Author: Mike

This might have been OKC’s biggest win of the season to date. Don’t get me wrong, this team isn’t winning a championship this season and might not even win the Northwest Division. But this was a huge game from my perspective to keep the Thunder pointed in a positive direction, you know, pointing forward and feeling positive about the future.

I thought it was a great game. One of those typical Oklahoma City-Memphis head knockers that has made this rivalry special over the years. It had everything you’d want—the best point guard in the game leading his team while the best center in the game, Marc Gasol, doing the same for his team. It was just one of those rare regular season games which reminds you how fun all this can be.

Oklahoma City won the game 114-102 amidst a rousing setting inside the Peake during a memorable fourth quarter in which Russell Westbrook issued a statement about the All-Star Game nonsense with him not starting. The statement being, Westbrook may not be an official starter, but he is the leading MVP candidate. Sorry James Harden–I still love you and all, but Russ is the MVP so far and this is why.

My case for Westbrook is fairly simple. Without Russell Westbrook this Thunder team would be dueling the Suns or Lakers for last place in the West. Period. Instead the team is 29-22 and would probably still be in the hunt for a fourth or fifth seed if Enes Kanter hadn’t broken his own arm. But even with that dynamic attached, OKC is still going to be very much in the hunt for a sixth or seventh seed in the West. Like I said, I love James Harden. I still wear his T-shirts. I’d buy him dinner and hope to be invited to a yacht party at some point (Bucket List), but Westbrook has been the MVP so far.

Here’s why. Westbrook notched his 25th triple double of the season last night. Blah, blah, blah…I know, but what else has he really done. What’s he’s done is lead this extremely young Thunder team to a viable season while having to mesh his game with their still insecure games at times.

Westbrook was simply brilliant on Friday night. 38 points, 13 rebounds, and 12 assists reads Triple Double No. 25. But here’s the thing, when it mattered most in that fourth period, Westbrook took center stage and never relinquished it.

Westbrook scored 19 of his 38 points in the fourth period. He scored fifteen points in the last 2:34 of the game. He scored Oklahoma City’s last fifteen points of the game, and oh, BTW—Westbrook outscored Memphis 15-zip at Winning Time. With all due respect to Steph Curry…do the right thing at All-Star weekend and graciously concede Westbrook should be starting the game. Seriously–do the right thing.

But it wasn’t just Westbrook on this special night for the Thunder. Other players were special in their own way.

Steven Adams had the task of hanging with Marc Gasol on a night when the Memphis big man scored 31 points, but Adams made plays as well and had a 16 point, 15 rebound night.

Joff Lauvergne had perhaps his best game as a member of the Thunder scoring 16 points and grabbing 8 boards. But most importantly—he made 3-4 shooting threes on a night when the Thunder as a team went 13-26.

Anthony Morrow had his best game in a while scoring 15 points in 19 minutes of play and made a huge three in the fourth period.

Nick Collison reminded us why he along with Westbrook is one of the two most revered players in Thunder history. It was a remembrance of what Collison has meant to this franchise and what he still means. Collison took a charge, baited Randolph into an elbowing foul, and for good measure dove for a loose ball cutting his eye open. Vintage Collison and while none of these plays turned the game, perhaps it did provide a spark to some of these young players as to what it constitutes to be a professional basketball player.

And for good measure…Andre Roberson and Cam Payne didn’t overtly suck. Both were functionally professional and did a few things when a few things needed to be done.

Alex Abrines missed his third consecutive game with something listed as back ‘spasms’. Oh, boy. Not a great week for Euros in Oklahoma City.

So the Thunder win a huge game they had to have while Westbrook makes another MVP statement. But it was fun more than anything else to feel Chesapeake Energy Arena rock like the days of old with just one week separating Durant’s return to the city which once adored him now openly salivating for the chance to boo him into oblivion for his slithering exit to Oakland.

Alex Abrines and Enes Kanter, please watch.

Just a great game tonight. I’m not in a mood to blog. Would rather enjoy the win and write tomorrow morning. Might light a victory cigar and just savor. A big win for the Thunder tonight. A big, big win. Even bloggers should take the time to enjoy a big win.

OKC’s home 128-100 blowout loss to the dysfunctional Chicago Bulls was in a word alarming. Losing at Cleveland and Sam Antonio isn’t a big deal because in both of those road games the Thunder hung around. The Thunder didn’t hang around versus the Bulls, rather they looked like a very tired worn out ball team playing without a bench. In this one, it wasn’t just an offense issue because no one on the Thunder team looked like they could get in front of a pylon.

OKC stands 28-22 entering tonight’s home game against Memphis. It’s very simple, OKC lost their most consistent offensive bench player in Enes Kanter. The team has a problem without an easy solution. The problem is made worse by the fact both Andre Roberson and Cameron Payne are playing some really ugly basketball on both ends of the floor. Both of these guys should be in OKC’s top six players. If you combine the loss of Kanter with both of these guys going awol there’s no way OKC can compete night in and night out.

In all candor I’m not sure what Billy Donovan should try other than telling Payne and Roberson to suck it up and play much better on both ends of the floor. The one thing I might try is to give Nick Collison some minutes, especially tonight since OKC is hosting a team made for Nick Collison in the Memphis Grizzlies. See if Collison’s smarts and savvy can create a spark of something positive.

Give it a shot, see what happens. Ostensibly that’s why you carry a fifth big on your roster for times when you’re crippled by a integral player breaking his own arm on a chair.

But more than anything, Steven Adams, Victor Oladipo, Andre Roberson, and Cameron Payne just need to play better. Much better.

Big game for the Thunder tonight in Oklahoma City.

No Thunder recap today. They were so bad last night I thought I might wait till Friday to recap the game. Sometimes, when a team plays that poorly it’s best to cool down for at least a day so as you can write objectively versus emotionally.

This is the Matt Taibbi interview I’ve been saving for a day like this, so here goes. Taibbi is a seasoned writer/editor for Rolling Stone. He covered the Trump candidacy from beginning to end. His book, Insane Clown President: Dispatches from the 2016 Election is his journal of the campaign.

The book is excellent and an easy page turning read. Taibbi is an excellent writer who pulls no punches in this book either to the left or the right. But more, it’s a reflection of American politics and how we’ve devolved as a culture.

Or as George Costanza would say, “It’s not you, it’s me.”

I wanted to post this before I post the Matt Taibbi interview. In retrospect, you in a sense have to give Trump some credit. He did this by being a true outsider who kidnapped the Republican National Party and somehow against all reason became POTUS. This is clearly the most defining event in contemporary American presidential history.

Trump is just basically laughing at everyone…the right, the left, the media, the country, the world, everyone. He’s made a complete mockery of virtually every American institution. And this shouldn’t completely shock anyone, because Sarah Palin in 2008 made it all the way to being a vice-presidential nominee of the Republican Party. The writing was on the wall.

OKC’s Thunder’s January came to an end in San Antonio on Tuesday night as they fell short by a score of 108-94. The Thunder’s woes were the same as they were in Cleveland, namely, without Enes Kanter, this team has no consistent offensive production and in this game the bench was equally bad defensively. OKC led at 81-78, but once Russell Westbrook left the floor the game got away from the Thunder and turned into an easy win for the Spurs.

Westbrook’s line was 27 points, 6 rebounds, 14 assists, and a +8. Steven Adams was solid with a 16 point, 12 rebound double double. Oladipo scored 15 points while adding 4 assists and 4 steals. Anthony Morrow added 11 points, but didn’t have an efficient shooting night. Perhaps, Domas Sabonis was the bright spot of the night recording the second double double in his rookie season.

The above are the positives. The negatives were the rest of the team. Enes Kanter didn’t play because he’s sidelined after breaking his own arm. Alex Abrines couldn’t ‘go’ because of back spasms. Andre Roberson was ineffective scoring one point and going -18.Cam Payne scored two points and was -28 To date, Payne has been a massive underachiever since his return from his foot injury.Jerami Grant and Joffery Lauvergne both struggled.

The good news is January is in the rear view mirror and OKC’s 7-8 mark in and of itself isn’t a disaster. The same can’t be said for OKC’s bench though. It’s been awful without Kanter. Of OKC’s eleven games in February, nine are at home, two on the road. Perhaps, with all these home games some of the Thunder’s role players can get their act together. I’d give Collison some minutes and see if he can have a calming effect on some of these guys. Cam Payne looks lost. Jerami Grant’s game regressed during the month. Lauvergne was up and down. Abrines needs to be a double figures scorer every night. Andre Roberson can’t have these nights where he no makes no impact on the game. But most of all Cam Payne needs show why Sam Presti drafted him. With all these home games in February it’s time to see if Cam Payne has some real tangible worth to this team. But more than just Payne, it’s time for Sam Presti’s bench to step up.

Man, oh, man….I’m not an even a Liberal for crying out loud, John Kasich was my candidate of choice, but I’m to the point I can’t take watching half of this shit without feeling the urge to slam my head into my computer screen.

Before I go further, there are approximately 330 million people in this country. Somewhere around 60 million completely ignored anything factual and voted for Caligula Lite. I can’t even get through this paragraph without a furtive pause/sigh to compose myself.

If one believes approval rating polls, Trump is hovering at a 40% approval rating. Which means around 24 million people or so out of 330 million Americans actually believe this horseshit coming out of his mouth on a daily basis. I have no idea how many out of these 24 million are Trump Trekkies to the core and are all on board with Birtherism, Ted Cruz’s father murdering JFK, Lock Her Up, Build the Wall, etc. So–I’m not throwing any numbers out there on that…. much like Gregg Phillips.

So…here’s the empirical guru of Trump’s claim that 3-5 million people voted illegally in this presidential election. His name is Gregg Phillips, he’s from Texas, and of course, he himself is registered to vote in three southern states.

I’m going to hold off writing too much on this just yet, because this is fluid and will remain so as long as this idiot fuck remains POTUS. He and Steven Bannon simply don’t feel compelled to adhere to the U.S. Constitution and at some point even Republican U.S. Senators ostensibly have to reach a point when they ‘have’ no choice but to pick country over party. Keep in mind, we’re only TEN DAYS in and all of this was completely premeditated and self inflicted. TEN DAYS IN.

Nixon lasted ten months into his second term before he was forced to resign, but here we are TEN DAYS in with a constitutional crisis and more to peel off every day Donald Trump and Steven Bannon are allowed to stain this country with their presence in the White House.

Let me catch my breath and start with this tonight. In all candor, if you voted for Donald Trump you should have your voting rights suspended for eight years and not reinstated until you can prove through an assortment of educational classes that you should actually be allowed to vote. You can pay your taxes and stay here. I’m not saying you should be deported for your act of treason, but you shouldn’t be allowed to vote again for at least eight years. We’ll horde you into sanctuary cities of which drones won’t be allowed to fly over. Yoy won’t be allowed to watch Fox. You’ll never hear toady little Sean Hannity’s voice again. You’ll read. You’ll study the universe. You’ll grow. You’ll never be called a deplorable again. I promise. History, civics, political science, economics, art, literature, the languages, geography, science, math, the law… these aren’t bad things. Maybe even an elective like square dancing. Embrace the sciences and flourish. Knowledge is good.

Putting aside semantics and legalese this clearly is a Muslim ban, but it’s layered somewhat to disguise what Bannon and Trump have done so far. Both sides are already lawyered up and it will be interesting to observe the ruling in federal court. I mean, when the Prince of Darkness Dick Cheney finds something constitutionally objectionable then you know something dark has just transpired. I hate to jump to a conclusion not even two weeks into American Hitler’s presidency…but it looks like we’re headed for another GOP puppet presidency with Bannon holding his dummy puppet Trump in his lap and dictating the terms. Cheney should know, he did this for the first six years of W’s presidency. Anyone still watching House of Cards? Note sarcasm dripping.

The game went about the way I thought it would with Cleveland finally creating separation at the end and overwhelming the Thunder by a score of 107-91. Even with Enes Kanter, this would have been an extremely challenging road game, but without his 15 points a game it was a virtual uphill climb. OKC doesn’t have enough scoring depth to shed 15 points a game from their offensive production and moving forward this will be interesting to see where points come from against lesser opponents other than Golden State, Cleveland, and San Antonio. I mean, let’s be candid here–the NBA is currently a two or three team league with the rest just being filler.

In all candor heading into this game there’s no way I would have taken OKC and ten points on the road minus Kanter. So–I expected this and am relatively calm about the game.

Russell Westbrook triple doubled for the 24th time this season. It read 20 points, 12 rebounds, and 10 assists. But it took twenty-six shots to get the twenty points. In defense of Westbrook, there’s just not enough punch on this team if the Thunder have to spread Oladipo and Adams around to compensate for the loss of Kanter’s production. Oladipo had 17 points, Adams had 7 points- combine that with Westbrook’s points and it simply means OKC’s top three players scored 44 points combined. That simply won’t get it done.

OKC drops to 28-20 overall and 7-7 in January. The January mark doesn’t concern me all that much, OKC’s offensive bench production without Kanter does. Billy Donovan is going to have to figure some things out–namely how to get as much offense possible out of Sabonis, Lauvergne, Payne, Abrines, and Roberson. But again, I wouldn’t knee jerk because we already knew even with Kanter this Thunder team as presently constructed is not a championship contender.

Frustrating to see OKC go through this additional hurdle because one of the top four players on the team basically fractured his own arm in a gesture of immaturity and stupidity. If I’m Russell Westbrook and now twenty-nine years of age with only one more year of contractual obligation to Oklahoma City left before his option out year, I’m not all impressed with the fact Adams, Oladipo, and now Kanter have all missed significant games this season.

Russell Westbrook needs some help and it’s even worse with 17.5 million of payroll sitting with a self inflicted broken arm. Ironic, that the team which could use Westbrook the most to enter the immediate elite realm of the Warriors and Cavs is the Thunder’s next opponent on Tuesday night in San Antonio.