For the first time this NBA regular season… the Thunder earned a win without Laker head coach Frank Vogel and Lebron James looking on from the opposing bench with looks or horror and disbelief on their faces.
As with the two wins overs the Lakers, this Thunder 99-94 win over the tanking San Antonio Spurs wasn’t an instant NBA classic for the ages, but to the relief of the Pay.Com Arena crowd assembled on an autumn Sunday evening it wasn’t a loss either.
The Thunder started slow early and looked to be the worst of the two tanking teams for which Sam Presti has been employed by in the NBA, but at the end Mike Muscala made sure on this night the Thunder weren’t viewed as the worst team in the NBA.
When Clay Bennett said he wanted to follow the San Antonio holy grail NBA template he wasn’t kidding. On this night what we saw in Oklahoma City vs. the Spurs were two teams slogging the same NBA tanking road back to relevance simultaneously.
It was ugly early as the Thunder couldn’t buy a basket and fell behind by sixteen points. But on this night Coach D outdueled Pop as if something was on the line besides losing another NBA game intentionally.
I almost cried watching San Antonio play like this. This isn’t how Pop should finish his career.
What I would say about this game is that veteran Mike Muscala came off the bench and played like the best NBA player on the floor despite getting only 14 minutes of court time while almost every other member of the Thunder for the most part couldn’t hit the Pacific Ocean with a basketball if they were standing two feet away from water.
Muscala was sublime and along with Kenrich Williams has been one of the few bright spots in this second straight season on losing games by design despite claiming ‘sustainability’ on the witness stand under oath.
In his fourteen minutes of play Muscala scored an uber efficient 20 points on a 5-6 shooting night while adding a blocked shot to his stat line.
But what Mike Muscala gave most to those in attendance was the appearance the Thunder organization isn’t totally oblivious to the fact their own fanbase needs to see their team win some games here and there during the 82 game tanking death march into April.
Little Nick Gallo, bless his heart, stood next to Mike Muscala for the postgame Player of the Game interview and beamed as if the Thunder had come back from the dead to beat Steph and Klay in Game 6. I’ll give Little Nick Gallo this much… he’ll shame himself to no end whatsoever to earn his paycheck as the Thunder’s sideline version of a little mini Craig Sager type only without the cool jackets, smart insights, and Journey of Life humanity attached.
At 95-94 with the Thunder leading in the final two minutes…rookie Aussie Josh Giddy made a nice play on a penetration and dish to Lu Dort for a basket which I would describe as the best basketball play of the night for the Thunder. Otherwise Josh struggled and didn’t look the part of a player taken with the 6th pick in the recent NBA draft.
It was fitting though with 3.5 seconds left in this game…Mike Muscala nailed two free throws to give the Thunder a two possession lead and their first win of the season over a team which doesn’t allow Russell Westbrook to handle the ball in the last six minutes of an NBA game.
But for me there were two other bright spots….Darius Bazely and Jeremiah Robinson-Earl. I thought both of these guys showed flashes of what they can be with patience and encouragement from people like me.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was okay, but nothing special from a guy on a max contract deal playing at home before a crowd which knows their team isn’t supposed to win more 25 games this season.. He didn’t make my Thunder three stars in this game.
My three stars went…1 Mike Muscala, 2 Darius Bazely, and 3 Jeremiah Robinson-Earl…. with a customary nod to Kenrich Williams for his total professionalism and hustle every time he takes the floor. Somebody raised that young man the right way is all I can say. Total self accountability with some compassion attached to his basketball soul.
Mike Muscala and Kenrich…thank you.
Next up…the New Orleans Pelicans who have been even worse than the Thunder and Spurs so far this season this young NBA season….so that could very well be a third win in a row for the Thunder.
I hate to be such a sarcastic pisser on these occassional Thunder recaps of mine… but when you tank like a street whore somebody amongst the throng of onlookers needs to write something honest every now and again.
It is what it is.
Glass half full…only 73 games left in this NBA season in Oklahoma City.
Beat Baylor!
If I was an NBA general manager and just hired a sideline reporter for my basketball team… this is what I would do: I’d take him or her to lunch then we would watch this ten minute video together. Then I would say something like…”Be honest, be prepared, be insightful, be honest, but most of all be human and don’t insult our fans’ collective intelligence”.
Little Nick Gallo…this is from Mike Jackson to you as a gift of humanity for all of us who watch Thunder games.