Cursory thoughts on the first game

The Thunder's opening win over the Kings was nice, but like all single-game analyses it really fails to tell us much about what we should expect out of the Thunder this season. In and of itself however, there are some tidbits to grasp at. We already have a recap/thought-piece from mleetch352, but I figured I'd add to the festivities in my own way.

Joe over at DailyThunder once referenced Dean Oliver's four factor breakdown of what wins games (back in January of 2009). While this isn't a be-all-end-all, it does provide a bit of fun number crunching for an isolated game situation. The four factors and their relative weights:

1. Shoot a high field goal percentage (10).
2. Do not commit turnovers (5-6).
3. Get offensive rebounds (4-5).
4. Get to the foul line frequently (2-3).

Using that as a reference, a brutish and blunt look at the box score turns up some fun information, sprinkled with my own random opinion. The Thunder went 39-76 for a .513 FG percentage (good), turned the ball over 13 times (not so good), grabbed 42 rebounds ... of which 8 were offensive rebounds (okay, all things considered), and got to the line for 20 FTs (not so great). And then we have the fact that OKC also allowed a bottom-feeder team to outscore them 21 to 13 in the 4th quarter -- and really, it doesn't much matter why that might have been the case, when you're playing the Kings. Jeff Green went 4-5 from beyond the arc, accounting for over 5 of 13 of his shot attempts. I guess this is a continuation of the SF-playing-out-of-position-with-perimeter-touch thing they're trying to build upon from last year. It also belies a dearth of post presence that seems to be the big, huge unaddressed hole. On the other hand, Jeff Green also had 3 blocked shots(!). In a huge positive, Westbrook only had 2 TOs to go along with 13 assists ... this is obvious, unrefutable growth -- at least for one (real) game. Also, as per last year: the defense still needs work. But you know what? We won. And the Suns looked pretty darn vulnerable going against the Griffin-less Clippers -- it's a game they were able to pull it out in the last seconds. All in all, it's a promising start to a new season.

Other: Anyone have thoughts on Harden?