For me, these two Thunder wins in the Emirates NBA Cup Group A-West were the two most interesting Thunder games of the season minus the double overtime thriller in the season opener versus Houston.
On Wednesday night in OKC, the Thunder finally at the end wore down the turnover prone Minnesota Timberwolves in what I felt like was a playoff game atmosphere. Anthony Edwards and his mates hung around, but when mental toughness, execution, and basketball smarts took over, so did the Thunder as they won their 10th straight game of the season and improved to 18-1.
Minnesota called a timeout in the waning minutes with a chance to win and then promptly turned over the ball on consecutive posessions to in essence hand the Thunder the game. That type of execution will simply not get it done.
Donte DiVincenzo, dude, take care of the basketball. You know they’re coming–take care of the ball.
I wrote it last season here on the blog and I’ll jot it down again…Rudy Gobert is the most annoying ‘player’ in the NBA and I feel almost certain Anthony Edwards will never win a championship with this guy as his center.
The Wolves could very well win a round or two with Rudy Gobert, but I can’t see them winning four rounds and sixteen games with this basketball slug. Isaiah Hartenstein should have just punched him in the face on Wednesday night.
So tonight (Friday), the Thunder played the surprisingly decent Phoenix Suns at PayCom with the winner moving on with a 4-0 record in Cup play and a place in the quarterfinals.
From my view, it was a great regular season Emirates Cup game with the Thunder holding on for dear life with a 123-119 win their 11th straight victory and a league best record of 19-1.
JDub returned and was rusty as one would expect, but not to fret Shai, Chet, and others picked up the slack. Isaiah Hartenstein was a DNP and that hurt the Thunder. With Isaiah and Chet in that double big lineup…I feel the Thunder can in essence become a totally different team with a different basketball personality.
The Thunder can play small, they can play big, or they can play Forty Minutes of Hell… whenever they need to depending on the opponent and the game situation. Denver without Aaron Gordon, and with Jamal not at his peak level… will not beat these guys in a seven game series. The Thunder are too diverse and too deep. WAY TOO DEEP.
Shai was incredible as usual with 37 points and 15 points in the 4th period. But my game ball goes to Collin Gillespie of the Suns. I absolutely loved the way he played and competed in this game…and of course at one point in his basketball journey he was an unknown member of the Denver Nuggets organization.
So the Thunder now advance to the quarterfinal round of the 2025 Emirates NBA Cup of which they are a considerable favorite to win in my estimation unless Shai doesn’t show up for one of the Cup games.
That’s it for me this evening. I need my sleep for what I’m certain will be a stressful afternoon of football in Norman versus LSU. Nothing comes easy in the SEC. I hope my Sooners can finish this last step and advance to the College Football Playoff as a reward for their amazing grit and toughness down the stretch.
Peace.
MJ