OKC Thunder Blog – Page 84 – NBA Blog

Artest locks Durant down in Game 1

Frank Isola of the New York Daily News reports:

Ron Artest fancies gimmicks as well but on Sunday in the Lakers’ 87-79 Game 1 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Artest’s defense and not his hair was the difference. He was, if you will, Goldie Lock-down defender.

He made life absolutely miserable for Kevin Durant, who became the NBA’s youngest scoring champion by averaging 30.2 points this season. Durant’s playoff initiation is something the lean and long 21-year-old will never forget. Durant scored 24 points on 24 shots. He made just seven shots, fired up a couple of air balls and never found a rhythm.

“I was frustrated,” said Durant, who made 9 of 11 from the foul line. “I was missing shots I normally make. They felt good leaving my hand. If I made 4-5 more shots, maybe it’s a different game.”

Game 1: Lakers inside duo overpower Thunder 87-79

The AP reports:

Other than being out of breath, Andrew Bynum displayed little rust in teaming with Pau Gasol to dominate the middle in the Los Angeles Lakers’ 87-79 victory against the Oklahoma City Thunder in their playoff series opener Sunday…

Gasol scored 19 points, Bynum added 13 and Kobe Bryant had 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting after missing four of the final five regular season games to rest his swollen right knee and broken right index finger…

Kevin Durant led the Thunder with 24 points on 7-of-24 shooting in his playoff debut—under the 30.1 average of the NBA’s youngest-ever scoring champion. Former UCLA star Russell Westbrook added 23.

Thunder recall three from D-League

Oklahoma City Thunder Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti announced today that the team has recalled forward Byron Mullens, guard Mustafa Shakur and guard Kyle Weaver from the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League.

Mullens, who was a 2009-10 All NBA D-League Honorable Mention, appeared in four postseason contests (all starts) with the 66ers, averaging 13.3 points, 9.3 rebounds, 1.25 blocks and 26.3 minutes.

Shakur, who was named to the 2009-10 All NBA D-League Second Team, has averaged 16.0 points on 51.0% shooting from the field, 4.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 2.0 steals, 1.0 block and 32.8 minutes in four postseason contests (all starts).

Weaver, has seen action in four games (all starts) in the playoffs, averaging 24.0 points on 51.7% shooting from the field and 57.1% from three-point range, 6.0 rebounds, 5.8 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.50 blocks in 40.5 minutes per game.

The 66ers currently trail the Iowa Energy 0-1 in the best-of-three series in the semifinals of the 2010 D-League Playoffs. The two teams square-off Sunday, April 18 in Iowa at 4:00 PM. Should it be necessary, the teams will play in a deciding game Tuesday, April 20 at 7:00 in Iowa.

Andrew Bynum returns to practice

ESPN reports:

Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who missed the final 13 games of the regular season with a strained left Achilles tendon, returned to the floor for a full practice Friday for the first time since suffering the injury on March 19.

Bynum practiced with the team ahead of Sunday’s playoff opener against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Staples Center (Noon p.m. PT, ABC) and was pleased with the outcome.

“I felt very good,” he said. “Really, no pain. It went good.”

Lakers coach Phil Jackson was encouraged by Bynum’s effort. “We’re very pleased. He’s certainly not in any space where he feels like he’s back, I’m sure, but we’re pleased he was able to run and play and participate.”

Thunder assign Byron Mullens, Mustafa Shakur to D-League

Oklahoma City Thunder center Byron Mullens and guard Mustafa Shakur have been re-assigned to the Tulsa 66ers, Oklahoma City’s NBA Development League affiliate, it was announced today. The assignments are the 41st and 42nd times this season that NBA players have been assigned to an NBA D-League affiliate.

Mullens, who has appeared in 27 regular season games with the 66ers this season, rejoins the team for his third assignment of the season. During the regular season, Mullens averaged 15.0 points, 7.5 rebounds and 31.5 minutes, scoring in double figures 23 times and recording five double-doubles. He scored a regular-season high 26 points in a 124-113 road loss to the Idaho Stampede on March 19. In three playoff games for the 66ers, Mullens averaged 14.0 points, 8.3 rebounds and 25.7 minutes.

Selected by the Thunder with the 20th overall pick in the 2009 NBA Draft, Mullens has appeared in 13 games with Oklahoma City this season, scoring 14 points and collecting 10 rebounds in 54 minutes.

Shakur, a standout at Arizona, returns to the 66ers following an assignment on March 31, the day he was called up to the Thunder from the 66ers. In 47 regular season games, all starts, for the 66ers Shakur averaged 19.2 points, 6.9 assists and 4.5 rebounds in 37.8 minutes. During his tenure with the 66ers, Shakur scored in double figures in 44 games, recording a season-high 34 points in a 106-96 home victory over the Dakota Wizards on March 5. He dished out a season-high 14 assists on Jan. 28, in a 107-104 loss to the Iowa Energy in Tulsa. In three playoff games with Tulsa, Shakur averaged 20.7 points, 4.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 37.3 minutes.

Currently in his second stint with the Thunder, Shakur was originally called-up by Oklahoma City on March 16, before being released on March 25.

April NBA players of month are Rose, Durant

The Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Rose and the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Kevin Durant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors, respectively, for games played during April.

Rose was second in the Eastern Conference in scoring (25.4 ppg) and added 7.0 assists and 4.1 rebounds, leading the Bulls to a 6-2 record. On April 13, Rose recorded career highs in points (39) and blocks (three), to go along with seven assists and five rebounds, in a 101-93 win over Boston. Rose led the Bulls in scoring six times, including seven games of 20 or more, and averaged 30.6 points in Chicago’s final three games, all must wins for a playoff berth. On April 8, Rose tallied 24 points and 10 assists in Chicago’s 109-108 win over Cleveland.

Durant led the league in scoring (34.6 ppg) and added 7.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists 2.0 steals and 1.6 blocks. On April 3, Durant recorded 23 points, five assists, five rebounds and five steals, leading Oklahoma City to a win at Dallas and the team’s first playoff berth since 2005. Durant followed up that performance with 40 points, nine rebounds, two assists, two blocks and a steal in a win over Minnesota the following night. Durant, who became the youngest player ever to lead the NBA in scoring (30.1 ppg), had a streak of seven consecutive 30-point games to end the season.

Other nominees for Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Month presented by Kia Motors were Dallas’ Dirk Nowitzki, Indiana’s Danny Granger and Orlando’s Dwight Howard.

NBA fines Phil Jackson yet again

Los Angeles Lakers head coach Phil Jackson has been fined $35,000 for publicly criticizing game officials, it was announced today by Stu Jackson, NBA Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

Jackson was fined for comments made to the media on April 13.

We’ll add more detail over the next hour. We are guessing this is in regard to Jackson saying that Kevin Durant gets lots of calls in his favor. This page will be updated shortly.

Thunder assign Kyle Weaver to D-League

Oklahoma City Thunder Executive Vice President and General Manager Sam Presti announced today that the team has assigned guard Kyle Weaver to the Tulsa 66ers of the NBA Development League.

This will mark Weaver’s third assignment to the 66ers this season. In his two prior stints with Tulsa, Weaver appeared in five games (all starts) averaging 12.4 points, 7.2 assists, 5.4 rebounds, 1.40 steals, 1.40 blocks and 42.6 minutes per contest.

The second-year guard has made five appearances for the Thunder this season and recorded averages of 3.0 points and 1.5 rebounds in 12.0 minutes per game.

Weaver is expected to be in uniform today when the Tulsa 66ers take on the Sioux Falls Skyforce at 12:30 PM in Tulsa for the first round of the NBA D-League Playoffs.

NBA says in Jazz-Thunder game, foul by C.J. Miles was missed

Joel Litvin, NBA President, League and Basketball Operations, issued the following statement regarding the final seconds of the Oklahoma City Thunder at Utah Jazz game last night at EnergySolutions Arena:

“On the final play of last night’s Oklahoma City-Utah game, the officials missed a foul committed by the Jazz’s C.J. Miles on the Thunder’s Kevin Durant during a three-point shot attempt.”

Rumors talk: KG mouthing off

Regarding Garnett being fined by the league for mouthing off, the entire Celtics team seemed angry at how many fouls Kevin Durant managed to draw. The next obvious step for NBA observers is to see how true that is. The next Thunder game you catch, see if Durant earns the fouls he gets or not. And report on it, on the InsideHoops.com message board.

Kobe Bryant signed a 3-year extension with the Lakers today. No one should be too shocked. It wasn’t out there that this was going to happen, but in general it’s assumed that Bryant would keep re-signing. And now he has.

In equally huge news, according to multiple media outlets the Knicks will sign center Earl Barron to a 10-day contract. There could be another 10-day deal or two signed in the next 48 hours.

The NBA regular season ends on Wednesday, April 14. The playoffs start three days later.

While it’s true that the Warriors are good at finding D-League talent, it’ll be more interesting to see which of those players stick around in the league and become rotation players on good teams. Because everyone who joins the Warriors usually scores 30 on some wild night, but the team loses by 19, and the player is gone a few weeks, months or a season later.

I think Darko Milicic bulked up too much, over the years. I’d like to see him drop 20 or 25 pounds and be handed the rock regularly down around the low post, and see what he can do.

The Wolves should draft 29 more point guards. And then urge Ricky Rubio to come over. Yeah.

Rooting for Tracy McGrady to become an All-Star type player again is fun and all, but there’s no reason to think it’ll happen.

ESPN has about 49 LeBron James stories today. Rather than give you my take on them, I’ll simply share the bottom line on LeBron in general. Here goes:

LeBron is great. The Cavs are a very good team. He’s very comfortable in Cleveland. Chances are he stays there. And if he did come to the Knicks I think it would only be if he convinces some other top superstar to come with him.

Everything went wrong for the Pistons this season. Pretty much every player other than a rookie and maybe one other were disappointing. Other than that, everything went great!

If Monta Ellis feels he still doesn’t get full respect, he needs to win more games. It’s probably that simple.

I’m back to updating this every day. Talk to you Saturday.

This feature is an editorialized take on the day’s hot NBA rumors stories.