This is starting to be a very interesting basketball season in Oklahoma City.
On New Years’ Eve inside of a jam packed throng of over 18,000 believers the feel good Thunder made all the plays which mattered in overcoming Luka D for a pulsating 106-101 win to close out the year.
It seemed as if Luka would be too much on this night in which the prodigy successor to Dirk scored 35 points and Maxi Kleber was showing why he’s one of the best kept secrets in the NBA.
Yet the miracle came once again sparked by youngster Chris Paul who just basically took over the ball game in the fourth period and did his thing.
These isn’t Westbrook’s Thunder and these aren’t the Bad News Bears from the previous two years. This team doesn’t take pride in being the dumbest in the league and throwing games away in the final six minutes with a predictable array of hoops stupidity.
With Westbrook in Houston and with Chris Paul, Shai GA, and Big Gallo in Oklahoma the narrative has changed, that being, the Thunder have a smart team with some TSN grit to match. There’s no loafing on the defensive end of the floor.
This isn’t Westbrook bashing. I don’t hate Westbrook. He was good for Oklahoma City. He didn’t slither away like Durant into the night with Draymond Green after Game 6. It just got old watching dumb basketball and even dumber press conferences.
All the sudden Billy Donovan is being revered as the second coming of John Wooden and there are whispers of some coach of the year votes going his way. Truth is—it appears Chris Paul is setting the tone. The best teams coach themselves from within.
Nick Collison would love this basketball team. This is the team which Nick should have ended his career with–not the dumpster fire from the two previous seasons. I keep thinking of Nick with this group of players.
But anyway. It was Chris Paul’s night. He took over in the fourth and his teammates followed. You could literally feel them feed off Chris Paul’s confidence of late as the Thunder finished their amazing month of December at 11-4 and firmly in place as the No. 7 seed in he West at 18-15.
Chris Paul had 17 points with most of them coming in the fourth period while Luka and Maxi couldn’t convert at the end.
Big Gallo finally returned from his ankle sprain and chipped in twenty meaningful points and the game’s biggest play when he knocked the ball out of Luka’s hands with nineteen seconds left.
Thunder bigs Steven Adams and Nerlens Noel were both high energy excellent on the night. Dennis Schroder and Shai had decent nights.
Shai and Dennis weren’t spectacular, but they got it done when they needed it to be done.
Again…it’s hard to know how long Gallinari will be with this team, but for the time being he is and the Thunder with him in the mix are better for it as we start to head toward the trade deadline in a month or so.
Sam Presti now has thirty-three games of sample from these guys. He should know what he does and doesn’t have.
What I think he has is a pretty good basketball team which Oklahoma City has fallen in love with during the month of December.
The Thunder hit the road on Thursday night with a game against the 14-18 San Antonio Spurs. It’s a big game because the Spurs will be one of the primary teams chasing the Thunder for the last two seeds in the West,
Have a happy and prosperous New Year.