Just so we’re clear, the Wild Thing deal is a complete and utter compliment. I love the passion in your game. No diss whatsoever intended with the Wild Thing video. None. You should do a Wild Thing brand with your eye wear business. You’d prolly sell at least a million of them in Oklahoma alone. I’m semi euphoric with the five wins in a row. The Paul George thing is no longer bothering me. If he leaves, he leaves. Que sera. If PG leaves to go play with LeBron and rub LeBron’s balls for the rest of his NBA career—then so be it. You and Sam will figure it out.
It wasn’t pretty. The first 36 minutes were a microcosm of the Thunder’s woes against bad teams this season, but then something happened to start the fourth period.
That something was Raymond Felton. With the Thunder bumbling around the first three periods while I was watching OU beat Kansas in Lloyd Noble and listening to Matt Pinto broadcast the Thunder game, the Brooklyn Nets were hitting a slew of threes which had them leading by 15 points at one point, and by 11 points entering the fourth period.
This is when Raymond Felton beat his chest, yelled something like…”Let’s fucking go”, and then saved Billy Donovan from another embarrassing loss against a bad team.
Felton was brilliant. He scored 10 of his 14 points on the night in the fourth period. On a night when the Thunder as a team only had 12 assists, he had four helpers. He was +12. I sat there wondering if Billy Donovan would be smart enough to keep Felton in the game after Westbrook re-entered in the fourth. Billy D passed this test and kept Felton in the game deep into the fourth period. That alone coupled with the fact Alex Abrines never saw the floor allows me to give Billy Donovan a pass for the first thirty-six minutes.
But it wasn’t just Felton off the bench who made a difference in this comeback. Patrick Patterson hit two huge threes in the fourth period. Josh Huestis hit another huge three. Terrance Ferguson only shot 1-5 on the night, but I liked his energy in the fourth. Same with Jerami Grant. The bench was great when it mattered.
Then Russell Westbrook entered the fourth period and closed the deal. Felton was the middle reliever and Russell Westbrook was Rickey Vaughn the closer.
With 3.3 seconds left, Westbrook drove the right side of the lane and assaulted the basket for what turned out to be the game winner for the Thunder.
Brooklyn inbounded to Spencer Dinwiddie, but Andre Roberson blanketed his man and the shot fell short as the Thunder improved to 27-20.
Paul George added 28 points and Carmelo had a quiet night. It looked like Billy Donovan wanted to sub Jerami Grant on defense for Carmelo those last 3.3 seconds, but quite frankly it appeared to me Carmelo waved off Donovan and finished the game.
Remember the 4th Rule of Coaching…. ‘Your stars at times have to coach the team from within.’ I have no idea what the dimwits at Fox said in their postgame, but that’s kind of the way I saw it there at the end.
To me, there are no style points in NBA regular season games. Just win the game, stay healthy, and move on to the next frame. What happened in those first 36 minutes doesn’t matter, it’s what happened in the last 12 minutes which has the Thunder at 27-20 and seven games above .500 for the first time this season.
Was a turner corned? Of course not. But other than the Golden State Warriors has any other NBA team this season really turned any corners of sort? And, to be clear, it’s not like the Warriors have been anything special, they’re just obscenely loaded because of Durant’s presence on their roster.
Maybe more to the point, the NBA as a whole isn’t a league of corner turning this season, but more of a league of spurts, mini runs and mini slumps.
It doesn’t matter. The Thunder won a game they needed in a bad way and survived.
Ray Felton was the star in this one, but needed Ricky Vaughn to come out of the pen and close the deal.
Win, survive, and advance.
The Thunder host Scott Brooks and the Washington Wizards on Thursday night.
It seems like we’ve been at multiple turning points in this season of inconsistent play for the Thunder. Bad news is the Thunder have only veered and never really turned as a team as we sit on 46 games played.
If the Thunder don’t make the turn these next five games to finish the month of January they probably aren’t ever going to make the turn.
The five games left in the month read… home vs. Brooklyn, home vs. the struggling Wizards, road vs. the 2-8 Pistons in their last ten, home Sixers, and road Wizards. 5-0 is doable, nothing less than 4-1 should be acceptable.
Win four games and the Thunder is 30-21 heading into the All-Star break. Win four or five games to close out the month and the 4th or even the 3rd seed aren’t complete pipedreams when the season restarts on February 1st in Denver.
It’s time for Billy Donovan to drive his team. It’s time for the three stars to in a nuanced manner coach the team from within. It’s time for Steven Adams to continue his excellent play of late. It’s time for Andre Roberson to continue to be one of the five best defenders in the NBA. It’s time.
I’m not as down on the bench as some others are because the reality is when the playoffs get here I’m fairly certain Billy Donovan doesn’t go deeper than a nine man rotation. Ray Felton is fine. Patrick Patterson is coming around. Jerami Grant needs to settle down offensively and play within his skill set. Terrance Ferguson has been a pleasant surprise. Josh Huestis gives Billy Donovan another defensive specialist if he needs one on a given night. That’s the way I see the team. I would think Presti will make some type of move at the deadline but I’m at this point thinking OKC is all in with Paul George if for no other than to allow Russell Westbrook a chance to make his case to Paul George. It might not be the safe hedge play, but it’s the play Russell Westbrook needs to see from his general manager.
The Brooklyn Nets are in town tonight and the Thunder have the opportunity for the first time this season to get to seven games above the .500 mark.
The team is healthy and poised to make a bit of a run.
The government shut down is technically over. It made no sense whatsoever. Nobody ever wins one of these, everyone loses. None of this is new. Newt Gingrich and the GOP shut down the government in ’95. Ted Cruz and right wing of the GOP closed down the government in 2013. And then of course, we just witnessed this mini shutdown of 2018. Just like our ‘normal’ current government, these shutdowns don’t really work. They’re just dramatic extensions of the pre-existing dysfunction.
The two party democratic system of government only works when you have visionary statesmen in both bodies of Congress and a strong pragmatic leader in the White House utilizing the Bully Pulpit to bring people together.
Good luck with that in circa 2018.
Then is when we’re going to find out if our government is completely dysfunctional. Eighty to ninety per cent of the country think the Dreamers should stay. It clearly is the right thing to do.
We’ll see what happens the next four weeks. I wonder if Teddy Roosevelt could have handled the American Freedom Caucus and Steven Miller.
Simply amazing to witness the Tom Brady legacy continue to grow. As each year passes Tom Brady is on the cusp of cementing his place as the greatest quarterback in the modern era of the National Football League.
But yesterday in Foxboro may have been the exclamation point. With a nasty cut on his right hand, with no Gronk in the second half due to concussion protocol, and with the Jacksonville Jaguars up 20-10 in the fourth period–Tom Brady did exactly what every football fan in America knew he was going to do…namely make every play he needed to make in the fourth period to rally the Pats to a 24-20 win over Jacksonville to advance to yet another Super Bowl.
Simply a great game as Jacksonville led by Blake Bortles showed they not only belonged on this stage, but have every reason to believe they’ll be back next season to challenge once again for a Super Bowl championship of their own.
These Jags were no fluke. They’re young and should be the team on the AFC horizon to replace the Pats if Tom Brady ever decides he’s had enough fun winning Super Bowls.
I’m not really a Pats fan, but as each year passes you have to sit back and admire the overall game and toughness Tom Brady brings to the stadium each week. I can’t think of any other contemporary pro athlete close to Tom Brady in the sheer competitiveness he brings to the table. Maybe LeBron in basketball, maybe Sid Crosby in hockey, baseball doesn’t have a dominant star, but what Tom Brady is doing is something special.
If a comparison were to be made it would probably be to Tiger Woods when he was in his prime winning fourteen major golf championships. Or when Michael was winning six NBA championships. There’s the same type of energy and confidence each athlete exuded over their game.
So now we have the Pats vs. the Eagles in Minneapolis in our fifty-second Super Bowl. It’s called the Lombardi Trophy, but if Tom Brady wins his sixth Super Bowl against the Eagles he’ll own the distinction of being the greatest quarterback in the modern era to ever play the game.
So…how long will we be able to watch Tom Brady do his thing? Hard to tell because in his forties he’s still yet to show any regression in his game. But I’ll make sure and enjoy it while Tommy Clutch keeps doing his thing…like he did on Sunday in winning his 54th comeback game in his career while trailing in the fourth period.
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Here’s the game winner with Tommy Clutch hitting Danny Playoff…like we haven’t seen these two hook up before.
Today is the second biggest day of the NFL season with the conference championships taking place in Philadelphia and Foxboro. The name of the trophy which goes to the eventual Super Bowl champion is the Lombardi Trophy which is named after the iconic coach of the Green Bay Packers and Washington Redskins.
I was born in ’57 and my youth was dominated by sports. Baseball, football, basketball, racquetball, golf and snow skiing consumed me. Even ice hockey as an adult satiated my passion to compete. Without a doubt, Vincent Thomas Lombardi was the dominant role model for me growing up as a kid in Oklahoma City. It wasn’t just that the Packers won championships, but it more to what Lombardi stood for as a man. Duty, work ethic, team work, passion, commitment to family, tenacity, compassion, and a tolerance of others as long as he saw these qualities in his players and coaches.
I absorbed everything about the Packers. Green Bay’s starting left offensive guard, Jerry Kramer, wrote three best selling books which I read in my formative years. Instant Replay, Winning is Everything, and Farewell to Football were a set of books which gave insights not only into Lombardi the football coach, but more importantly, the man himself. Many in my generation have a place in our hearts for Vince Lombardi. Sure, the Ice Bowl was part of it, but once you got past that game and Camelot it was much more.
Oddly, Lombardi more than any politician, probably helped shape me on my views on what should be important to a young American man growing up. I can still hear that voice booming in my ears. Politically, I’m an Independent, but in truth I’m a member of the Lombardi Coalition. Lombardi was a social liberal with a fiscal conservative’s view on work and self accountability.
Lombardi was very much a tolerant person. He treated every player the same except quarterback Bart Starr. Kramer always wrote Bart Starr was his favorite player probably because the quarterback position is the purest extension of a coach. And he was careful not to yell at Starr because he never wanted his quarterback’s leadership to the rest of the team ever questioned. Otherwise, Lombardi treated everyone the same.
Lombardi was the grandson of Italian immigrants. He was one of the original members of the Seven Blocks of Granite at Fordam University. His coaching career started with Red Blaik being offensive line coach at Army, then becoming the NY Giants offensive coordinator. When Lombardi took the Green Bay job the Packers were the laughingstock of the NFL. In less than a decade, he turned the Packers into the greatest dynasty in pro football history.
As I sit here today watching our country in cultural freefall, I wonder what the grandson of Italian immigrants would not only think about Donald Trump, but more to the point ‘what the hell has happened’ to our country?
Some say Lombardi couldn’t win in today’s culture in America. I disagree. Lombardi was a pioneer not only pertaining to racial equality, but for social tolerance as well. Lombardi would be a perfect fit.
So when this year’s Lombardi Trophy is awarded to the winning team it isn’t just the fact his teams won championships that his name is on the trophy, but more to the point, how he helped shape America during the 60’s and beyond his own lifetime.
America could use Vincent Thomas Lombardi right now. The Lombardi Doctrine, now more than the 60’s should be the doctrine in America. Don’t judge others, just do your best and look for the best in others.
You can’t ever allow yourself to get too high with a win involving this Thunder team, but OKC’s romp over LeBron’s Cavs on Saturday in Cleveland in the ABC matinee game was impressive.
I guess we’re at the point when we have to say this…when this team plays a national game with the nation watching, this team’s stars show up. They showed up against the Warriors, the Rockets, and today they didn’t just show up versus the Cavs…this Thunder team made LeBron give the Roberto Duran look of ‘no mas’ in the fourth period. It was sad.
It was a Thunder avalanche. It started 8-0 and went downhill from there for LeBron. He looked lost. His team was in disarray. And there was LeBron for the first time in a long while looking like anything but the best basketball player in the world. When Russell Westbrook plays like this–that best basketball player in the world could he him. Bad Little Dude showed what be can do. But so did Paul George, Carmelo Anthony, and Stevo Adams.
The 148 points scored in regulation are the most points scored in a regulation game in the Thunder era.
At this point, I’m moving Steven Adams into the what we will call OKC’s Big Four.
When Sam Presti sees something like this—I guess I understand the ‘all the chips in the middle of the table’ mindset with the Paul George recruitment.
Even if Jerry West called Paul George from a yacht swaying in the Pacific with the promise of LeBron being a Clipper next season…I’m not sure that would be the basketball move best enchancing Paul George’s championship aspirations after seeing Paul George’s performances when he plays like he cares.
These numbers are staggering. OKC’s Big Four scored 120 points. They shot a collective 44-68 from the field. The Thunder had 37 assists versus 13 turnovers. OKC pounded the Cavs on the boards. No one wearing a Cavs jersey looked even remotely equal to what Steven Adams was dishing out on the inside game. This wasn’t the Adams from the 2016 Western Conference, this was better. This was the next level of Steven Adams. When Steven Adams brings his Big Boy Britches game like this he’s possibly the best center in the Western Conference, or at least in the top two or three.
Billy Donovan was better. Alex Abrines didn’t see his two minutes of action until the game was over. Donovan coached this like a playoff game. He tightened the rotational minutes. It made sense.
I never screamed profanities at my 60″ flat screen once. But then again, I never had to hear a word ushered from the lips of Brian Davis or Michael Cage as only ABC carried the game. It was so refreshing for a sagacious NBA Baby Boomer like me to be able to listen to Hubie Brown. I drank wine. Smoked victory cigars. It was nirvana. The diva black lab gave me the look which said, ” I told you it would be alright, Mike. Dude, chill. It’s all a process.”
I could care less about the government close down. I can’t sweat that shit anymore. This is an NBA Oklahoma Thunder blog and there might be the chance I have something to write about other than which Ivanka look alike porn star named Summer Love will show up next as one of Caligula’s erotic play friends.
This was the fourth Thunder win a row as the Thunder improve to 26-20. Thirty six games left. The Thunder are 6-3 in the month. But I won’t project any further. I’ve learned from that. No corner was turned today. For today–you’d have to say OKC and Golden State need to hook up in the playoffs. If for no other reason than to give Russell Westbrook the chance to show the Warriors what he showed the country this afternoon in Cleveland.
The Thunder host Brooklyn on Tuesday. One would think this game won’t resemble anything like the fiasco in Mexico City.
Life is worth living again. The dark clouds have parted.
The U.S. government has shut down, fortunately the NFC and AFC Championship Games take center stage. Clearly, the more compelling storylines are the football games and Tom Brady’s hand injury he suffered this week in practice.
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s game at Cleveland is but a blur on my interest radar this week-end. Hopefully — the game in Cleveland will get both of these sleepwalking teams motivated and energized moving forward.
We know how the government thing will end. It will end the same way it’s ended for a very long time—with that being…conclusive evidence that neither Democrats or Republicans in any configuration can govern the country like adults. Granted, having a fourth grade level internet bully is like throwing gas on a fire, but who amongst can honestly say this would have had a different ending regardless of which candidate had been elected. Ask John Boehner if he’s surprised. No surprise–the American Freedom Caucus rules both Trump and McConnell. The rest is just window dressing.
So–it’s NFL football again for me this week-end taking my interest center stage.
The AFC Championship Game features the Jacksonville Jags at the New England Patriots. Tom Brady sustained a cut knuckle on his throwing hand this Wednesday. Four stitches were required to close the wound. Can he throw? Can he play? My guess is he’ll do both well enough to beat the upstart Jags and advance to the Super Bowl. The Jags are very good, especially on the defensive side of the ball. Maybe the best defense in the NFL. I look at it this way though, the Pats have home field, Tom Brady with a sutured knuckle, a healthy Gronk, and the best head coach in the NFL…I might not give the points, but I’d still take New England to win. In the end, is Blake Bortles good enough at quarterback for the Jags to overcome all of which I just listed above? That’s the question in this one. Should be an intriguing game though. I’ll go New England 24- Jacksonville 19.
The NFC game should be a game of two franchises with two quarterbacks who have both traveled improbable roads to be on the cusp of the Super Bowl… Nick Foles and Case Keenum. Two great defenses. But here’s where I go to pick the Eagles to advance, namely home field and a better running game. Otherwise, these teams are almost identical. Neither have won a Super Bowl in their football history, neither have been to a Super Bowl in quite some time, both have suffered in recent years, but here they both stand one game removed from the Super Bowl. I’ll go Philadelphia 19- Minnesota 17.
Well, here we are within hours of the government shutting down and this is where we’re at ….Caligula paying Ivanka Trump look alike porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 in hush money from a dubious L.L.C. account just weeks before the Election of 2016. Who in their right mind could think of this shit and actually write it down?
In the same week in which Caligula called Haiti a shithole, allowed Tea Party senator Tom Cotton to bully him on the DACA kids, and I’m guessing the government will close…here we are chasing Trump LLCs over something we at this point will call Pornstar Pussygate. Who are these white people and why aren’t we deporting them?
We don’t need to be worrying about illegal immigration. We need to deport about 20 million or so white dumbasses from our country.
Even Jerry Springer wouldn’t allow this shit in his studio. We don’t need a wall. The ‘Wall’ isn’t the issue. An over abundance of white dumbasses is the problem.
Richard Painter, former legal counsel in W’s administration… I love this dude. He starts talking and I just lose it. It must be all the religious zealots who voted for Trump have some serious sexual repression issues is all I can figure at this point.
Here’s Richard Painter giving his take on Caligula and Porn Star Pussygate.
Arizona’s conservative GOP senator is going home. He’s calling it quits. He wrote a book on the behavior of Trump in relation to constitutional abuses by the POTUS and took a hit from his voters in Arizona. Sheriff Joe, the acknowledged racist and recently pardoned one is running for that Senate seat. Trump has already endorsed Sheriff Joe. Isn’t Arizona proud?
Anyway, Flake gave a speech on Wednesday comparing Caligula to Stalin. Then, of course, the next night Trump held what he calls his own Fake News Awards. Here’s Jeff Flake basically shutting the door on his own ass going out the proverbial U.S. Senate door. Today, Flake was one of several GOP senators who voted against Trump and the C.R. without DACA relief attached. Kind of somewhat odd, Little Marco Rubio, who’s parents were Cuban immigrants as were the parents of Lyin’ Ted Cruz, have both been quiet this week. Maybe they’re worried Trump will send them back.