Author: Mike

Only in Oklahoma City could this continue like this even after every one of these local writers supported Russell Westbrook after the incident in Utah. I’m thinking I have a feel for the systemic problem in Oklahoma City. The problem being…Sam Presti runs a daycare center fronting as an NBA franchise.

In spite of the Thunder, I made sure and enjoyed every minute of this game. I took the time to follow both Steph and Klay all night long following their movements on the floor with and without the ball. And even though the Thunder were blown out early in this game it’s very clear the Splash Brothers are historically good and simply a marvel to watch.

The Splash Brothers are art..pure and simple. I would guess before it’s all over they’ll be recognized as the best backcourt in NBA history–if not already.

If you take Steph and Klay, add the very talented Demarcus Cousins and throw in Draymond Green and Iguodala…and throw in Livingston and the young players off the bench you have a championship team without Kevin Durant is what I took away from this game.

Ironically, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook had something oddly in common this game–as in neither played. Durant was a DNP due to a sore ankle and Russell Westbrook played one of the worst games in his career. To simply write Westbrook was horrific isn’t enough. It was a combination of horrific ladled with pathetic which made you want to grab him through your flat screen and put him on the end of Billy Donovan’s bench.

One good thing does come of this game though for Thunder fans. This should put an end to all this Durant-Westbrook angst which still lingers among Thunder fans. That should be over because after Durant leaves the Warriors after this season…Durant and Westbrook will have something else in common…that being neither will be relevant in the championship conversation as long as the Warriors keep Steph, Klay, and either DeMarcus or Draymond. Just one of those two would be enough with the Splash Brothers.

I think even the most hardened Durant hater in OKC would now have to admit even if Durant had come back in 2017 that the Thunder would not have come back and beaten the Warriors.

I have no idea where Durant lands. If he were smart he’d go play for Popovich and continue to expand his game as he has with Steve Kerr.

As far as the Thunder…yikes. As in double yikes. Since the All-Star break the Thunder have collapsed under the weight of a difficult schedule and we now know it wasn’t just Carmelo accounting for last season’s car wreck. It’s something else more systemic within the organization.

For the second straight season the Thunder have derailed and if you look closely at the standings the Thunder could derail all the way to the No. 8 seed. Wouldn’t that be a great reward for Clay Bennett and his ownership group after opening their wallets to do everything to put a team around Russell Westbrook.

Westbrook, of course, received his 16th technical in this game and will be suspended for Monday’s home game versus the Heat.

Not exactly an eight day span for the ages for Russell Westbrook. The incident in Utah, the complete collapse in Indy, the no show against the Warriors and a suspension while your teammates are trying to keep their season together and not fall to the No. 8 seed and a first round matchup with the Warriors.

But here’s what I’d suggest for Thunder fans…take the time to watch Steph Curry and Klay Thompson and admire two future Hall of Famers in the prime of their careers.

Golden State’s Warriors are in town tonight for the tiebreaker in this season’s three game regular season series with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The stubborn Denver Nuggets haven’t gone away and are still within striking range of the iconic Warriors. One would think the Warriors will be in town with a reason to play with some focus and meaning tonight inside the Peake.

With the No. 5 seeded Thunder…who really knows which team will show up on a given night, much less which team will start a half with some reason to play hard and with a sense of purpose.

Like all of Billy Donovan’s teams in OKC minus the Oscar Robertson triple double trail season–the Thunder under Donovan never really seem all that concerned with end results or when the season will end.

This Thunder team and organization seem to be in their own provincial world and apparently believe they’ve been relevant since Kevin Durant’s departure to go play on a real championship contender in Oakland.

But the truth is the truth. Since Durant’s departure to win rings and Finals MVP trophies the Thunder have yet to exceed 48 wins in a regular season or to win a single first round playoff series. In playoff basketball–the Thunder without Durant are an abysmal 3-8 in post season play.

But tonight in OKC should be fun as it’s the ABC Saturday Night Game of the Week pitting the Warriors vs. the Thunder.

I would guess Thunder fandom will still be booing Durant in a robust manner for going to play for a winner. Thunder zealots will have their Little Nick Gallo Sippy Cups in hand and overlook a complete and absolute meltdown Thursday night in Indianapolis as the Thunder choked on a nineteen point lead against the Pacers. These Warriors aren’t the Pacers. These Warriors are iconic.

I haven’t looked at my Vegas site yet, but I’d pick the game at Golden State -2.5 or so. It should be a great game. It feels like two seasons ago when Dennis Schroder scored 32 points against the Warriors back in November to propel the Thunder to a win over the Dubs. One would think this will be one of Little Nick Gallos keys to a Thunder win tonight…namely, Dennis Schroder needs to show up tonight inside the Peake.

I love the ABC games. I won’t for a second listen to the Fox telecast other than to catch some of Antonio Daniels in the post game breakdown.

As far as who wins tonight—all I will say is that when it matters the Warriors usually show up to play and surprisingly this game still matters for the Warriors to maintain their lead in the standings over the Nuggets.

How I feel about KD. I’m over the hurt.

I’m not doing a recap on this game. It’s too painful and ultimately serves no purpose since I have no sway with decisions the Oklahoma City Thunder organization make one way or the other. Maybe—tomorrow morning I’ll touch on a few things from this meltdown loss in my prelude to the ABC Saturday Night Game of the Week vs. the Warriors.

I was over on the Thunder Nation message board this morning lamenting the loss with other Thunder fans and someone mentioned how much they missed Brian Davis doing the television play by play.

I was one of those who was kind of tired of Brian Davis and Michael Cage doing their homer routine, but I have to admit almost a year later…I do miss Brian Davis.

As I look back the guy was entertaining. He brought a certain fun quality and approach to his job which is sorely missing with the combination of Chris Fisher and Michael Cage. And what a great voice!

So–tomorrow I’ll make a few quick comments on the meltdown while at the same time fast forward to the matchup with the Warriors on ABC.

One thing you learn for certain as Thunder fan is that at the end of the day you need to be able to have a sense of humor or else this will drive you insane

Here’s a best of Brian Davis mix. He was actually very entertaining. The Thunder might have out thought themselves on this one in retrospect.

I’m going to recap six or so hours later so as I don’t destroy my computer screen in the process of writing my recap. I’m not your normal Thunder blogger. This is a game the Thunder had no business whatsoever losing after having a nineteen point lead with seven minutes left in the third period.

I’m smart enough about myself to know I need six hours.

Billy Donovan is no Alex Cora. I need some time.

We knew he would be a good player in Indy. It was only going to be a matter of time. Oladipo made the All-Star squad this season. I would think the day isn’t far off when both Oladipo and Sabonis make the team together. This was one of those trades which actually worked out for both franchises.

Which when you think about it is what should happen in a trade.

Russell Westbrook played one of his best games of the season as the Oklahoma City Thunder won their second game in a row and third in the last four by defeating the Brooklyn Nets by a 108-96 count on Wednesday night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena.

On a night when the Thunder started slowly, Westbrook was a constant source of energy on both ends of the floor while racking up his 26th triple double of the season. Westbrook’s line went 31 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. But more importantly Westbrook’s shooting numbers continued on an uptick in the month of March as he scored the 31 points on a 12-23 shooting night. Don’t look now, but Westbrook in spite of everything which transpired in Utah is playing his best basketball of the season.

And on this night, the Thunder needed this Westbrook because the rest of the team appeared to be suffering from a Utah hangover and started the game slowly.

OKC trailed by ten at half, but finally got it going in the second half with good defense and energy by the entire team.

For the second straight game the Thunder held an opponent to under a hundred points and it appears ‘possibly’ the Thunder are getting back to playing more focused on the defensive end of the floor.

Paul George was better offensively scoring 25 points on 18 shots. This wasn’t the Paul George who was the Western Conference’s February Player of the Month, but it was better than the Paul George who’s struggled of late coming off a shoulder injury.

Steven Adams and Jerami Grant both had solid double figure nights. Dennis Schroder struggled going 3-10 from the field and the bench as a whole had a quiet offensive night.

Spencer Dinwiddie led the Nets with 25 points.

The Thunder improve to 42-26 with the win and are now tied with the Rockets for the No. 3 seed in the West with OKC currently holding the head to head tiebreaker.

Fourteen games are left for the Thunder and the math looks markedly better in as the Thunder have won three of their last four and weathered the brutal four game road swing by not losing any ground for holding on to a top four seed in the West.

In fact, if the Thunder can win eight of their remaining fourteen games the Thunder would hit the 50 win plateau in a regular season for the first time since Kevin Durant’s departure to Oakland.

So amazingly in the eye of what appeared to be to a negative feel coming out of the game in Utah where the Trump supporter shared with the world his social views on race—the Thunder are actually looking the best they’ve looked since the All-Star break.

The Thunder are back on the road tonight for one game in Indiana on the second night of a road back to back, but one would think Paul George will have some special energy playing on the floor where he started his professional career.

After the Indiana game…the Thunder host the Golden State Warriors on a special Saturday evening game on ABC.

The Thunder host the vastly improved Brooklyn Nets tonight inside the Chesapeake Energy Arena. I really don’t feel like a basketball game just at this moment. For some reason today when I woke up this is what I thought of instead.

The year was 1968 and the Summer Olympics were being held in Mexico City. This was probably the most traumatic year in American history during my lifetime.

So instead of writing about Russell Westbrook and the MAGA person in Salt Lake City this is my blog entry for today preceding the game.

I found out this past week-end I’m going to be a grandfather in late September. I wonder how much this country has really changed in the fifty years since Tommie Smith and John Carlos took the medal stand in Mexico City.

I’m not sure the country has changed all that much.

Did the NBA get it right?

Probably–there’s not much more they could do even as disgusting and racist as the comments were. A professional athlete in a setting like this cannot do things which would escalate matters and endanger the safety of innocent people sitting around this coward/racist. How would Russell Westbrook have felt if a child or an elderly person had been hurt in the process of punching out this coward?

And that’s exactly what this guy is…a racist/coward who knew he could say these things and not have to fight. He knew the safety buffer zone was there for him to say these things and not have to throw a punch.

The guy’s a complete coward. And not a bright one at that.

This became a national story and maybe some good will come out of it in relation to some of these Trump people with their MAGA ball caps and 1830’s type of mentality towards race. I write 1830 because that’s when South Carolina began it’s movement for nullification from the Union based on their argument that unreasonable cotton tariffs by the Union were being imposed on them by Andrew Jackson and the Feds. They knew abolition was the next step after the tariffs.

So what’s really changed in the South in 189 years?

Not all that much and heck I married an Auburn girl almost forty years ago. The South is the South.

But this incident didn’t happen in the South. It happened in Utah in a state in which Trump garnered only 45% of the vote. Lest you forget Independent Evan McMullen pulled 21% of the vote away from Jeff Sessions’ buddy back in 2016.

My point being is that racism is still everywhere in America. It’s not just limited to the Solid South which became solid the day after LBJ passed the most sweeping set of Civil Rights laws in our country’s history.

If you think I have it wrong start reading your history books.

So how does Russell Westbrook intelligently handle this moving forward?

I would love to see him engage with our local media and do everything he can as a man to help a state like Oklahoma become a little more enlightened on race.

To me, that would be the next logical step for Russell Westbrook the man.

And BTW, now knowing all the facts, I genuinely admire Russell Westbrook for showing his young son you have to swing your sword from time to time.

This will be brief because I’m already tired of writing about what happened in Salt Lake City last night. Adam Silver is the commissioner of the NBA. It’s his job to make sure all NBA venues are safe for opposing teams and players. Nothing could be more basic in the job description.

Adam Silver…you have a Utah problem and it needs to be addressed regardless of which story you believe from last night. Under no circumstances can you have this happening inside of your NBA arenas in this politically charged era of having a Birther as a sitting POTUS.

This type of behavior cannot be allowed. Most in OKC probably don’t even remember the 2004 incident with Ron Artest inside the Palace in Detroit. It was one of the major incidents which in essence shaped and altered the NBA.

This cannot keep happening in Utah.