saw a complete dearth of balls falling his way and that can happen with a team like the Warriors putting up 33 three pointers. Threes tend to bounced further clear of the rim (they’re shot from further away, right – physics!) and the Warriors also don’t play much through their centre so Adams isn’t able to get battling in the paint for loose ones. The increase in focus on threes in the sport seems to be giving more rebounds to guards as a league-wide trend. Still, a starting centre only grabbing one all game is never gonna be acceptable – he’s the tallest guy on the hardwood!

Oladipo topped for OKC with 17 points, Enes Kanter had 15p/10r off the bench. Eight of Russ’ points came in the early third. This was also Taj Gibson’s first defeat as a Thunder starter. On the other side there were 34 points for Klay Thompson and 23 for Steph Curry.

Thunder Digest: “The Thunder missed 14 free throws. That’s absolutely unacceptable. Steven Adams missed three, Andre Roberson had two horrible misses and Jerami Grant missed three, too. What an embarrassing performance from the free throw line for the Thunder.”

Daily Thunder: “The Warriors were +12 in fast break points by the half. In that time, the Warriors were +7 in three-pointers made and +7 in rebounds. Steven Adams and Taj Gibson didn’t collect a rebound in the first two quarters, yet Curry and Thompson combined for 9 boards. The Thunder were forcing shots, Oladipo and Westbrook were a combined 3-of-17. Oklahoma City’s offense turned into a half-court mess that was ugly to watch.”

vs PHILADELPHIA 76ERS (W 122-97)

She’s a different beast, hitting up the Sixers a couple days after getting trounced by the Warriors. The Sixers without Joel Embiid too, although there’s still more than a handful of handy blokes in there. Dario Saric is something else, for example. Jhalil Okafor though? Not so much. This was gonna be a chance to shine for the OKC big fellas.

Though as it turned out that was more Enes Kanter than it was Steven Adams. Kiwi Steve got OKC on the board with a driving dunk along the baseline but it was a scrappy start with both teams struggling to get decent shots off. Adams took advantage of that with two early steals before either team had even snuck one through the hoop, though it was his dunk that drew the big cheers.

Luckily (but not really) Russell Westbrook started heating up midway through the first and after six points in the first six minutes AS A TEAM they definitely needed some offence from somewhere. Billy Donovan then had an idea. What about Enes Kanter? So in came the Turk to play alongside his Stache Bro (ROOMIES!) and let’s just say it was a clever little hunch. Although first this happened:

The score was 9-6 when Adams sent Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot back to school on his arse and Westbrook then scored 10 of OKC’s next 12 points before Adams had himself a seat and Domantas Sabonis jumped on in. But it was Enes doing the damage all of a sudden. Having warmed up against the starters, Kanter got busy on the bench and skip forward twenty minutes or so and he had 19 points in the first half, along with 6 rebounds shooting 6/7 with a complete 7/7 at the line. What a man… and you know who was cheering him on more than anyone?

Meanwhile Adams’ own second quarter was mostly crap. He scored from a nice assist of Russ’ but only after Saric had blocked him from two feet and while he drew a foul on that Russ assist thing, he went and missed the free throw. Then he won two quick fouls to swing it back. Then he missed two more free throws and we were heading the other way. He shot 1/3 with 2 rebounds and a personal foul in there. Hardly his best and enough to make you wonder what exactly is going on with his boards. Ordinarily it might be a dead end but after that Warriors game there were questions.

There were not even five minutes played in the third before Russ had Triple Double #35. So the argument of where all the rebounds were going found its way to the usual suspect. By the way, he got to his TD without missing a shot from the field – which meant he hadn’t shot a three-ball yet but still. And Steve did add another layup while all that was going on.

OKC were already up 63-50 at half-time but the tear they started the third on effectively ended this one as a contest. They just kept on dragging it out after scoring 15 straight following Okafor’s half-commencing dunk. Of course they might’ve gone up even further if Adams was still the free throw shooter he was at the start of the season. Whatever’s changed, whether he’s hurt or distracted or what, he’s been an objectively terrible FT-er for an extended amount of time now. He grabbed a couple offensive boards to pad the numbers but in getting to the line again he missed two more… that’s 0/5 there for the game.

Royce Young/ESPN: “Westbrook spent most of the third quarter turning down open shots. The likely reason? He's 6-6 from the field.  He checks out with 2:39 left in the third, probably done for the night with his 35th triple-double: 18-11-14 in 27 minutes.”

Stevie left the game around the same time as Russ and likewise had no reason to play in the fourth. So he didn’t. Instead Nick Collison (play the video, Nick!) got himself a cameo which you already know sent Thunder fans into a daze. A frustrating night from Steve, tbh, where he played quite well but didn’t get the numbers to back that up. He won’t care, but he should care about those free throws. Get his coach punching him when he misses again or something. He was a +18 on the court though.

ODDS & ENDS

16 Wins A Ring: “That includes Steven Adams, who has struggled throughout February and most of March so far. Lack of touches on offense seemingly play a huge role in that, and he has been a step slower on defense, to say the least. On a team with severe lack of shooting, the Thunder must get their big men touches and points to open space around them.

When Adams takes 10 or more field goal attempts, the Thunder are 18–8 and when he scores 15 or more points, they are 14–7. Fellow stache brother Enes Kanter has really taught the rest of the league his true value this season, and his unfortunate absence before the All-Star break only emphasized that. When the Turk logs a double-double, the Thunder are 11–4, and when he scores 20 points or more, they are 9–3.”

NewsOK: “What the Golden States and the Clevelands have is multiple All-Stars. Oladipo and Adams could become All-Star caliber players in the future, but will that growth come within the Westbrook-in-OKC timetable?”