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Russell Westbrook hit the game winner from the right wing elbow with 1.5 seconds left to seal a 97-95 road win. But as far as late game heroics go Steven Adams was just as clutch making three keys plays down the stretch which turned a possible third straight road loss into one of the Thunder’s five best wins of the season. It was a game Oklahoma City genuinely had to have if it has aspirations of winning the Northwest Division title.

Let’s start with Russell Westbrook. Westbrook once again showed why it’s an absolute crime he wasn’t named an All-Star starter last week despite getting the votes necessary from players and the media. I’ll address this maybe tomorrow if Donald Trump can act like an adult for forty-eight straight hours. I’d actually like to start writing some basketball stuff on here again if the German unification of Red State America slows down a bit. It’s just such an incongruent thought, Nazis and southern rednecks as one.

Russell Westbrook tripled doubled for the 22nd time this season and the 59th time in his career. He now stands tied with Larry Bird with 59 career triple doubles. I’ll write this though now, I have Westbrook a length ahead of James Harden on my MVP vote sheet and it’s absurd Steph Curry was named a starter over Westbrook given their numbers this season and the fact OKC might have ten wins this season without Westbrook. Steph Curry is basically Steph Curry, but he’s coasted this season with Durant alongside him and the other two All-Stars. Westbrook’s body of work and value over Curry this season isn’t even close.

Overall, this was an entertaining game to watch other than the third period when both teams couldn’t find the bottom of the basket. The Thunder were especially cold scoring only 11 points in the period as Westbrook struggled with an 0-7 shooting period in the third. At one point, Utah put a 13-0 run on Oklahoma City, but coming down the stretch, OKC steadied itself and made the plays on the road to garner a very big game for this basketball team.

The thing I really liked about this game was OKC showed some real mental toughness while Oklahoma City’s five best players all played like their five best players almost in a perfect ascension of what should be their roles on this team. Beyond Westbrook and Adams, Victor Oladipo, Enes Kanter, and Andre Roberson all gave Billy Donovan what he needs if this team is going get better after this brutally tough January schedule lets up and turns into a much easier slate in February.

Oladipo was excellent scoring 18 points and adding a cartload of little things which make Russell Westbrook’s life on the court much easier. Enes Kanter wasn’t spectacular amid his former team’s fan’s still booing him, but he did enough and did it when it was needed in garnering 14 points and 5 rebounds, plus I thought he got a really bad call late when they called him for a foul on his tip play basket.

I get on Andre Roberson from time on here because of his inconsistent offensive game, but he was excellent tonight. To me, if I’m Billy Donovan this is what I tell Andre I expect from him on more nights than not. Roberson scored eight points, grabbed eleven rebounds, and added two assists for good measure. Just an excellent overall game for Roberson. When Roberson makes a contribution in other ways other than just his defense, I honestly think OKC has a chance to be a top three team in the West. When he sucks, not so much.

So a great night for the Thunder in the Rockies as they get out of Salt Lake with a win and improve to 26-19 on the season. OKC now stands 5-6 for the month of January and considering the Adams concussion and the strength of schedule, the Thunder can live with this especially if they can win the next two versus New Orleans and Dallas.

I’ve written this several times on my blog this season, but I’ll write it again now. With Kevin Durant gone the goals for this team this season are obviously going to be massively different. But if you told me before the season started the Thunder would be 26-19 on January 24th I’d have taken it.

The Thunder in New Orleans on Wednesday night to play a Pelicans team which is playing much better since it’s gotten healthier. Should be a good game.

On a sidenote, our family did the Ancestry 23 thing and it turns out I’m somewhat Italian as I thought I might be.. Given that Oklahoma is now Bavaria in the new German World Order, I thought it might be wise to learn how to speak a little German and Italian. So for now, arrivederci.

Four days after the fact and Donald Trump still has toady little Sean Spicer still obsessing about the size of the inauguration crowd. Are you kidding? I’m convinced at this point Donald Trump either has penis envy or penis size insecurity issues. I’m not trying to be Dr. Phil or anything on a blog which ostensibly is about the Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team, but he seems almost neurotic and insecure about his penis. If I’m Putin… and I want to rattle this guy before I start taking the Baltics and Eastern Europe…I’d create an alias Twitter account under the name of one of those Russian prostitutes and start sex chatting Trump’s penis size on Twitter with all the world to see while Russia goes about annexing eastern Europe. Tomorrow morning first thing, Kellyanne Conway should show this video to Trump and see if she can work him through this.

This is on the second day of the Trump presidency. Imagine what this might be like when Donald Trump names his Supreme Court nominee. No longer will I disparage Daily Thunder groupies calling them Trekkies. I need that moniker elsewhere moving forward….Trump Trekkies. In the first two days in the existence of the Alternate Trump Universe two of his paid Trump Trekkies basically lied on camera to save themselves from the cry of “You’re Fired!”. So note to readers…my future Trekkie references moving forward applies only to those meandering in the Alternate Trump Universe. Please note.

Additionally…please note from this point moving forward Kellyanne Conway is Leni Riefenstahl. Google if need be.

I won’t lie, Gregg Popovich is my favorite coach in all of professional sports. He reminds me of my father-in-law, who’s a retired United States Air Force General. They even look alike. Popovich is a graduate of the Air Force Academy and served in covert intelligence before becoming an iconic NBA basketball coach who’s won five NBA championships in the collective bargaining era of the NBA. From my viewpoint, he’s the greatest coach in NBA history. But more than that, he’s an extremely smart guy who wants smart players both on and off the court. He and his players trade books, they talk about the world, they talk about the most recent episode of Anthony Bourdain. If I were an NBA player, he’d be the guy I’d want to play for because I know he’d extract the maximum out of me as both a player and a human being. Just ask Tim Duncan.

Steve Kerr loves mocking our idiot president, whereas Gregg Popovich is attempting to educate those who voted for George ‘Caligula’ Costanza. I don’t want thisto sound racist or anything in suggesting Oklahoma City is a market too dumb to have this kind of dialogue, but I’m wondering if and when Clay Bennett and/or Billy Donovan might if he ever engage in our national discussion. Basically, 75% of NBA players are black, you know, so it might be interesting to know if Bennett and Donovan are politically progressive enough to comment on any of this. I would guess no even though their star player was completely honest in that like me, he thinks Donald Trump is a piece of shit. Just saying.

Just a horrible day for my Green Bay Packers. Aaron Rodgers was fine, it’s just that every other member of the team basically sucked. The Packers were just awful and our Super Bowl in Houston is set with the Patriots vs. the Falcons. Tom Brady was very, very good yesterday as were his teammates. Without looking I’d think New England is probably around a six point Vegas favorite.

But I’m okay because my mom called and told me to google the Steve Kerr presser where’s he’s mocking both Trump and his trained gargoyle Sean Spicer. I guess she figured it would get my mind off the Packers’ woeful performance. Isn’t it ironic in that three NBA coaches, Gregg Popovich, Doc Rivers, and Steve Kerr are all more politically tuned in with more honest political insights than Donald Trump.

Amidst all my angst related to Caligula Lite, a great day on tap in Deer Creek for my family with a Green Bay Packers watch party/son’s birthday party later today. Gotta get this Donald Trump shit outta my mind and get my game face on. The AFC Game should be excellent as well with Pittsburgh at New England in the first game. Packers are my favorite team period, but the Steelers are my favorite AFC team…it doesn’t get much better for me. Best four QBs in the NFL all playing today…Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, Big Ben, and Matt Ryan. Karma is good today as we had five deer on the back of our lot this morning. Time for the Aaron Rodgers rap…..LET’S GO PACKERS!!!

You would think the leader of the free world would have ‘larger’ things on his mind than his ‘crowd’ size. This wasn’t a case of misreporting because the crowd was actually somewhat small compared to Obama’s record crowd of 2009. And what’s hilarious is this was an obvious attempt by the NY Times to just basically screw with Trump and he completely fell for the Twitter pic bait.

So…as I’m sitting here visualizing the days ahead I’m thinking to myself if I’m Isis, North Korea, Iran, Russia, or China and things are getting tense just Tweet something in reference to Caligula Lite’s very small womanly hands, his small you know what (Little Marco knew), and his inaugural crowd size and then just sit back and watch the POTUS become unhinged. Pray for Generals Mattis an Kelly should be the mantra, Trump supporters. Pray for their wisdom and maturity.

It was an interesting day in America and the world. Historic protests against Donald Trump one day into his presidency popped up everywhere, even in reddest of the red Oklahoma City. If I’d known they were doing this I’d have joined them. I didn’t know things like this actually happened in a one party state. All told three million people or so displayed their solidarity against and disgust for Caligula Lite for probably a multitude of reasons which go beyond just the Billy Bush sex chat video. Please note one day in and I’m already writing things like this. Color me cynical of thinking Donald Trump will go the distance. I’m actually proud women stood up to this piece of shit and didn’t back down. Unfortunately, it appears a great number of white men in our country don’t quite have the courage these women do. Three come to mind immediately…Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, and Mike Pence.

The day was made even more pathetic when Trump ventured over to CIA headquarters to you would think apologize for his overall fourth grade level behavior. But instead, it denigrated into Trump whining how the media distorted the sparse attendance for his inauguration yesterday. Even worse, Trump’s press secretary Sean Spicer was obviously ordered to do the same to the White House press corps and then walk out without taking a single question.

Combined all of this made me start to think of Richard Nixon’s unraveling ending in 1973. So–just to refresh my own memory if nothing else, I thought I’d put this up even before the whole story on Paul Manafort’s involvement in Russia acting as a fiduciary on behalf of Donald Trump’s business and political interests in Russia comes out in whole. There’s obviously some smoke to this and probably the reason America has yet to see Donald Trump’s tax return. I mean, it’s not like this is as hard as figuring out the Da Vinci code. Always follow the money.

Just in case you only watch Fox to get your geopolitical views, it’s not just in America in various cities today in which several million people will march in protest of Donald Trump. It’s happening in various locales across the world as well. You see here’s the thing, when you win World War II, then win the Cold War, then profess to be the champions of freedom–the rest of the world looks to you for leadership. They look for you to lead, not to retreat to the 1920’s. This is one of the reasons history is important. You’re supposed to learn from it, not hide from it and become dumber. You either lead the world in the quest for freedom or you eventually risk your own freedoms and the quid pro quos which come with that leadership.

The first book I’d like Donald Trump and maybe some of his more ‘ardent’ supporters to read is a book by Thomas Friedman entitled Thank You For Being Late. There’s something like 7.5 billion people in the world and I’m almost certain they’d like a decent standard of living as most Americans do. You simply cannot retreat to the robber baron days of almost a century ago or you’ll lose yourself as a democracy. The world has changed. Some of it good, some of it bad, but that’s the basic nature of human nature–nothing remains stagnant. You don’t revert in history, you adapt, morph, and move forward. But never backwards.