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There have been some huge Thunder wins this season with the Divine Intervention in Philly and the epic double overtime win over the Jazz leading the list, but this win in Portland could very well be the biggest as far as season changing momentum and playoff seeding for the Thunder.This was a game Oklahoma City absolutely had to have to slant the seeding math in their favor to secure home court in the first round. If you looked at the standings and examined the final five weeks left on the schedule this was the game the Thunder needed in the worst way on this brutal four game western road swing.

Mission accomplished.

This was playoff basketball in its purist sense for the Thunder. The starters went heavy on the minutes. The bench was used more sparingly. Dennis Schroder for defensive reasons never saw the floor in the final ten minutes of play. Westbrook played 40 minutes, Paul George played 43 minutes.

This was a game for the stars on both teams standing front and center with the role players understanding this in a sense was a seeding game.

Westbrook scored 37 points on a 14-28 night. Paul George scored 32 points and went 17-20 from the line. Combined they gave Billy Donovan 69 points and a truckload of leadership from wire to wire. This is what your stars are supposed to do in playoff basketball.

Damian Lillard scored 51 points. McCullom added 25 points. Combined they had 76 points, but the Thunder did a good job with the rest of the Blazer roster.

Maurice Harkless had only two points. Nurkic was held in check with 13 points. Enes Kanter only managed 3 points and in no way mitigated the defensive liability he still is as an NBA player.

This game had everything. It was chippy. The Thunder played with an edge. Westbrook dumped Nurkic on the floor from behind. Paul George stung Nurkic with an elbow to the jaw which led to the game’s biggest play minutes later as Nurkic was ejected for head butting George.

Billy Donovan was right on the mark managing the minutes in the game. His rotations made sense. He knows his defense is a sieve with Westbrook and Schroder paired together…and they were never together the final ten minutes of this game.

The Thunder leave Portland at 40-25 with sole possession of the No. 4 seed still in their pocket plus a 4-0 series sweep of the Blazers.The Thunder in LA tomorrow night to play the second night of a road back to back. The goal on this four game road swing was to go 2-2. With a win either in LA or Salt Lake City the Thunder can take a deep breath and regroup for the final 15 regular season games.

I have to admit with the Thunder sinking like the Titanic my attention is easily diverted to other things. Of course, Sean Spicer was Trump’s first enabler, but I still always kind of liked Spicer if for nothing else his sense of humor.

So as I observe Russell Westbrook continually troll the Oklahoma local media with Nick Gallo nuzzled up next to him like his pet puppy…it does make me somewhat see Sean Spicer’s face superimposed on Little Nick Gallo’s body during these Oklahoma City Thunder postgame pressers.

I love the opening skits on SNL and if the Thunder season does go all the way south…we at least have to be able to have a sense of humor and laugh at ourselves at times.

I see a lot of Nick Gallo in Sean Spicer and if you can be Russell Westbrook’s press secretary…then I’m thinking the Trump people might want to keep Nick Gallo in mind whenever Sarah Huckabee-Sanders gets fired.

In a span of eight games I’ve dropped Oklahoma from No. 2 to No. 9 and out of my top eight. The Thunder since early January rank as the third worst defensive team in the NBA along with lottery teams Phoenix and the NY Knicks. I would think tonight in Portland is a fairly important game with road games coming up against the trending LA Clippers and Utah Jazz following this one.

1 Golden State Warriors

2 Houston Rockets

3 Milwaukee Bucks

4 Toronto Raptors

5 Philadelphia 76’ers

6 Boston Celtics

7 Denver Nuggets

8 Indiana Pacers

One of my favorite coaches in the NBA is Terry Stotts. It’s not only that I think he’s good coach, but’s there’s a sentimental attachment with me as well from Terry Stott’s college playing days at the University of Oklahoma when I was a college kid.

Terry Stotts was one of the primary cogs of the ’78-79 OU team coached by Dave Bliss which went on to win OU’s first ever Big 8 championship. That team is clearly one of my favorite basketball teams of all-time because of not only winning the Big 8, but they then went to advance to the Sweet 16. This was the first time at OU in my youth these team goals were attained by an OU basketball team. Although, of course in 1947, OU made the national championship game against a Holy Cross team on which Bob Cousy played.

The ’78-79 OU team was a special team for me because they weren’t all that talented, but they played extremely smart basketball and as one as a team. Clearly, an overachiever. OU advanced to the Sweet 16 by defeating legendary Abe Lemons’ Texas Longhorn team. OU was eliminated in the NCAA by none other than one Larry Bird and the Indiana State Sycamores. As we all know…Indiana State went on to play Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans. This was back when mens’ college ball was special.

Coach Dave Bliss had been an assistant at Army and Indiana with Bob Knight before taking the OU job. Consequently, the team had a real Indiana high school feel about it as several kids from Indiana came with Bliss to OU.

I still remember the core players…. Terry Stotts, John McCullough (MVP), Cary Carrabine, Al Beal (Deerfield Beach, Florida), Lester Pace and Raymond ‘Juice’ Whitley.

Stotts was what I would describe as a very heady small forward swing player who was a good shooter and tenacious competitor.

I’d love to have him coach the Thunder at some point. I would think he’d be a guy Clay Bennett would be good with as well.

Stotts earned his bachelors in zoology and MBA from OU. Tell me…he wouldn’t be a fit here. He coached in the CBA and was an assistant on the 2011 iconic Dallas Mavs championship team coached by Rick Carlisle. He clearly paid his dues before getting the Portland job.

Who knows…maybe some day Terry Stotts might coach the Thunder.

On this frigid dismal night in the Arctic tundra, the Thunder not only were walloped by Karl Anthony-Townes, but their reality made even worse as the healthy Houston Rockets zoomed past them for the No. 3 seed in the West.

Houston may or may not catch the slumping Nuggets for the No. 2 seed, but as the Rockets continue to show what they will be come April if Chris Paul can stay healthy—it’s anyone’s guess on how far the Thunder will fall by the time the playoffs start in mid April.

Keep this in mind, since the road loss in Boston on February 3rd, this Thunder team is a collective 1-5 on the road. I only write this because the next three games for the Thunder are at Portland, at the LA Clippers and then in Salt Lake City. All three of these teams linger behind the stalling Thunder and all three will be road games where the Thunder’s opponent has a great deal to play for as far as seeding position.

I had the Thunder at No. 4 on my Western Conference bracket sheet, but the reality looms Sam Presti’s team is in danger of falling to the No. 6 seed if they’re not careful.Paul George returned on Tuesday night against the Wolves, but it mattered little as the Thunder were virtually non-existent once again on the defensive end of the floor in giving up 71 first half points and 131 on the night. Allowing ‘only’ sixty points in the second half was the moral victory.

Karl Anthony-Townes destroyed the Thunder with a 41 point, 14 rebound night while Derek Rose made it appear the Thunder’s defense was running in quicksand. This wasn’t 2011 Derek Rose, but coupled with KAT he was enough of himself to make the Thunder look completely and utterly outclassed on the evening.

On the night, Westbrook and George took a combined 53 shots. As a pair they made 23 shots. As a team the Thunder took 94 shots…do the math.

You know, I sit here in Deer Creek, Oklahoma with my sleepy little obscure blog just doing my thing and following this NBA small market story. I don’t rant or rage anymore. I’ve settled into the reality of the situation in Oklahoma. The situation being, like as with education—these people seem fine was underachievement. It doesn’t seem to bother anyone.

The ownership group seems fine. The general manager seems fine. The players never seem overly urgent. The fans have never uttered a boo except for when the player who led them to the four Western Conference Finals comes rolling back to town with the Warriors. Then the fans boos like I’ve never heard fans boo in my like. It’s almost ugly.

It’s such an odd thing with the NBA in Oklahoma. It really is…almost like Mystery, Alaska for hoops. Yet, other than Jim Traber—no one seems to care on how much they spend and how little they have accomplished since Durant.

Very odd.

The Thunder in Portland on Thursday night in the late TNT game.

From The Dave Letterman Home Office in Deer Creek, Oklahoma

Top Ten Things More Interesting Than a Little Nick Gallo Bolt on the Daily Thunder

# 10 Setting a pile of leaves on fire.

# 9 Walking over random blades of grass.

# 8 Rolling over in bed.

# 7 Reading Brian Davis autobiography.

# 6 Wondering what it would be like to be marshmellow.

# 5 Watching Pauli snore.

# 4 Walking backwards over same random blades of grass.

# 3 Picking up a dirt clod and throwing it ten feet.

# 2 Reading the Op-Ed Page of the Daily Oklahoman

# 1 Picking any random stranger off the streets of Oklahoma City and asking them for their opinion on the Thunder.

Sam Anderson didn’t just come out and say it in his three individual epilogues in Boom Town, but this was pretty much the drift he left with the reader…namely, that despite at one time having Kevin Durant, James Harden and Russell Westbrook–the championship window in OKC officially closed with Kevin Durant’s departure to Oakland on July 4th, 2016.

I have to say I agree with him, but got a glimmer of hope when Paul George had his magical run in January and February. But the harsh reality has set in on the 5th day of March. This Thunder team isn’t championship magical.

But that’s the thing about sports…as in there’s nothing wrong with dreaming. But for those of us in OKC who know we stole Seattle’s team from Howard Schultz…maybe it’s time we exalt ‘our’ singular NBA championship banner from the ’78-79 Seattle Super Sonics who won the world championship in five games against Dick Motta’s Washington Bullets.

Are retroactive championship parades allowed?

I wonder if Sam Presti would smile at my sense of humor?

I was a college kid of twenty. Back then in Oklahoma City we didn’t even get all the Finals’ games live on our CBS affiliate. We would get the west coast games live, but would get the games in Washington on delay so as CBS wouldn’t interfere with their regular programming. That was the stature of the NBA back then on the major league sports ratings food chain. This was before David Stern turned the league into the most smartly marketed league in all of pro sports.

The Sixers were my team, but I always admired the way Lenny Wilkens worked his youngish Sonic teams in those two seasons when the Sonics and Bullets met in back to back Finals with each winning a ring.

I was an outlier in Oklahoma City. The NBA ratings weren’t all that great here. But I loved the NBA then and now as well. OU football and the Dallas Cowboys were the rage in Oklahoma City sports television sports ratings.

Wilkens was the coach. The top eight players were Gus Williams. Dennis ‘DJ’ Johnson, rookie Jack Sikma from Illinois Wesleyan, John Johnson, Fred Brown, Wally Walker, Lonnie Shelton and big boy Paul Silas. If I remember correctly, Wally Walker played on the championship team in Portland with Bill Walton.

This was a young team. Sikma a rookie, Williams in year three, DJ in his second NBA season, Downtown in year seven and tough John Johnson year eight. Interestingly…both Brown and Johnson played their college ball at Iowa.

The strength of the team was clearly the guard play with Williams and DJ emerging as the best backcourt in the game as the season wore on. This was a team which won on smarts and guile–the exact opposites of the Thunder teams of Brooks and Donovan. This Sonics team was a high, high basketball IQ team. Lenny Wilkins was not tolerant of stupid play.

There were twenty-two teams in the league. The Sonics ranked 19th in points per game scored at 106.6 while ranking 1st in points allowed at 103.9 per game. Defense won championships then and now.

The Sonics won the West by beating the Lakers in five and the Suns in seven to advance to the NBA Finals.

This is the call from Game 5 of our championship season in Oklahoma City.

I’m a voracious reader. I treasure a well told story either in fiction or non-fiction form. Back in August, I read and then posted about Sam Anderson’s book titled Boom Town. I simply love the book and not because it loosely has the Thunder associated with it. But more for the wonderful portrait of this town I live near called Oklahoma City.

I think for anyone who is either a Thunder fan or someone interested in a great story about the history of a city this is a book you shouldn’t pass on. It has everything you’d want in regards to the regional history of Oklahoma City.

The book describes not only the history of the city, but gives a genuine feel for the decency of the people in Oklahoma City. It also takes a fair-minded approach in dealingwith the shortcomings of the city as well.

I have no idea how many copies sold in the Oklahoma City area, but I would hope every Oklahoman who resides in central Oklahoma takes the time to read it at some point.

At first thought, you might consider a story about Oklahoma City to be boring. But quite the opposite is true, the book delves into every possible fabric of the city and is a model for how a story about urban renewal in relation to other cities in the United States should be told..

Anderson had me at page one and I read this history of Oklahoma City with the same page turning speed as if I were reading a bestseller by John Grisham or Michael Lewis.

The book genuinely reads like a novel.

As I continue with my personal journey on my blog–I might every now and then reference this book because I think any person who has an interest in the Oklahoma City Thunder would be well served to read this book and learn how it all came into being…. and how this city came into being as well.

So odd, Russell Westbrook only answers to Little Nick Gallo–and frankly there seems to be some sort of symbiotic deal between these two….kind of like in Green Book.

Only in Oklahoma.

Hopefully, for the Thunder’s sake this was their last game without the services of MVP candidate Paul George. These games without George were painful to watch and an acute reminder of how much this Thunder team is reliant upon his skills on both ends of the floor.

With 6:54 left in the game, the Thunder at home somehow found themselves trailing by 13 points against a bad Memphis team which didn’t have Mike Conley and Jaren Jackson available on the night.

The Thunder played uphill the entire night and seemed to lack any energy to that point, but finally got some spark from Ray Felton and Abdel Nader to get the crowd into the game and eventually Russell Westbrook showed some interest in the outcome of the game.

Westbrook had another tough night going 7-20 scoring 22 points, but in the fourth period he did score 12 points and gave the Thunder just enough of a nudge to end their four game losing streak before embarking on the toughest nine game stretch of the season.

It was a tough game to watch. The building was dead inside until Felton and Nader created a spark, but in the end a win is a win and I would think every Thunder fan is clinging to the hope Paul George is ready to go on Tuesday night in Minneapolis.

Unbelievably, the Thunder actually moved back up to the No. 3 seed with the win. But if you look in their rear view mirror the Trailblazers, Rockets and Jazz are all poised to make a move with 19 games left in the regular season.

The toughest week of the regular season awaits the Thunder in this next sequence of road games, but if the Thunder could just go 2-2 there is the thought ten of their last fifteen games are at home with Paul George back in the lineup.

The Thunder in Minnesota on Tuesday to play the Wolves.