With the exception of the lollipops Little Nick Gallo lobs up through every Thunder presser…I love listening to this group of Thunder players. This Thunder group one through the two way players playing in the G League… all strike me as very smart dudes with Basketball IQs off the charts.
These dudes are basketball precocious …just lay it on the line with them and I think they on their own would be miles better than anything coming from the OKC sports media group.
Ask questions beyond the obvious box score drivel. Please.
So that’s enough of that.
A great game by the Thunder as they routed the ‘current’ No. 1 seed in the West by a score of 129-106.
Let me get my box score drivel out of the way…. the Thunder shot 60% from the field, made 18 threes, had a season high 35 assists, created 24 turnovers, and scored from the perimeter, in transition, and in the paint whenever they wanted against a Minnesota team which ranked No. 1 defensively in the league coming into Monday night at the PayCom Arena.
You usually win games when you do they things like that in a basketball game.
Shai played like the guy I currently have at No. 2 on my fake ESPN vote sheet for regular season MVP. At No. 1… I have Joel Embiid, at No. 3… I have D-Fox, and at No. 4…. I have Anthony Edwards.
I know I don’t have a Denver Nugget on the list yet. We’ll see when I start seeing Jokic and Jamal bringing their lunchpails in March.
The Young Guns in the West is where it’s gonna be at this season for NBA junkies like myself.
Coach D, who I refuse to call Coach Mark on my adult blog, was my No. 3 star of the game, Kenrich Williams was my No. 2 star of the game….and Lu Dort was my No. 1 star of the game.
Why? Because defense wins ‘ships. And Coach D did a brilliant thing…he went small with Kenrich playing the five and basically took both Karl Anthony-Townes and Rudy Gobert ot of the lane defensively. It was like Rocky trying to chase down chickens.
And when the T-Wolves had the ball…the Thunder defense collapsed beautifully with off the ball help evert time KAT or Anthony Edwards got into the paint.
Absolutely perfect. As in picture.
Coach D can bench coach. Not a doubt in my mind. I loved what he did in the 118-117 win at Denver. What he basically at the 9:32 mark with his Thunder down by eight points…was sit Josh Giddey or the remainder of the game. That’s what he did and I red circled that on my fake ESPN notepad to use at a later time. Which I just did.
Great win for the Thunder. No time to feel entitled as the dangerous at times NY Knicks visit PayCom Arena.
Winter has arrived in Oklahoma. But for the first winter in three years…I actually have a Thunder team I can write about on my underground blog.
Stay warm.
MJ