Quick Bolts: 1.15.09

As some may have noticed, I haven't been doing the daily bolts due to the fact I've gotten kind of busy lately and also the fact that I'll be moving sites soon (really, really soon) and those have kind of fallen by the wayside. But I intend to return to scouring the net finding anything and everything about the Thunder and bringing them here so you don't have to spend the time searching. But here's a few quick things to point out:

• Ball Don't Lie, Behind the Box Score: "But even up against Utah's best, I'm not sure the Thunder take the loss. These guys just had it tonight, shots were falling, and Scott Brooks has these guys playing so damn hard. Boston, and I mean the team that beat New Jersey by 32 points on Wednesday, would have had trouble against the Thunder. Oklahoma City crushed Utah on the glass, absolutely destroyed them. The Jazz were without Carlos Boozer and Paul Millsap, which helps, but that doesn't excuse Andrei Kirilenko from pulling in just one board in 39 minutes. I don't care who he had to guard. A 48-26 rebounding advantage for the Thunder. Nenad Krstic had 14 and 11 off the bench, Kevin Durant (5-12) and Jeff Green (8-13) had the turnarounds rolling, and Russell Westbrook just has it. You could see it back in November, even when he was tossing out miserable contributions and making mistakes all over the place. He looks like Devin Harris, with a tailback's build. I don't know what happens from here on out, but what looked like a reach from Thunder brass last June now looks like a coup. Kudos."

• Be The Three says we should have seen last night coming (and if you're a reader of The Thunderworld, you would have seen it coming, because I said it was coming!): "If you weren't paying attention you'd be shocked that the Oklahoma City Thunder, currently sitting at 7-33, just spanked the Jazz, 114-93. But it's actually not that surprising. After 25 games or so where their offense was a disaster on wheels, the Thunder had actually been playing solid basketball for about three weeks. In fact, the Thundies shot a higher field-goal percentage than their opponents in eight of 10 games going into the Jazz game Wednesday night. They shot at least 48 percent six times in that span. And yet, they they managed to go only 3-7--good for the Thunder, but not a record you'd expect from a team regularly out-shooting its opponents. Why were they still losing? Because even when they shot well, they made the dumb mistakes young teams make."
  

• Henry Abbott of TrueHoop agrees, but cautiously: "I'd also add that in any one regular season NBA game ... anything can happen. The opposition can have a bad night. Real surprises come in the playoffs. But nonetheless, you have to be loving this if you're an Oklahoma City fan. Blowout wins can do wonders for your confidence."