Coach Mark is right when he says, “In reality… there’s only around fourteen or so games in a regular season which tells you something meaningful about your team.”
The downside of that Nugget of Wisdom is when your team finally plays a meaningful game on the road against a legit contender for the Big Prize, and only one Thunder player played with any real sense of urgency while the Thunder are still fighting for home court versus the San Antonio Spurs it might tell you the wrong thing.
NINE GAMES LEFT
The San Antonio Spurs with a head to head 4-1 series dominant almost sweep in their pocket and the head to head tiebreaker are only two games back in the battle for the West and overall No. 1 seed.
This is like that cliff scene in Butch Cassidy …. “Who are these guys and why won’t they go away?”
Probably because these young Spurs with a brash young coach named Mitch Johnson and with Wemby think their time is now…and not next season. Duh.
OKC Thunder 57-16 – San Antonio Spurs 55-18 with nine games left.
Let’s go straight into this… Shai was great with 33 points and 8 assists, while his teammates basically sucked. And this was not about free throws as King Michael Cage of Thunder Homerism would have some of his dimmest Thunder viewers believe. Boston shot 29 free throws while the visiting Thunder went to the line 26 times.
Alex Caruso…if my six year old grandson lived in Deer Creek and not just south of Denver…I’d take his Caruso jersey away from him and give him either a Lu Dort or Kenrich Williams jersey. Dude…are you kidding me? Quit bitching with the refs on every call and play basketball.
Jaylen Brown, is my No. 1 Star of the Game. JB shot 14 free throws, while Shai went to the line 12 times on the ROAD. I can assure you every NBA coach could live with that minor disparity from the line on the ROAD.
Here’s what this game was about…JDUB and Chet played a combined fifty minutes and scored a combined 17 points and grabbed a paltry 8 rebounds. This is bullshit and what King Homer of Thunder should have been talking about. Michael Cage…challenge these guys instead of babying them at every SINGLE TURN of the season.
You put King Homer of Thunder together with Little Nick Gallo and this is what you get. A sense of entitled self-vision of greatness that without Shai doesn’t actually exist.
Sam Presti…this is on you. You could change this. Just MJ saying from the luxurious studio of okcthunderground.com.
Now to be clear, Aaron Wiggins and the Thunder’s Moral Compass Kenrich Williams were for some reason DNPs in this game. Maybe Coach Mark wanted to see what he’d get from Ajay Mitchell, Isaiah Joe, and Jared McCain in a big road game situation.
Here’s what Coach Mark got there…Isaiah Joe playing soft defense like he did last season. Jared McCain going a game worse -17, and Ajay Mitchell playing as if he were already in the next AT&T commercial with Shai, JDub, and Chet.
Quite frankly…Jaylen Brown might need to be talked about as a now serious MVP candidate. He was the most impactful player on the floor last night. Shai was my No. 2 Star, and Jayson Tatum was my No. 3 Star.
And while Alex Caruso and Cason Wallace were no-shows my Blue Collar Moral Compass helmet sticker goes to Boston’s Baylor Sheirman for his 11 point, 4 rebound, + 11 game off the bench.
Think about this before I close…on a night when Derek White struggled with a meh-preformance as the third option for the Celtics…Taylor Scheirman dropped 11 points in a ten point Celtic win. That’s what will win you a playoff game when you have to have put one in the win column for Coach of the Year Joe Mazzula.
But of course…if the Spurs haul down the complacent Thunder…then Mitch Johnson might be Coach of the Year.
Storylines abound with nine games left…finally some things I can work with on the underground blog.
Eternal love, Mike J