Okay. I was there somewhat behind the Houston Rockets bench on Christmas Night. I even dished out an extra eight bucks for the Thunder X-Mas Santa Cap. I was ready to go…and you know what?
So were the Thunder.
Let’s start with this. Before tip, Paul George took the microphone and gave what I thought was a heartfelt pep talk to all of us Thunder fans. It was like he was trying to say, ” I’m sorry for the season so far, but we think we’ve figured things out. Can we have a mulligan ’cause here we go.”
Then there was a rousing rendition of the national anthem. I have to admit I got caught up in the moment there singing like it was Desert Storm days and there for several minutes I almost forgot Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump waged a bitter campaign against one another recently and eventually one of these ‘people’ had to be president. I almost felt like an American again. I didn’t feel, you know…dirty.
Then you know what happened…Sam Presti’s Super Team said what the fuck and decided to make a curtain call encore in honor of their 108-91 win over Golden State… which I think actually happened sometime this past November in the year 2017.
OKC beat Houston 112-107 in what I would describe as a glorious basketball game in which the Thunder won their fifth straight and improved to 11-3 in December.
Don’t look now…but Sam Presti has a pretty good basketball team in place which is on a roll.
Super Team…Smuper Team…what are those anyway? Who amongst really thinks all that much about what Chris Bosh did and didn’t do for LeBron.
But I’ll tell you this….OKC’s Super Four were pretty good on Christmas Night against James Harden and the Rockets.
I don’t do a lot of stats on my recaps. I detest millennial metric zombies who laden down the game as if they were talking about scientific results from some recent lab experiments perpetrated on mice. Who the fuck are these people anyway? I’ve forgotten more Michael Lewis than any of these people will ever read. If they’re so smart then why can’t they explain what ‘credit default swaps’ or ‘backdoor derivatives’ really are. Moneyball was a great story. I loved it. So what? Move on. Get a life. Learn some things about the overall portrait of life. Maybe accrue an asset or two. Grow up.
Here are my stats on the night. Westbrook, Carmelo, PG ( I like him again), and Steven scored a combined 90 points on the night. Is there a metric for this? This means the rest of the Thunder roster scored 22 points. So by definition, even if not metrically endorsed….Sam Presti does indeed have something resembling a Mini Super Team on his hands.
So there’s that.
Defensively…I thought OKC was really good. Again, at the risk of being too stat oriented…I’ll write OKC held Houston to a 43.2% shooting night from the field and limited the metric chucking darling Rockets to 32.4% from beyond the arc.
Of course, this brings me to Andre Roberson because in my estimation he’s OKC’s best defender who just by chance would have difficulty throwing a basketball into the Pacific Ocean if he were standing two feet from the water and he thought he was shooting a free throw.
Andre was superb defensively as he usually is, but you knew at some point Mike D’Antoni (he’s Italian like me, right?) would put him on the line…and of course he did in the fourth period with the game hanging in the balance somewhat. In true Andre fashion, he bank shot in the first attempt, then air-balled the second attempt. D’Ant said to himself, “do it again…WTF.”
He did and Andre by the divine intervention of Rumble made one of two again and by the grace of former Thunder iconic free throw legend quasi god…Kendrick Perkins, never had to toe the line again in this Christmas Night classic. Oh, by the grace of God.
But putting the all that aside, OKC played beautifully coming down the stretch of Winning Time in the fourth period. Russell Westbrook since that freak show ending in Philadelphia has PLAYED BETTER BASKETBALL THAN WHEN HE BEAT OSCAR LAST SEASON.
Callout to Bad Little Dude…I love you. This is the way you should play. This is the template. These past games it’s like I’m young again and watching Mo Cheeks play hoops with Dr J and Moses Malone. If you revert back to that other crap…I don’t know what to say to you other than maybe you’re a masochist or something. PLEASE DON’T DO THAT AGAIN. I WANT YOU TO BEAT CUPCAKE AND KLAY MORE THAN YOU DO.
In fact, it was my voice in Sec 114 there in the waning seconds last night which was chanting…”Bring on the fucking Warriors!” And you know, as I was doing that every motherfucker in front of me turned around and high fived me. No shit. We’re brothers in this, okay?
Carmelo and PG were glorious. Beautiful, boys. Steven Adams was a monster the first half. James Harden didn’t go off which is a tribute to Andre. Jerami Grant showed he belonged on this stage.
So here the Thunder sit 19-15 and on a roll. But here’s the thing, when you start the season like the Bad News Bears you can’t be satisfied with a modest five game winning streak in December. You have to become a greedy team with an edge. With something to prove to those of us who said you’d never be super.
So–if I’m Billy Donovan there’s no way in private with my team I’m gushing today. Actually, I’m more than a little pissed because it took this long to get this out of them five games in a row. I would stare, then glare a bit today while watching film of the Toronto Raptors. Instead of acting like a Mike Gundy clone minus the dyed mullet, I’d be a bit more like Greg Popovich. I’d say some things about pride of craft and such. I’d put on my Vincent Thomas Lombardi big boy britches and say a few more things. I’d actually get on their ass today and make it clear they’re doing an injustice to themselves as men if they play like they did earlier in the season
Don’t look now, but the Toronto Raptors are in first place in the East. They’ll be here tomorrow night at the Peake. I might see if I can sneak in the building again because there’s a rumor Sam Presti might have a decent ball club on his hands.
Who would have thought?