Great game once Saban got Jalen Hurt off the field and gave his team a chance to complete some passes. Kind of had that Billy Donovan-Alex Abrines look to it in the first half though.
What comes round, goes round. Georgia blew a 20-3 second half lead and now knows exactly how OU felt at the end of the second overtime. Humble yourself, Georgia. Didn’t see that dude doing much talking at the end. Maybe the football gods saw that Georgia player knee Mayfield in the back. Dirty, gutless play. Hit Mayfield in the mouth and I have no problem with it. But that play was gutless bullshit. That was something you might see Don Jr. or Eric do. playing touch football.
Alabama, without even having to play in the SEC Championship Game, just won their fifth national championship in the past nine years. Second time Alabama has won a national championship without winning the SEC West.
Both Bama and Georgia should be great again next season. Ohio State will be good. OU will be good. Clemson should be good. So, in essence it could be the same five teams playing for four playoff spots in next year’s Final Four.
The Rose Bowl and last night were about as good as it gets.
At some point you wonder if there’s really any need for a coach, let alone that horde of somewhere around eight or nine ‘coaches’ who each game sit near Billy Donovan on the bench. If Donald Trump doesn’t need a State Department, then please explain to me why Clay Bennett needs to be paying this horde of coaches for in essence doing nothing. When a team in essence loafs—why pay the extra overhead?
I’ve said on here before, the NBA is a star driven-agent league and certainly not a coach driven league with the exception of maybe around six current NBA coaches. I think I’ve made it clear I don’t have Billy Donovan in that grouping of coaches. But sitting here writing I’m not in any way saying firing Billy Donovan fixes this Thunder team. I even feel somewhat bad in being so tough on Alex Abrines because he only got in this game in the final two minutes or so and was a Brian Davis smiley face +2 in those final two minutes of surrender when Donovan cleared his bench realizing that his team in no way listened to anything he asked them to do in route to a 114-100 loss to the now 16-26 Phoenix Suns.
I think most familiar with the Thunder fully expected Devin Booker to have a good night even if Andre Roberson had played. No big deal. But I don’t think even the clueless Brian Davis and his equally daft Sean Spicer sidekick Michael Cage had any premonition Dragan Bender is the next Larry Bird looming on the hoops horizon. Who could have thought? I’m texting Dragan Bender on my all-star ballot.
Before I go further, I have to admit, I fell off the wagon last night. Something akin to recovery dysfunction in me compelled me to watch the Fox postgame ‘presentation’. I embellish none with this statement, if Kellyanne Conway or Sarah Huckabee-Sanders ever leave Caligula—Brian Davis should be the next White House Press Secretary. His ability to look straight into a camera without blinking and state absolute bullshit is somewhat impressive.
Yesterday, in my plea for the Thunder to stop playing like what appears to be a lazy, heartless team with a sense of entitlement… I listed five bad losses. I left off the Thunder’s Nov. 94-86 loss to the Kings on Nov. 7th and their even worse 121-108 loss to the Magic on Nov. 29. Along with those two bad losses, plus the five I cited yesterday, plus this one in Phoenix—the Thunder now have eight really bad losses only forty games into the season. Do the math, that’s 20% of the schedule played to date. To date, the Thunder in 20% of their games have basically loafed, shown no heart whatsoever, and basically given credence to many that the NBA regular season is a league of coasting where stars pick their spots to play hard.
So my question to Clay Bennett…why even pay the extra freight for Billy Donovan and all those coaches on the bench? Trump doesn’t have ambassadors—why do you need coaches? Because, it’s apparent to all watching these guys in no way are listening to Billy Donovan. On certain nights, against certain teams…they play hard. Then like in Phoenix or Orlando they make guys like Dragan Bender and Aaron Gordon look like the second comings of Bird and Jordan.
The Thunder drop to 22-18 and that’s really sad because the Spurs lost to Portland last night and if the Thunder had simply walked to the arena last night and conducted themselves like professionals they’d now only be three games down in the loss column to San Antonio.
So…if I can’t blame Alex Abrines and I can’t blame Billy Donovan and his army of support staff…who do I blame for the lack of heart, leadership, and effort in these losses to bad teams which is probably going to lead to a quick post season exit for the Thunder?
Well, since by my own admission, the NBA is a superstar/agent drive league, you don’t have to be Columbo to connect the dots. Bobby Mueller…this rogue blogger doesn’t need you.
I think I’ve figured it out.
OKC’s laid back Thunder host the Portland Trailblazers on Tuesday night.
I’m chilling from this point forward. If they don’t care, why should we?
You want to know why I was so incensed by OKC losing to the Bucks and Mavs to close out the month of December?
Look at the Western Conference standings this morning and one would hope the answer is clearly there. If OKC had won those two home games as they surely should have—then as of this morning OKC would be in fourth place in the West and only two games down in the loss column to the Spurs for the No. 3 seed. And seeing as such as Russell Westbrook says keeping Paul George here is a fairly simple task by simply winning it all, then the Thunder losing anymore bad games can’t really happen too much more this season.
Let’s count bad game losses two games short of the 41 game midway mark. Note: I don’t count a road loss to a .500 team as a bad loss. Let’s go…1 at Dallas on Nov. 25, 2 versus Brooklyn in Mexico City on Dec. 7, 3 to Atlanta at home on Dec. 22 (circle this one), 4 at home versus the Bucks on Dec. 29, 5 at home to Dallas on Dec 31. That’s four horrible losses and a loss to the Bucks which isn’t as horrific as the other previous four
The Thunder cannot in anyway piss away anymore games. The West minus Golden State isn’t as good as we thought it was going to be. Every team minus the Warriors is flawed. Houston’s two stars have never won anything, neither has D’Antoni. San Antonio has gaps and is not in my mind a championship contender. Minnesota is inconsistent. OKC in my mind, still possibly has the second best mix of players in the West. But here’s the thing…it’s time for some urgency. It’s time to realize the organization isn’t merely playing for seeding position, but more to the point to show Paul George and possibly other free agents that a star can come here and win a ring with Russell Westbrook.
Remember, the Thunder template changed this summer from ‘Sustainability’ to ‘The Future is Now’. Sam Presti traded away big parts of the future for Paul George. Victor Oladipo was a core piece. Sabonis is a nice player. If Paul George stays, it’s a great trade, but the only possible reason Paul George would stay is if he calibrates Russell Westbrook is his best player to hook up with beyond this season to win a championship.
That’s exactly what Kevin Durant and his handlers did. They calibrated Steph/Klay/Draymond > Russell/Steven/Andre. And you know what…they were right up to this point.
We still don’t know to date if KD/Steph/Klay/Draymond is greater than Westbrook/George/Melo/Steven. We think it is. We assume it is. But we really don’t know this with certainty because of how often this Thunder team has played in a sleep-like state so far this season.
Against the Warriors and Rockets the Thunder have had the look of team which could be pretty good.
So—I’m hoping this Thunder team kind of understands the month of January is where they need to be pretty close to the Spurs in that the Thunder play at Golden State twice in the month of February.
I know Dippy and Daffy who do the Fox telecasts don’t quite see it like I do. But they get paid to be romantic homers. I just write what comes to me.
I would say if Vegas were handicapping the Thunder’s 14 games in January…Vegas would have OKC as favorites in ten games, dogs in two games (at Minny and at Cleveland), a slight dog to pick ’em at Washington, and a slight dog to pick ’em at Detroit.
So 10-4 or 11-3 is what in my mind OKC has to get done this month.
This month in essence should be a preview of what OKC can do or can’t do. Half the season is done. Billy Donovan and his team can’t sleep walk anymore.
I need to adopt a team this post season. With Aaron Rodgers breaking his collarbone and my Packers not making the playoffs, I find myself in the odd position of not having a team in play. I need emotional skin in the game.
I love the NFL Super Bowl Tournament. Single elimination. One bad game and you’re done. It’s the essence of America. Before Trump, the NFL was one thing we could all agree on…in that we loved it. But I guess to some of our whites… Colin Kaepernick is just too much. But I would remind these white people Kaepernick never disparaged John McCain for being a POW who had the nerve to get captured and be tortured. The black NFL players never disparaged Gold Star families. To the best of my knowledge I can’t think of one NFL player who colluded with a Russian for his own financial gain.
Quick…name a current black player who avoided serving his country with a lame medical hardship. Oh, wait, that would be Caligula. Did… uh, Don Jr and Eric ever serve? John Kelly’s son did. Joe Biden’s son did. Hypocrites.. much you all the sudden NFL haters? I would also remind these white people you’ve never one day in your life been pulled over because of the color of your skin. You’ve never one day in your life been judged by the color of your skin by someone who doesn’t even know you. So to all you ridiculous white people who have quit watching the NFL because Donald Trump made a big deal of all this… this is just more evidence of how genuinely out of touch you are.
Do I think we should stand as one during the national anthem? Hell, yes! I literally had goose bumps on Christmas night inside Chesapeake Energy Arena when the crowd as one sang our national anthem in deep red state Oklahoma. It reminded me of what we are, what we should be, and what we really still are if you tune out the bullshit from Donald Trump’s twitter account.
We are Americans. We changed the world. Some of it in a very good way. Some not as good. Why do you think the Dow just passed the 25,000 mark? It passed this mark because even with all the current turmoil in our country we are still perceived as the best bet in the world. The best bet for freedom. The best for the right to pursue something called the American Dream. The best bet to still live in a country where people in a state like Alabama can surprise the shit out of you and not elect the candidate endorsed by either Caligula or Steve Bannon.
So– I’m jacked as usual about the NFL Tournament. I just need a team. I’ll pick one after the Wild Card Round. I’ll say this…don’t count out the Atlanta Falcons. When the season began…they were the one team in the NFC who I feared the most from my Packer perspective. And they’re showing life at just the right team of the season you want your team to be showing some life. Great win by the Titans. Two more good games on slate today. The Minnesota Vikings are a possibility for me in that I like Mike Zimmer. Jacksonville Jags are a possibility for me in that I like Tom Coughlin. Marcus Mariota won part of my heart yesterday—so who knows, I could be a Titans fan. We’ll see. But I know this, a douchebag like Donald Trump who never served his country a day in his life in no way would ever dissuade me from watching NFL football. No way.
Thank god, is all I can say. One would think or hope or pray this puts Sam Presti’s Euro stash Alex Abrines either back in Europe or on some other team. Enough of that already…he can’t defend a pylon. He makes Jeremy Lamb look like Shane Battier in his prime.
Anyway, a shout out to rookie Terrance Ferguson. When Andre comes back–Terrance will either be the 10th or 11th man depending on what Billy Donovan decides. Who knows…maybe Terrance can turn himself into a version Nicolas Batum. Kid has a great smile. Maybe the best smile on the team. How’s that for a fucking metric…BSOTT?
This helps me so much emotionally. I was feeling myself turning into Jim Traber with each passing minute of Alex Abrines being on the floor. It was starting to affect me in a bad way. I’m not that negative of a person or a blogger. So –this helps me.
I mean, Dave Chappelle is a millionaire. He can be brutally honest. It is what it is. The poor white people in this country who fell behind because of the Economic Meltdown of 2008 and the effects of globalization just quite frankly don’t read enough to kind of know what’s going on. Instead, they opted to get conned by a con man.
So why are the markets still rolling in the U.S.? Because contrary to what Trump said to these white people, the U.S. economy was/is larger then than the combined economies of Japan and China were when he took office. Europe is in a condition of financial flattening and doesn’t even have 2% growth. Russia’s economy is almost completely reliant on oil, so it tanked as well.
BTW…the U.S. economy was creating 200,000 new jobs a month when Obama left office.
So…despite Trump, for the time being, the U.S. is the only place for investors to dock their money. As far as the Dow hitting 25,000…I think the world is saying “Despite the dumb fuck you just elected, America is still the safest hedge.”
My son went with some buddies to the Rose Bowl. He called me I think it was on Saturday and said, “We’re going to see Dave Chappelle tonight in Los Angeles.”
I didn’t say anything immediately. He then said, “You know who Dave Chappelle is, right?”
With my eyes rolling as far backwards as they can roll without leaving the back of my head, “I replied, yeah, I’ve seen Dave Chappelle do standup.” As in I’m a fan of Dave Chappelle and actually have his iconic routine on this blog where Chappelle said to give American Caligula a chance.
I’m having dinner with my son tomorrow night. I plan on asking him about the Dave Chappelle night in Los Angeles. This should be interesting.
The fact it appears Sam Presti and Billy Donovan have finally come to terms on Alex Abrines gives me hope. I have no idea if Abrines is actually really injured right now or not, but I know the fact every minute he doesn’t see the floor helps the Thunder cause and my mental serenity.
Russell Westbrook, a.k.a. Bad Little Dude, says the closing of the deal which keeps Paul George a Thunder for beyond this season is simple. Bad Little Dude says, ‘Just win the NBA championship and things pretty much fall into place’.
I like that. It’s simple, to the point, and for a non-millennial like me connects with my inner competitiveness. Just go win it all.
Okay. I’m going to help Russell with a roadmap as to how this could be plausible. Quid pro quo. He stayed. I should help him. Simple.
If OKC is to pull this off, then I would say the Thunder not only need to overcome the T Wolves, but the San Antonio Spurs as well for the eventual No. 3 seed in the West. Just get on the other side of the bracket opposite the Warriors.
Houston doesn’t do that much for me. They’re beatable in a seven game series. They have inner demons as well. Neither James Harden or Chris Paul have ever won anything. I don’t lay awake at night worrying about the Rockets. The Warriors…yes, but not the Rockets.
So…the Thunder swept their little LA road back to back with a 127-117 win over the Clippers on Thursday night. In case you didn’t notice—OKC scored a combined 260 points in these two games which is very Warrioresque in as much as what it takes to score the ball with the Warriors and the Rockets.
Nice wins because I look for trends in a team. First trend here is the Thunder have been good on the road since they dipped to a 2-11 road record at one point. The Thunder now stand at 8-11 roadwise for the season. Put that on your Thunder dashboard.
Another trend which is obvious is that Westbrook, Paul George, and Carmelo are at times now showing maybe they’re figuring this out. OKC’s big three combined for 82 points against the Clippers and it appeared somewhat natural. Not that big of a deal.
I’ve been very clear about what I think Billy Donovan needs to do. He needs to be a better NBA coach. He, along with his team, need to elevate hand in hand. I’m hopeful this Alex Abrines thing is over. That Milwaukee game still pisses me off. I want to see Billy Donovan coaching on the edge. I want to see some urgency. I want him to be the kind of coach who helps this team eventually go toe to toe against the punk Warriors.
I have no idea how far Terrance Ferguson will go this season, but I know this. The Euro frilly Alex Abrines isn’t the answer. So whether Billy D eventually goes with either a nine or ten man rotation as we get to the goal achieving portion of the schedule is irrelevant to me.
The rotation should go 1 Westbrook, 2 George, 3 Carmelo, 4 Steven, 5 Andre, 6 Jerami, 7 Raymond, 8 Hustis, 9 Patterson, 10 Ferguson. First seven are set. The last three should inter-shuffle depending on the night and the opponent.
I’m not going to worry about Paul George and the trade deadline anymore. Westbrook is right. This is on him, his teammates, and Billy Donovan to close the deal with Paul George. At some point, you have to draw a line in the sand and if you can’t sell yourselves over the Lakers right now–then who can you sell yourselves to? I mean, seriously, their own star rookie forward just called his own team out for laying down and quitting against the Thunder on Wednesday night.
So…the Thunder improve to 22-17 and visit the Phoenix Suns on Sunday night.
OU rode Trae Young’s 27 point, 9 rebound, 10 assist night to a 109-89 win over rival Oklahoma State in Norman on Wednesday night. Fellow true frosh swingman Brady Manek led the Sooners in scoring with a career best 28 point night. All told, it was a night when OU’s overall team balance showed itself as Young while clearly being the star of this team–is seeing more and more support from his teammates every game.
The game was a sellout and the rest of the home slate for conference play is either already sold out or will be by the respective game days. Which is a good thing because this team deserves to get this kind of crowd support.
Young is clearly the star of this team, but Lon Kruger has a nice overall team with multiple pieces. Manek, a local kid from Harrah, has been solid from Game 1. Then there’s Christian James, Cam McGusty, and quite frankly an overall roster with nice balance and depth all the way through the 11th or 12th man in the rotation. If you look at OU’s roster, there’s only one senior among the top twelve players. So–even if Trae Young decides he can’t turn down being a top five pick in this summer’s NBA draft…Lon Kruger has done a good job of reloading his program after the departures of Buddy Hield, Isiah Cousins, Ryan Spangler, and Jordan Woodward from the Final Four team. In case you haven’t noticed…Lon Kruger knows what he’s doing.
OU will take it’s No. 7 national ranking to Morgantown this Saturday evening to play the No. 5 West Virginia Mountaineers in what should be an extremely interesting game. There will be no easy wins moving forward for the Sooners or any Big 12 team for that matter. This conference is a death knell. Just look at the coaches in this conference…all big time except O State’s Mike Boynton who’s in his first season ever of head coaching at the DI level. Bill Self, Bob Huggins, Lon Krueger, Jaime Dixon, etc. You better bring your team ready to play every night if you expect to be competitive.
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On the Thunder front, the Thunder took care of business and routed the LA Lakers by a count of 133-96. Rookie Terrance Ferguson got the start in place of sitting Andre Roberson and had a 24 point night while hitting six threes. Daniel Hamilton had some nice minutes as well. Good for both of them.
Hard to glean much from this game because the Lakers are so bad, but it’s a win and the main thought I take from this game in LA is if Sam Presti is in all the way with the notion of going with Paul George past the trade deadline without a contract extension of some sort.
Very interesting situation. Westbrook says winning the championship will be a sales pitch enough in itself. Right now–I would calibrate this team’s chances of winning four playoff series and sixteen playoff games without home court advantage as the No. 5 seed at somewhere around maybe 1-2% at best. So–what I’m saying here–is at what juncture in this does Presti make sure and get something for Paul George so as he didn’t trade Oladipo and Sabonis , whom he got for Serge Ibaka, for nothing except one season of play and the double hit of another team in the West moving the Thunder down a notch in food chain peg.
Presti got nothing for Durant. Not even a draft pick. He made a great trade for Ibaka in getting Oladipo and Sabonis, but if Paul George walks for nothing— I don’t know, buddy. What happened to sustainability?
Anyway, nice to see Ferguson have a nice game. Abrines was nowhere to be seen. I didn’t have any volume on while watching the second half of the game… so I’m to assume he was hurt and nursing another minor injury of some sort or else Presti and Donovan finally realized maybe the dude on the rogue blog isn’t completely crazy and might know something.
The Thunder in Staples again tonight–only this time against the Clippers. I think I’ll be bold and go with Matt Pinto on the audio and TNT on the video. Others can listen to the Alvin the Chipmunk and Bullwinkle Show if so inclined.
It used to be a big deal when the upstart Thunder played the Lakers. We all used to chant, “Beat LA.” Now we just hope Paul George isn’t living in LA and playing there come mid February. So excuse me if I could care less about the Thunder in LA tonight. If Paul George wants to be a Laker, then so be it. But I’ll write this–if Sam Presti screws around and gets nothing in return for Paul George then it would be a very hard thing to take the Thunder seriously moving forward.
A couple of weeks ago, I wrote that if the Thunder weren’t careful they could become something less than the primary basketball story in Oklahoma this winter. In case you haven’t been paying attention, Trae Young and the Sooners are 11-1 and No. 7 in the AP poll heading into tonight’s Bedlam game in Norman. I don’t write this to be snarky, but the truth is, OU will be my focus tonight and the Thunder playing the Lakers in LA will be a secondary storyline for me. This will be the first time since the Thunder arrived in OKC I’ve had this feeling in my heart…like in–I don’t care about the game tonight and it’s the first Wednesday in January.
And consider, in this this span of time of the Thunder’s presence in OKC, OU had two other National Player of Year players with Blake Griffin in 2008 and Buddy Hield just two seasons ago when the Sooners made the Final Four. Clay Bennett and his fellow owners have gone deep into the luxury tax this season, but here’s the thing–fans want a team which plays hard with some sense of urgency and meaning attached to the season itself. The games need to have the appearance they actually mean something. That’s why fans pay money, they want to feel it means as much to the players as it does to them.
Here’s another thing to ponder, would this Thunder roster be better suited to Lon Kruger’s coaching style versus what we’ve seen to date from Billy Donovan. Maybe Clay could talk Lon Kruger into doing the the Scott Frost thing and coaching two teams simultaneously. Just kidding, kind of. I mean, seriously, I wonder if OU regent and Thunder owner Clay Bennett has given any thought to the possibility the best basketball coach in the state isn’t coaching the Thunder, but is coaching the Sooners in Norman. Close your eyes Brian Davis, Michael Cage, Nick Gallo, and Royce Young…pretend you didn’t read that and go back to gulping apple juice from your Thunder sippy cups.
Anyway, OU is 11-1 with three of their wins coming against ranked teams Wichita State, TCU, and USC. The Sooners haven’t lost since an early season loss to Arkansas in the prestigious early season Portland tournament. And OU hasn’t just won, it’s been more than that in that true freshman point guard Trae Young has emerged as a serious contender to win National Player of the Year honors.
The Big 12 is rugged with five teams currently ranked in the top eighteen in the AP Poll. Every game will be tough and hold meaning. Players will play hard, they may not win every time, but I can assure you they’ll play hard for forty minutes. Maybe Billy Donovan will take this sliver of salient fact to heart since he appears to have difficulty getting his team to commit to 48 minutes of attention to things like detail and effort. I wonder if the Sippy Cup Four have ever pondered that notion.
One of my buddies is a sportswriter, which means he almost knows as much about sports as I do. From time to time he rolls his eyes at me when I passionately talk about the Thunder. His eyes roll, he sighs, and then says something like, “Mike, they don’t play hard for 48 minutes. They coast. The league is bullshit.”
So tonight while the Thunder are playing the worst team in the West in LA–my attention will be on Bedlam with Lon Kruger’s Sooners hosting Mike Boynton’s O State Cowboys. If you want to see teams play hard, watch Boynton’s team play Kruger’s team tonight.
Note to OU regent and Thunder owner Clay Bennett: I don’t mind paying a hundred bucks a ticket to see an NBA game. But I seriously mind it when the team doesn’t play hard. Truth hurts.