Every game from this point forward for the Thunder is critical. There’s no room for error because the team never for whatever reason met its own expectations. This was supposed to be that stretch of the season when this Super Team of sorts got its act together.
Only problem is Steven Adams is sitting now with a contused thigh. Paul George couldn’t continue in the second half in Atlanta because of a hard fall and some sort of groin injury. Andre Roberson’s season was over way back in Detroit on January 27th.
Yet on Tuesday night in Atlanta with three starters missing the Thunder responded with a hard fought 119-107 win over a horrible Atlanta Hawks team which is an embarrassment to the minimum standards of talent any NBA team should have on its roster.
But having written this, the storyline was once again Russell Westbrook put his owner, his GM, his teammates, and OKC on his back and got his team out of Dodge with a win his team absolutely had to leave town with given the going ons in the Western Conference.
Westbrook was Westbrook in notching his 21st triple double of the season and 100th of his career. Westbrook is in rarified air as one of the top four triple doublers of all time after this historic night in Atlanta. I think Jason Kidd is next on the list if I read it right.
Carmelo and Jerami Grant both had strong nights on a night with those three starters either already done or not available on this night. It’s a good thing the Thunder aren’t in the NHL or NFL or I fear Westbrook, Felton, and Collison would be the only Thunder still standing. Take that as you may.
The Thunder with their fourth win in a row improve to a season best 41-29 and a current landing as the No. 4 seed in the West.
The easy stretch of games is over. Twelve games remain for the Thunder with only the season finale against Memphis versus a team not currently eligible for the playoffs.
This is clearly the toughest stretch of schedule this Thunder team has faced this season.
I have no idea what the status is for either Adams or Paul George. I’m to the point I don’t care anymore. This season started on October 19th and it’s been five months of continual frustration. Yet, here the Thunder sit at least in the discussion for the possibility of a top six seed in the West.
I’ll keep watching and blogging because if for no other reason Russell Westbrook has kept my interest even though the team as a whole has been an underachiever to date.
The LA Clippers in town on Friday night beginning a stretch of eleven very tough games in a twenty-five day span. Five home games, six road games. Six wins would get the Thunder to 47-35 where is exactly where they finished last season as the No. 6 seed in the West.
I feel fairly certain this isn’t where Sam Presti wanted to be on March 14th, but such is life in the NBA.