Thursday Bolts - 11.6.08

• Game reaction from Thunderguru: "Finally P.J. must’ve seen what I was seeing, lackluster effort, squishy defense and no offense so he yanked all 5 that were on the floor and put in a lineup of Wilcox, Smith, Mason, Westbrook and Wilkins. That particular lineup didn’t impress me at all, and it went -7. By the end of the third period we were down fifteen points (70-55), we were being out rebounded, and our shooting had fallen to .34% for the game. It was some ugly, uninspiring basketball."

• Ball Don't Lie Behind the Box Score: "A pretty miserable offensive game for the Thunder, this tends to happen against Boston, as Oklahoma City managed to only hang somewhat close due to a strong bench effort and a strong outside (6-13 from long range) touch. Boston could have let this one get ugly, but they picked up their offense after a slow start. 25 assists to 12 turnovers for the C's, which warms Doc Rivers' cold heart. Rivers only went with nine players in this game, throwing Paul Pierce out there for almost 40 minutes and Ray Allen on the court for nearly 39. Not sure how I feel about that. Russell Westbrook shot just 4-13 and had only one assist in 19 minutes, but this is a rookie that needs to start. If you're going with the youth movement, Earl Watson does not need to be playing 23 minutes."

• Red's Army says the Thunder remind him of someone else: "Do the OKC Thunder remind you of another team? How about the 2005 Celtics? They are loaded with young players. And as we all know, unless some veterans are added, it’s going to take 3-4 years before this team is significant."

• CelticsBlog says "half-hearted wins count too": "The opponent tonight was one of the worst teams in the league and the Celtics mostly played down to the competition. It was a sloppy, half hearted effort, which turned out to be enough. The Thunder (that still seems odd) came out strong and pumped up in the first quarter. Once the Celtics wiped the sleep out of their eyes, they easily took over the 2nd quarter."

• John Rhode likes the Celtic mold and thinks the Thunder could mimic it: "The Celtics finished 66-16 last season en route to their first world title since 1986. Their 42-game improvement was the greatest one-year turnaround in NBA history. If Boston could do it, why couldn’t the Thunder? The Thunder has plenty of wiggle room to lure talent, with a projected $32.5 million in salary cap space and two first-round selections in the 2009 draft. How about using that to acquire two future hall of famers, and place one on each side of Kevin Durant?"

• Mark Murphy of the Boston Herald: "The election-spiced fervor from Tuesday night was replaced by a college-like crowd, boisterously happy to simply have a new professional basketball team."

• Chris Ballard of Sports Illustrated with more woe is me for Seattle: "Think your city's suffering? Imagine if your favorite team bolted town after 41 seasons, not for some cosmopolitan burg but a dusty outpost where oil derricks qualify as urban skyline. Now imagine turning to your city's other teams for solace only to find each to be avert-your-eyes abysmal. Welcome to Seattle, home of the Sportspocalypse."