Month: January 2025

27 POINTS.

The OKC Thunder shutdown the defending champion Boston Celtics by a score of 105-92 in what could be a preview of this season’s NBA Championship Finals on Sunday afternoon inside of Paycom Arena.

But back to the 27 points the Thunder allowed in the final 24 minutes of play. It was vintage Thunder for this group. As Lu Dort ‘somewhat’ stated in his postgame affirmation…”This is the vision Sam Presti had for this group through all the tanking.”

These Thunder are more like a college team with Shai added as their core ringer. They remind me of some of those great Jerry Tarkanian UNLV Runnin’ Rebel teams or Nolan Richardson’s championship team at Arkansas.

Forty minutes of hell and then some.

Perhaps it took the embarrasing loss to the Milwaukee Bucks to elicit this type of passion in a game to game manner. The Thunder haven’t lost a game since that pitiful loss to the Bucks when they shot 4-31 from behind the arc. Those nights happen in the NBA.

Aaron Wiggins not getting his minutes can’t happen though. Coach Mark has made sure Aaron has gotten his run since that game.

F this group they’ve now won 15 games in row heading into Wednesday’s night game versus the Cleveland Cavaliers in Cleveland. These Cavs are currently on a 10 game win streak of their own after claiming 15 straight wins earlier this season. Something will have to give. Maybe it’s this game which will prove to be the preview of this spring’s NBA Finals.

The Thunder feed off their forty minutes of hell approach. They feed off pace. They feed off of live ball turnovers transitioned into open court baskets. They wear other teams down as each minute in the fourth period evaporates.

Shai scored his customary 33 points in this game…yawn. But it was Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, Cason Wallace, and Jaylin Williams who were my Thunder 4 Stars of the Game. The Thunder role players were SUPERB.

Porzingus played. Chet didn’t. And yet this group won by 13 points after trailing by 13 points. Same scenario. Forty-eight minutes of hell.

On my blog I was on Sam Presti about the third year of tanking. To me…if you’re going to claim sustainability as the brand NBA trademark in Oklahoma City….you shouldn’t have to tank three years to become relevant again.

But you know what? I like the fact his vision has turned out to be prescient.

He has a great group on board. The championship window in Oklahoma City is for the first time since 2016 once again open.

It will be fun to actually have a blog which covers this.

The Donald Trump second term…not so much.

Mike J

Another great comeback win by the streaking Oklahoma City Thunder as Aaron Wiggins’ 15 fourth quarter points enabled OKC to erase a 14 point deficit enroute to a 117-107 victory over the Knicks on Friday night at Paycom Arena.

All told on the night…Wiggins’ line went 19 pts, 5 rebounds, 2 ast, and 2 blks with zero turnovers.

The 14 game win streak ties a franchise record and tomorrow afternoon the Thunder have a chance to get to No. 15 versus the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics.

Shai led the Thunder with 33 points while JDub added 20 points.

Pretty much the same old story for OKC as they started slowly, fell behind by a double digit margin, and then totally dominated the second half against a very capable Knicks team which was trying o win its 10th straight game.

Like the Minnesota game…this was an excellent NBA early January game with a playoff feel to it from start to finish. The final margin in no way indicates how tough of a game this was for the Thunder.

On my current list of the six teams as of this writing who could conceivably win the NBA championship… as of 1/5/25 my short list would go in this order 1 Boston, 2 OKC, 3 Dallas (with Luka healthy), 4 Cleveland, 5 NY Knicks, and 6 Minnesota Timberwolves.

To date the remainder of the Western Conference in a sense appears to be an assortment of teams roiling in disorder and flailing to establish any real consistency in their games. Maybe some trade deadline moves will change this fact in February.

An enticing three game stretch of games for the Thunder as they host Boston tomorrow afternoon and then visit the 30-4 Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday…then travel to play ther NY Knicks on Friday inside of Madison Square Garden.

From my perspective given the fact the West has in a sense collapsed with the Thunder running away from the pack…these three games could be the best three game run for the rest of this regular season.

It should be tremendous NBA regular season viewing.

Mike J

Happy 2025!

I watched all of the Thunder-TWolve game and it pretty much was the physical, passionate game I hoped it would be. No hockey line brawls, but some really good defense by both teams. There was some genuine ‘want to’ out there.

I was a little disappointed in Shai’s postgame comments to Little Nick Gallo. Shai had another great 40 point game, but in my mind the stat of the game was OKC outscored the TWolves 24-12 on points off live ball turnovers.

And I woud say this to Shai…you’ve worked hard and become a top five player in this league. But on this night I would have been singing the praises of JDub, Lu Dort, and Cason Wallace…. for all the little blue collar things they did in that 43 point Thunder barrage in the third period which enabled the Thunder to roar back from a 12 point deficit. I would have told swarmy Little Nick Gallo to do some serious loving on those guys for their excellent work in this game.

I have no idea whatsoever why J-Dub and J-Will keep placing a Thunder cape/towel on LNG during his groundbreaking postgame interviews…sigh. It must be one of those Thunder Insider secrets.

Minnesota is still trying to figure out how to play with Julius Randle. They may never figure it out. Coach Chris Finch needs to smooth some things out with his squad on the offensive end.

But I will write this…I currently have Minnesota in my top four teams in the West just in case they figure things out by late February. OKC vs. Minnesota could very well be a No. 1 vs. a No 4 matchup in the Western Conference semis.

Rudy Gobert is a slug. His missed dunk and subsequent fast break three by the Thunder was a five point swing in that Thunder third period. I thought it was of the biggest plays in the game. I circled that play in red with my lazer quick NBA blogging mind. So there on that one.

I will comment tomorrow night on the pathetic, easy path the College Football Committee has given to the Penn State Nittany Lions in this first ever 12-team college football playoff. Suffice it to say…MJ is saying there is some serious Penn State sugar-daddying going on inside that committee.

In closing on this first early morning of 2025..my song selection above is by Laufey. I was watching her on the ABC New Year’s Evefest…and I’ll be honest—she had me at hello with this song. Laufey had me at hello.

Will she become my new Diana Krall?

We’ll see.

Have a great year. I intend to.

MJ footnote: I stayed up listening to music all night. I found another video of Laufey’s song. Don’t get me wrong…there’s some rap I might listen to now and again. I like some of the new country with Morgan Wallen, Luke Combs, and Thomas Rhett probably at the top of my list.

But I’m an old guy. The lyrics actually matter to me. They should tell a story. Maybe even touch the listener’s heart in some manner. How refreshing to witness something like this from someone in Laufey’s age group. And to think…she wasn’t texting during her song as well. Color MJ…impressed.

Serendipity was produced in 2001. Hard to imagine a movie nowadays without a gang rape, an assault rifle killing or two, or a truck intentionally running over live humans. Our culture is killing us. Not China. We are killing ourselves from within. And how did we remedy this with our recent election?

I think I’ll calmly touch on that in a day or two from the bunker at okcthunderground.com.

Mike J