Corey Brewer got the starting assignment filling the Andre Roberson role and it was a fit as the Thunder rolled the league worst Suns by a count of 115-87 on Thursday night inside the Peake.
Granted, these Suns are tanking and lottery bound, but to date in this season of underachievement you take the win and pray it’s a sign from the basketball gods that these guys actually care about their season.
On this night with no further margin for error in a season which hasn’t gone the right direction for a team with goals of being mentioned in the same breath as Golden State and Houston… there was an escape from that reality against these hapless Suns.
Corey Brewer got the start and played 28 minutes. In those minutes he scored 17 points, had 4 rebounds, a steal and an assist, and was +26. He moved without the ball, he slashed, he ran the break in transition, and he played some defense. But most of all he gave his team some much needed energy. It was like watching Andre Roberson minus some pounds and really bad free throw attempts.
So there’s that hope at least as the Thunder improve to 9-9 without Andre.
There’s really no need to mention the game further because the Suns are that bad. And I don’t write this to be snarky because I want to use the rest of my recap to talk about something else.
Namely, the 2011 Dallas Mavericks.
Just out of curiosity I googled the Dallas Mavs 2011 regular season record after 66 games. Guess what, the Mavs were 36-30 and the 7th seed at exactly the same point in the season as the Thunder were this morning. A mere six games over .500 and apparently going nowhere with Dirk, Jason Kidd, and Shawn Marion.
Then a funny thing happened. The Mavs entered the playoffs as the 6th seed in the West and of all things went on to beat LeBron’s first Super Team in Miami for the world championship playing flawless playoff basketball riding the shoulders of Dirk all the way to the promised land.
So there is some sort of precedent for this in this era of Super Teams and the overall devolved culture of the NBA. This is doable.
But for it to be doable Russell Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo Anthony have to pull their collectives heads out of their asses and play every game remaining on the slate as if there’s no tomorrow. Because there is no tomorrow for this Thunder team if they continue to underachieve and go down in history as a joke of sorts. A bad joke at that.
The math is still doable to be a No. 4 seed. But as Dirk and Company showed in 2011 the math is even doable as the No. 6 seed.
It’s unfair to put all of this on Billy Donovan. It’s not fair of me to do that because this isn’t a coach driven league. It’s a star driven league.
I’m tired of writing about this team to a certain extent. They bore me. They did a shitload of talking and didn’t back it up.
They have fifteen games to back it up or shut the fuck up or to some extent validate Kevin Durant and his mother. I know, that was probably too much, but I’m tired of this shit. This doesn’t happen in hockey.
If superstars drive this league, then this would be the time in Oklahoma City for three future Hall of Famers who between them still don’t have a ring to have an internal conversation if you know what I mean. Or else just sign up for the next Team LeBron and suck his dick for a ring.
I think you know what I mean.
It’s on them from this point forward. Either step up or shut up.
The Thunder host the Spurs on Saturday night in the ABC Game of the Week.
There is basically no tomorrow for this Thunder team.
I’m guessing Billy Donovan by the NBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement isn’t allowed to say what I just wrote. So I just wrote it for him.
Fair enough?
Shawn Marion is one of my favorite non-star NBA players of all-time. I love this video.