VCU Rams

Maynor on MLK
7:36: Today is Martin Luther King Day, and there were constant reminders of Dr. King’s message of peace and acceptance throughout the game.

During the game, the Hawks displayed a video where a number of the players expressed what Martin Luther King meant to them. Additionally, there was a video tribute at halftime, as well as a performance by a choir.

King was born and raised in Atlanta, a fact which was not lost on Maynor.

“It’s special,” Maynor said of Monday’s game. “It means a lot to me, as an African American. He’s done a lot. You can see his message is still going on today, with the [relief efforts] that are going on in Haiti. He means a lot to me.”

In Transit
7:08: Greetings from the Atlanta airport. Following the game, I zipped downstairs to talk to Eric for a bit, then headed out, dropped off the rental car, and grabbed a bite to eat. I’m now comfortably seated at Gate B6. Maynor’s final line: 15 minutes, 1-5 FG (0-1 3-pointer), four assists, two turnovers, zero rebounds and two points. Not great, but not terrible either. The biggest thing is that the Thunder got the win.  Today was their 41st game of the season, and they’re in a dogfight for a playoff spot in the Western Conference. Plenty could change between now and then, however. Maynor didn’t seem too concerned about the playoffs at this point.

“There’s no need to be thinking about that right now, because we’ve got another half of the season.”

4:34: Jamal Crawford, who hit a game-winning 3-pointer Friday night for the Hawks caught the ball and fired up a long trey as time expired, but couldn’t get it to fall this time. Final score, Oklahoma City 94, Atlanta 91. This is actually a pretty big win for the Thunder. Check back with the blog in a bit. I’m going to try to talk to Maynor some more in a little bit.

4:31: NBA games are never over. Bibby hits a 3-pointer from the corner and Durant is immediately fouled with 4.3 left. Durant makes the first, misses the second and Atlanta grabs the rebound. Here’s the huuuuuuge difference between the NBA and college. A college team would have to inbound from under their basket, but in the NBA you advance the ball to midcourt. This is one of the reasons you’re never out of a game.

4:28: Jeff Green just beat Josh Smith from the top of the circle and slammed a huge dunk in his face. Not only that, but Smith tried to recover and fouled Green. Bad all around for the ATL. 93-88 Thunder with 12.2 left.

4:27: 90-88 Thunder with 19.2 seconds left. I imagine this last 19 seconds will take 30 minutes. The Hawks are a brutal 3-of-14 from 3-point range. It’s killing them, frankly.

4:24: Russell Westbrook needs to get Durant a touch with the game on the line. That last possession, Westbrook spent way to much time trying to free himself for a shot, while Durant never saw the ball. The dude is averaging 29 a game, get him the ball. 90-88 Thunder, 1:29 to go.

4:21: By the way, the Hawks have the best t-shirt gun I’ve ever seen. It’s launched a couple into the deepest corners of this arena. I’d hate to think what would happen if somebody got hit in the chest with one of those tees from point-blank range. 88-88, 2:40 left. I think the Thunder are going to lose this game.

4:17: I can’t tell you how many times the Hawks have had a chance to blow the roof off with a big shot attempt, only to miss. Honestly, every time they’ve had a chance to tie or take the lead, they’ve missed. Seriously, it’s happened at least 15 times this game. These fans are fit to be tied. 88-86 Thunder with 3:07 left……and then Mike Bibby misses another 3-pointer.

4:12: Maynor is out of the game after a timeout with 5:54 remaining. I’d imagine we’ll see Westbrook for the remainder of the game. We’ll see.

4:09: Maynor tries the screen and roll with Nenad Krstic, but doesn’t lob the ball high enough over the defender. The result is a Hawks’ fast break. Maynor looks over to Krstic during a stoppage of play and acknowledges Krstic with a “my bad.”

4:07: Make that four assists now. Also, on their last possession, Maynor ended up with the ball and one second on the shot clock. All he could do was fire up a desperation 3-pointer, which was no good. 81-79.

4:05: Maynor’s now had three looks this quarter and missed all three. After the last one, a five-foot floater that he had a pretty good look at, Maynor clapped his hands in frustration. 81-77 Thunder. Maynor has two points and three assists and has played 13 minutes.

4:00: Maynor just displayed his most aggressive move of the night, driving right to left, then spinning in the lane and launching a left-handed floater. It was no good, however. 79-77 Thunder, early 4th.

3:58: Maynor is going to start the fourth on the floor for the Thunder. He’s out there with Harden, Jeff Green, Krstic and Serge Ibaka (seriously, who?).

3:56: In the NBA, everybody makes a run. Oklahoma City led by as many as 15 points, but here we are, in a 79-75 game at the end of the third quarter. The Hawks just won’t go away. Maynor had two points and three assists in 9:27 of action.

3:54: If you go looking for a Marvin Williams poster, expect to see Kevin Durant on it. Williams just threw a big one down on Durant.

3:53: Bucket. There’s that poise we’re used to seeing. Durant was trying to beat a defender one-on-one and dribbled the ball off his foot, but Maynor scooped the ball up with four seconds on the shot clock, took a dribble and released an 8-foot fadaway to beat the horn.

3:50: Assist No. 3 for Maynor, who rolls around a screen and scoops to Krstic for a jumper from the free throw line. Oklahoma City wants to get out and run a little right now.

3:48: Maynor checks back into the game for Westbrook with 4:27 remaining in the third. 71-64 Thunder.

3:42: The Thunder had led by as many as 15, but a 6-0 spurt by the Hawks has trimmed the margin to 69-60 with 6:11 left in the 3rd. After the last jumper by Atlanta’s Marvin Williams, Thunder Coach Scott Brooks jumped of the bench like it was on fire to call a timeout. No Maynor this half yet.

3:37: Durant just bombed a 3-pointer, mostly because he was guarded by the invisible man. He’s got 20 already and the Thunder are now ahead, 65-53 with 8:10 showing in the third. It’s at this point I realize that somebody gave out those awful thundersticks behind the basket. I didn’t notice them on the other side too much, but Oklahoma City’s basket is on my end of the quart this half. Arg.

3:31: Tell you what, Nenad Krstic might be able to challenge the Clippers’ Chris Kaman for best balding big man. It’s like they’re daring each other to shave their head first. Krstic has 14 points and five boards. 58-51 Thunder, 3rd quarter.

3:30: We’re underway in the third quarter.

3:26: After checking the box score, I see they did credit Maynor with another assist. I thought he should’ve had one on a Harden jumper, but they didn’t put it on the display initially. Durant has 15 points and Westbrook has eight and seven assists to lead Oklahoma City.

3:13: Halftime here at Philips Arena. Thunder 52, Hawks 49. Maynor’s first half line: Five minutes, zero points, one assist and two fouls. OKC led by as many as 11 points, but the Hawks clearly have the momentum heading into the locker room.

3:02: After pushing to an 11-point lead, the Thunder are taking on water. Al Horford just found Josh Smith for a big two-handed jam, which prompted Thunder Coach Scott Brooks to get off the bench and call a 30-second timeout. 44-38 Thunder, 4:09 remaining in the first half.

2:55: Whether he hasn’t been asked or hasn’t been able, Maynor hasn’t done much creating. Usually it’s been a give to Harden, who either jacks up a jumper, or on one occasion, inexplicably allowed BJ Mullens to catch in the high post and put the ball on the floor. Mullens turned it over. With exactly seven minutes remaining in the period. Westbrook and Durant reenter the game, replacing Mullens and Maynor. Five minutes of run for ‘E’ so far. 41-32 Thunder.

2:53: Maynor on Bibby now, defensively.

2:51: The Hawks just played a nice video tribute to Martin Luther King during the last timeout. It had a bunch of the Hawks’ players giving their thoughts on Dr. King. In the meantime, Maynor has quickly picked up two fouls, both cheapies.

2:48: Assist for Maynor, who had BJ Mullens set and reset a the same pick about four times before finding Serge Ibaka (again, who?) for  a 15-foot jumper.

2:43: Maynor is matched up on the Hawks’ Jeff Teague. Maynor got smoked a second ago when Teague crossed over and slipped around a screen.

2:41: Maynor is off the bench and will start the second quarter for Oklahoma City. He’ll lead a second unit that includes James Harden, BJ Mullens, Serge Ibaka (who?) and Durant. Although on their first trip up the floor, Harden actually brought the ball up.

2:38: If they announce this crowd as more than 13 or 14 thousand, they are dirty liars. Still, the acoustics in here are fantastic. Like the Siegel Center on steroids.

2:37: No first quarter fun for Maynor so far, although he does look sharp in that blue warm-up suit. 29-22 Thunder. 24.9 seconds remaining in the first.

2:32: Westbrook just drove the lane and threw down a huge right-handed jam. I’m not sure Maynor has one of those, er, dunk moves. I’ve seen Eric dunk once in a game, and that was last year on a complete breakaway.

2:31: If you aren’t familiar with the Thunder. They run a complicated offense called, Kevin Durant. Durant has 10 points and and Thunder lead, 23-20.

2:27: After the Thunder took a 17-16 lead, a Hawks’ fan could be heard yelling, “Come on guys, it’s for the kids.” It is Kids Day here, so I guess he’s right. Do it for the kids.

2:21: I’m impressed at the way the Hawks Mike Bibby controls the game. It’s no surprise that the Hawks have committed the fewest turnovers in the NBA. On the other end. Maynor is playing behind a rising star in Russell Westbrook. Westbrook is averaging 16.3 points per game and has the benefit of passing to Kevin Durant whenever he wants. However, he and Maynor have fairly different games. Westbook seems like he grew up with a scorer’s mentality, while Maynor is more of a “true” point guard. Scoring was something Maynor did in college because it was needed, but he’s a distributor at heart.

2:18: I was hoping to run into Atlanta Hawks Shooting Coach Mark Price. Price was my favorite player growing up, but alas, nothing so far. I don’t even see him on the bench. Then again the only place in the arena harder for me to see from my upper corner press row seat is the Thunder bench. 12-9 Hawks. Early first quarter. No Maynor yet.

2:15: Tell you what, Kevin Durant is no Tony Durant. Just kidding. He would absolutely demolish his older brother now. For those of you who remember. Tony Durant played at Towson the last two years. Although, towards the end of the season he practically needed his face on a milk carton, because he fell way out of Pat Kennedy’s rotation.

2:12: The Hawks have had so many bad uniform combos over the years, I’m not quite sure what to make of this “ATL” thing they’ve got going on right now. I guess it’s the best of the worst. Atlanta is in its road reds, although they’re home, while the Thunder are actually in their white home jerseys. I’ve never understood why they do this some times. It’s a new phenomenon.

2:10: Mo Evans of the Hawks came to center floor to greet the fans and pay tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He also implored everybody to keep Haiti in their thoughts and prayers.

2:08: They sure do pull out all the stops during intros. They literally just had a drumline, led of course, by the Atlanta Hawk mascot march onto the floor. Not to mention the pyrotechnics. The only pyro I can remember seeing in my college travels was at Akron for the BracketBuster a couple of years back. They put these wimpy sparkler things on the floor, and we were sure one was going to tip over and fire roman candles into our bench area.

2:06: Spotted in the first row, near one of the endlines: A fan in a Seattle Supersonics’ Kevin Durant jersey. If you an afford those seats, you can probably afford a new jersey. They’ve only been out of Seattle for a couple of years. I’m not sure you can call it a “throwback” yet.

1:57: Also got to see Dominique Wilkins “The Human Highlight Reel” up close for the first time. He looks like he could still play. He’s doing some TV work here today, apparently.

1:50: Gametime.  I hope this is a late arriving crowd. We’re about 10 minutes until tip-off and there are a sizable number of empty seats. Then again, the Hawks not drawn well, historically, so it might not get much better. Maybe they’ll come around. This is a good young team, similar to Oklahoma City in a lot of ways. The Hawks are probably a year or two ahead of the Thunder, in terms of development.

I’ll tell you though, this is a very nice arena. Philips Arena, the Georgia Dome, CNN and a bunch of hotels are all jammed into the same block of land. Media parking was a bit interesting. I’m not sure I’d want to be parking cars in the dark down there. The Media Lots are basically under the arena and the highway. Deluxe accommodations indeed.

LOCKER ROOM RAMBLINGS
1:17: Just got out of the Oklahoma City Thunder locker room, where I had a nice chat with Eric Maynor. I’m going to have to go back postgame, because our media availability got cut a little short. Somebody accidentally set off an alarm, so we had to wait for security to check it out before we could go anywhere.

I’m going to go back through the interview now, but here’s a few highlights: Eric is still putting in a lot of work on that long-range jumper. He spent a good portion of shootaround parked outside the 3-point line. Catch-and-shoot kind of stuff. He seems pretty comfortable from those corners, which are shorter than the top of the arc, but is still trying to get there from 23-feet-nine inches.

Eric and Thunder Assistant Coach Maurice Cheeks, a fabulous player at one time, had a long conversation on the floor. I asked Eric about it and he spoke at length about Cheeks. He says that he watches film with Cheeks, “almost every day.” Eric seemed genuinely excited about working with the former 76ers great.

He was pretty shocked when the Utah Jazz traded him in December. He seemed to indicate that Jazz Coach Jerry Sloan wasn’t thrilled about the deal. Eric was basically Oklahoma City’s reward for taking Matt Harpring’s expiring contract. But Maynor understands that there’s a business side to this and expressed no ill will towards the Jazz. He’s in a good situation with the Thunder and is enjoying himself.

Don’t worry VCU fans. Eric is following the season very, very closely. If he can’t watch the game, he’s checking every box score. He also said that he wasn ‘t happy to see that the Rams had lost two straight at one point and said that, “we can’t lose no more.”

He’s settling into Oklahoma City quite nicely, thank you. Eric’s living with teammate James Harden, but will be moving into his own place on the 20th. Apparently, he’ s still got some belongings in Salt Lake City. Eric’s brother, Tony, is going to live with him all season. Tony even travels to some of the Thunder’s road games, but Eric joked that Tony would pick and choose the LeBron’s and Kobe’s and what not. I guess Memphis and Houston didn’t quite make the cut.

Maynor sure does enjoy playing with Kevin Durant, by the way. “Ah man, that’s amazing.”

PREVIEW
10:30 A.M.: Greetings from Atlanta, Rams’ fans. I stayed behind after Saturday’s VCU-Georgia State game to catch Eric Maynor and the Oklahoma City Thunder take on the Atlanta Hawks today at 2 p.m. It’s a special time for today’s contest because of the Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday. It should be a special day at the arena. Dr. King was an Atlanta native, so emotions run deep on a day like today. I’ve already seen plenty of signs around the city to commemorate the day, and I’m sure I’ll see more.

The Thunder head into today’s game with a 22-18 record, which is a half game back of third place Utah in the Northwest Division standings.

The Hawks, meanwhile, are 26-13 and have moved into sole possession of first place in the Southwest Division. Maynor, who was traded from Utah to OKC on Dec. 22, is averaging 5.5 points and 2.8 assists in 13 games since the deal. His minutes have also been much more consistent (15.5 mpg).

Atlanta is coming off a thrilling, 102-101, win over the Suns on Friday. Jamal Crawford hit a long 3-pointer at the buzzer to seal the win for the Hawks.

I’ll be headed over to the arena shortly, so stay tuned for more updates. I’ll be blogging throughout the game, so enjoy.