A good night in Thunder Nation as for the second night in a row one Anthony Morrow dispelled errant rumors of his retirement from the NBA. Against the Nuggets on Friday, Morrow was solid with a ten point night which helped the Thunder win an ugly basketball game. Last night at the Peake, Anthony Morrow was more than solid. On my sheet he was the No. 1 Star of the Game as he led all scorers on the court with a 21 point game and was a major reason the Thunder coasted to a wire to wire 116-108 rout of the Pistons.
Morrow was so good it makes you wonder wtf Billy Donovan has been doing. Amo was 8-12 from the field hitting three of his customary splashing threes, but he scored other ways as well. Off the dribble, posting up, getting to the rim–it was beautiful. Here’s a wild thought for Presti and Billy Donovan—why not start feeding Anthony Morrow some minutes every game and see what wtf happens since Roberson and Singler have trouble making shots other than layups.
And did you see what happened when the Thunder started spreading the floor with Morrow? The seas parted in the Pistons’ paint area. It’s called space and time. Steven Adams had 16 points and 9 rebounds. When Kanter could catch the ball cleanly his pick and roll with Westbrook was a smorgasboard of space and time with those two even though I’d still like Presti to trade Kanter and his $17.5 million salary for another two way swing player.
All in all it was a much needed game of the Thunder playing well on both ends of the court.
I love Oladipo so excuse me when I appear to be his agent on here, but he was good again with his mini-Westbrook triple double of 18-6-2. In time there will be only one backcourt better than OKC’s in this league and yeah, it’s the two pricks in Oakland who traveled to the Hamptons to steal Durant from the Thunder. But me thinking of what Westbrook and Dipo can become in tandem is what keeps me going through the nights when it gets ugly.
Jerami Grant had what I thought was an excellent game. In time as he gets more in feel with what OKC is doing he’ll become a player the entire city falls in love with as well. I loved his daddy Harvey when he led the Sooners to the ’88 national championship game so it was an easy conversion for me. But Grant can do things which will help this team evolve.
Almost forgot, Russell Westbrook had his seventh triple double of the season…yawn. But let me be clear here it was the more in line with the type of triple double which makes the Thunder a better team. Westbrook’s line was 17-13-15 on but 22 shots. I’m not one of those shot counter types, but when Westbrook’s shot total stays near 20 the Thunder play more balanced team oriented basketball.
One stat which can’t be unmentioned on here is the Pistons were limited to a 1-19 night from shooting threes in this ball game. That is 5.2% from behind the arc. Obviously, the Pistons were tired and without minimalist Reggie Jackson who by my count hasn’t played yet this season. But the Thunder were tired and without Reggie Jackson as well. So there’s that. I wonder if Reggie finally bought a car when he inked his $80 million deal with the Pistons or just walks to the arena in his socks? Maybe Darnell can fill us in on the whole Reggie Jackson situation in Detroit. Will he ever play again? Does he own a car? Does he rollerblade in in downtown Detroit? Did he vote for Donald Trump just to piss off Russell Westbrook? Get with it Darnell. Inquiring minds need to know.
So—the Thunder improve to 10-8 and all the sudden have a nice little two game winning streak going as they now head east to play the Knicks tomorrow night in Madison Square Garden.
But my storyline from Saturday night was Anthony Morrow and how much he could potentially help this young basketball team by scoring the ball and creating space for Russell Westbrook.
Knicks in New York tomorrow night. Wouldn’t mind a bit if Westbrook pissed on the curb right in front of Trump Tower to make a national statement of sorts for the NBA.
Let’s go Thunder.