When you have a general manager like Sam Presti who comes out at 5:00pm– two hours before game time and says the things he said…it’s no wonder the Thunder responded as they did on Monday night inside of PayCom with an easy 125-114 win over the Phoenix Suns.
Next guy up. That is the mantra.
Sam Presti said, and I quote: “In this organization we take the punches and walk over the road blocks.”
If MJ had heard that going through his Stage 4 cancer physical therapy…that mantra would have been a T-shirt I would have worn to every workout. Fact of the matter is…I’m going to get a shirt like that made.
“We take the punches and walk over roadblocks, baby!”
I mean, the man told us what we expected in regards to the injuries, that being, both JDub and Cason won’t be playing for quite some time and then he said that.
End of press conference for me. I didn’t even hear the predictable weak questions from Little Nick Gallo and Jenni Carslson. MJ was done and ready to play.
JDub has a fractured lower leg injury and a dislocated ankle, while Cason has a torn labrium. Both players will require surgery or in JDub’s case… surguries.
Add to the fact…Chet sat out the game as well with his patella maintenance issues (sigh). MJ is getting one of those shirts for Chet as well even though Chet ‘somewhat’ redeemed himself against Wemby in the opener.
And yet…the Thunder stood up as one with 60% of their starting lineup missing in the fourth game of the season. It was a beautiful thing to witness. Not only the mental toughness, but the basic professionalism of these guys.
We know they hurt even more than we did as fans, yet… THEY TOOK THE PUNCHES AND WALKED OVER THE ROADBLOCKS, BABY!
I have Five Stars for this game, not three. I would have had six if Alex Caruso had played through an ankle issue in the second half. Not saying Alex needs to get one of those T-shirts, but…… it is what it is. T-shirt list so far…MJ, Chet, and Alex.
No.1 Star–Ajay Mitchell with a career high 30 points, brilliant playmaking and solid defense.
No. 2 Star–Shai. 26 points and had to play with foul trouble. Leadership galore.
No. 3 Star–Isaiah was spectacular with a double, double and some high post passing which would have made Bill Walton proud.
No. 4 Star–Jared McCain scored the ball and hit his threes. His defense will have to incrementally improve with the loss of both JDub and Cason.
No. 5 Star–rookie Aday Mara with his first career double-double. El Grande was great. I still wish though that Sam Presti had been able to bundle both Ajay and Yaxel Lindeborg, but that’s for another time and thread.
The only thing I didn’t like on the night was Coach Mark giving Josh Dix 22 minutes of floor time. To me, you give Josh eight minutes and if he does some things he gets more minutes. Josh had zero points and one rebound and was -7 in those 22 minutes. I think 14 of those 22 minutes could have been used in another manner.
Because here’s what an NBA coach does in every unique game…he orchestrates 240 minutes of floor time in a regulation game to maximize the juice from the pulp, if you know what I mean. That was a saying I loved that Eddie Sutton shared with me once. Maximize the juice from the pulp…that’s what a great coach does.
So…the Thunder in Dallas on Wednesday night and maybe we’ll see eight minutes of recently acquired 6’7″ defensive specialist Micah Peavy and see what he could possibly add to the team in Cason’s two to three month absence.
What the Thunder need is an athletic wing with wing span length who can hit an open three if it’s being given to him. Micah’s a Texas high school kid who played for both Texas Tech and TCU before ending up at Georgetown…so I’ve seen him around some. Maybe he can fill a need. We’ll see.
That’s it for me for the time being.
Love, Mike J.