Back on February 6th all seemed relatively well in the world of Thunder. OKC traveled to Oakland and played decent losing 116-108 against these historic 52-5 Warriors. OKC actually had a chance to win the game until Russell Westbrook and Kevin Durant made some murky offensive decisions on three straight possessions with the game hanging in the balance. But still, it was an encouraging night for the Thunder as it appeared they could hang with these Warriors on the road.
From that game forward the wheels have come off in Oklahoma City if wheels can actually come off in a seven game span. OKC is 3-4 and has given up 115 points or more in four of these games.
Last Sunday afternoon, LeBron came to town and his Cavs without Kyrie, Shumpert or Mo Williams literally toyed with the Thunder administering a 23 point beat down on ABC. Throw in Thursday night’s embarrassing 123-119 road loss to New Orleans with TNT analyst Charles Barkley calling OKC a team with little basketball smarts and not much defensive heart and the stage is set for a game the Oklahoma City Thunder really need to win if they want to be taken seriously.
And did I mention if OKC loses this game the LA Clippers are all the sudden only two games down to the Thunder in the loss column?
Donald Trump and Bubble Boy were both in Oklahoma City yesterday campaigning for votes in Oklahoma’s Super Tuesday primary. Maybe some of Trump’s gold dust magic will rub off on the Thunder and they turn this around a bit. Maybe it gets to the point where oil is back over a hundred a barrel and Thunder fans get bored winning too many games. Just bullshitting there, but felt like I had to work Trump and Bubble Boy into the preview somehow since they were both in OKC yesterday. Feel free if you need to sigh on me, but I had to do it.
I’m tired of berating the Thunder’s abysmal defense on my rogue blog. It’s time for these guys to show some heart on that end of the floor or just admit as a team they don’t have the heart to be taken as a serious contender.
Put up or shut up. I’m tired of hearing excuses. Line in the sand game tonight at the Chesapeake Energy Arena for the Thunder.
Seems like an appropriate time to play the Pacino speech.