Former OKC coach returns to town leading struggling Wizards

By Michael Kinney

OKLAHOMA CITY — At the end of Monday night’s victory over the New York Knicks, Russell Westbrook was visibly exhausted.
He was so tired, he took a seat on the bench to do his postgame interview before lumbering back to the locker room.
The reason for the lack of energy was that he had just compiled another triple-double to his growing resume. With 27 points, 18 rebounds and 14 assists, he led the Thunder in all three categories.
“His rebounding, his loose ball plays, when he does that it sends an unbelievable message to our team the way he fights and competes,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said. “It’s historic what he’s doing, but there’s also another side of it too, that he’s a pretty complete point guard all the way around.”
The numbers Westbrook are putting up on his triple-double binge are getting into the obscenely great. He is averaging double figures in points (30.9), assists (11.3) and rebounds (10.3). The only other player to average double-figure numbers in all three categories this late into the season was Oscar Robertson.
Heading into Wednesday’s game with the Washington Wizards, Westbrook has eight triple-doubles on the season and 45 for his career. If Westbrook gets another triple-double Wednesday, that will be three in a row.
Yet, there is only one stat category that Westbrook will talk about when he’s asked about his run on triple-doubles. That is wins and losses.
After going through a recent losing streak, the Thunder (11-8) won their last three games.
“Winning is sustainable,” Westbrook said told ESPN.com. “My job is to go out and find the best way to win games. Right now, we won three straight, and that is the most important to me.”
Like Westbrook, Washington’s John Wall is also coming into the game after posting a triple-double — albeit a different one — Monday night. In a 101-95 overtime victory over the Sacramento Kings, Wall tallied 19 points, 11 assists, 11 turnovers and eight rebounds.
While Wall’s hands will be full trying to slow down Westbrook, the focus of the Oklahoma City fans will be on Wall’s coach, Scott Brooks.
Brooks makes his first return to Oklahoma City since being fired at the end of the 2014-15 season.
Yet, that hasn’t taken away the excitement Brooks said he has for seeing members of the Thunder organization.
“We had a great run. Unfortunately it ended for me but that’s the business we’re in. I have a lot of respect for the organization,” Brooks told The Washington Post. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for the players that I coached. I still communicate with all of them. Even now that I’m back in the NBA I’m thankful for the job that I have now but it also brings back a lot of memories.”
However, his first season with the Wizards, it is not going as he had hoped. Washington is 6-10 and in third place in the Southeast Division

Tyrese sells out two shows in Norman

 

By Michael Kinney

The Riverwind Casino, hosted a special show over the weekend. Tyrese occupied the main show room the Showplace Center on back to back sold out nights.

It was the first time for the multi-talented artists to appear in Oklahoma. But that didn’t stop the fans of all ages from coming out to enjoy the Black Rose Tour.

Named after his latest album, the tour isn’t one that his hitting every major city across the nation. Oklahoma was one of only a few select dates Tyrese (Baby Boy, Transformers, Fast & Furious franchise) has visited in 2016.

With his acting career in high gear, the California native doesn’t have as much time to dedicate to his musical pursuits. However, it would be impossible to tell by the shows he put on at the Riverwind.

Friday, the show was scheduled to start at 8 p.m. But, because of a very late arriving crowd, Tyrese didn’t touch the stage until 9:30 p.m.

Despite that, Tyrese came out and jumped right into the show, after a brief sound check that needed to be done because he missed it earlier in the day.

Before he got into his own material, Tyrese went through a collection of R&B songs to test the knowledge of his audience. He and his band would start the song, then the fans were encouraged to sing along. Oklahomans represented themselves very well and knew each song that was played. Several of the selected cuts came from R&B acts of the 1990s.

That is when Tyrese started to go through some of his better known songs from his albums. Dressed in all black leather and red lights shining down on the stage, he went through several tunes that included “Signs of Love Making,” “Sweet Lady” and “Lately.”

Early on into the show, Tyrese told the security to leave his fans alone of they got close to the stage. He then told the ladies to come on down. That was all they needed to hear as they rushed to surround the state. Even as he threw roses into the throng of women near the stage, it didn’t turn into a riot.

After a quick outfit change into, Tyrese continued his performance. Songs from his Black Rose album and his older material were featured. He closed out the night with his biggest song to date, “Shame.”

The concert lasted only around an hour and 15 minutes. Considering how long we ad to wait, and how many songs he has in his catalog, it was a little short. A full two hours would have served nicely.

Despite that, the show was very interactive as he encouraged his fans on many occasions to sing along with him so he could post the videos on his social media sites. The fans obliged with singing and slow dancing in the aisles.

Tyrese didn’t skimp on the energy and stayed involved with the crowd. All in all, it was a short, but very entertaining show.

Story appeared in The Newcastle Pacer

Top to bottom, Thunder take apart Pistons

(Photo by Torrey Purvey)

By Michael Kinney

OKLAHOMA CITY – Stan Van Gundy isn’t one to mince words. The Detroit has no problem giving honest appraisals about almost any topic that is put to him.

But Van Gundy saves some of his most biting and frank comments about his team whenever they play below his expectations. That was the case Saturday when the Pistons travels to Oklahoma City.

Behind Russell Westbrook’s seventh triple double of the season the Thunder defeated the Pistons 106-88 at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Van Gundy didn’t hold back on his assessment of his team’s performance.

“Our defense was pathetic,” Van Gundy said. “Pathetic. We didn’t compete. It’s mind boggling with how different we are home and on the road. We didn’t take care of any of the areas we were supposed to focus on. We made very little effort and Oklahoma City played a whole lot harder than us and deserved to win.”

Westbrook posted 17 points, 15 assists and 13 rebounds to earn consecutive triple-doubles on back-to-back nights. It was also his 44th career triple-double, which ties him with Cleveland’s LeBron James. However, it took Westbrook 395 fewer games.

“He’s a Hall of Fame player,” Thunder coach Billy Donovan said of Westbrook. “I mean that’s really what he I. He’s a Hall of Fame player.”

The Thunder had five players score in double figures. Anthony Morrow came off the Thunder bench to lead the charge. He poured in a season-high 21 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Steven Adams added 16 points and nine rebounds. Victor Oladipo scored 18 on only 10 shots as Oklahoma City improved to 10-8.

Tobias Harris led the Pistons with 21 points on 8 of 18 shooting. Ish Smith, who once played for the Thunder, posted 14 points and three assists. As a team, the Pistons collected only 11 assists, which was less than Westbrook by himself.

Detroit dropped to 8-10 overall. But what had the players and staff most perplexed is there 1-8 record on the road.

“For everybody, including myself, that goes out there on the floor, we have a job to do,” Harris said. “It’s all about team winning. It comes down to all of us being more focused, more drive to grind it out and get a win. That’s what it comes down to. We’ve proven we can do it at home. So it’s going to take that attitude at home to take it on the road and get a win.”

It was the combination of Westbrook and Morrow who helped the Thunder get off to a fast start against the Pistons. While Westbrook attacked the basket and pulled down rebounds, Morrow finally started to find his shot. After shooting 40 percent on the season, Morrow came off the bench and hit 3 of his first 5 shots.

“I love coming into the game and getting a layup or a free throw or a floater,” Morrow said. “It’s something I usually want to do before taking a 28-foot 3-pointer. Billy said he was going to use me on the some post ups so I was just ready for it before the game.”

But it was an entire team effort that allowed Oklahoma City to build its lead up to 18 points in the first half. Eight of the 10 players who touched the court scored.

However, the Pistons whittled away at the lead late in the second quarter. Morris, Harris and Aron Baynes led a charge to cut the deficit to 10 by halftime.

Oklahoma City didn’t help itself by barely shooting over 50 percent from the free throw line. This allowed the Pistons to get within four points in the third quarter.

But a late surge by Morrow pushed the Thunder advantage back to 77-68 heading into the fourth.

The Thunder didn’t allow the game to get any closer. The players took turns scoring at will against the Detroit defense.

At one point, Westbrook shook Caldwell-Pope on his way to a layup, and laughed as he ran back up court.

Oklahoma City outscored Detroit 29-20 in the fourth quarter to close out the game.

“”They are good, but we just didn’t do our jobs,” Van Gundy said. “We didn’t make them make the plays we even wanted them to make. We didn’t do our jobs guys. Guys just did not do their jobs. We were bad, they were good. I thought it was actually worse than the final score indicated.”