Another entertaining loss as the Thunder clearly showed why they lead the entire NBA in this category with a 130-127 home loss to the LA Lakers.
I’m guessing this was one of the better home games as far as attendance and if you looked around the arena there was quite a bit of bright gold Lakers tops amidst Thunder blue.
Less than a decade ago the Thunder were becoming America’s Team with a core of Durant, Harden, and Westbrook. But now with LeBron and Anthony Davis the Lakers appear to be headed to greatness once again as long as LeBron stays healthy.
If you watched the Houston vs. LA Clipper game last night you not only cursed the Harden trade to Houston, but at this point you have to question Sam Presti not keeping Durant and Harden together following the 2012 Finals appearance versus the Heat.
But that’s another level of hindsight and not completely fair on my part because Harden was horrible in those Finals against Miami.
You have to look at this with some reality attached….WITH CHRIS PAUL AND DANILO GALLANARI the Thunder are 5-10 overall, 0-6 on the road, and have won only one game to date against a playoff team with a winning record (Philly).
If you’re a sunshine pumper…you might want to think what these first fifteen games would have looked like without Chris Paul and Gallinari.
This isn’t a horrible roster one thru ten, but to me what it illustrates is how much of a beast the Western Conference is this season. Imagine what it would be like if Golden State and Portland hadn’t imploded with injuries.
Or throw in the fact the Thunder had the fortune of playing the Pelicans without Zion. The basketball gods have actually been kind to the Thunder so far in this regard.
You’re not going to read me on here bitching or whining though because Presti had no choice. Paul George knew he wasn’t winning anything in Oklahoma City with Russell Westbrook, and Sam Presti knew he wasn’t winning anything without Kevin Durant or Paul George attached to Russell Westbrook.
The Thunder are tanking in order to get a lottery pick with their own pick. They get another first in this draft for trading Jerami Grant and it remains to be been what they’ll get for Gallinari. I have no idea who would want Chris Paul’s contract, but we’ll see.
The Thunder won 23 games their first season in Oklahoma City—so to me that’s the line of demarcation as this Thunder season moves along and less talent remains on the roster as the season moves along.
You would think the core coming out of this season will be SGA, Ferguson, Bazley, Diallo, and perhaps Noel. Presti has quite few buttons to push and it will be more entertaining to witness the rebuild than the basketball itself at times.
There’s no real sense in bitching about how Billy Donovan handled the last 11.8 seconds last night when the Thunder were down by three with a chance to send the game into overtime.
Because as much as it hurts to admit….this Thunder season becomes better the more the Thunder lose.
Next up the Warriors in their new San Francisco arena. This is a game where something has to give as either Golden State wins a game or if the Thunder can win their first road game of the season.
The good news is there are several great Western Conference matchups almost every night if you were a serious NBA fan before Clay Bennett moved the Sonics to Oklahoma City.