Up front I have to admit I only watched this game when there were commercial breaks in the Alabama-Clemson national championship game. Deshaun Watson and Clemson won at the end in an exciting fourth quarter so it was a great evening all around for me.
OKC won in Chicago on Monday night by a 109-94 count in a game in which they led pretty much from wire to wire in a relatively easy road win. Jimmy Butler tried to play, but wasn’t himself so that needs to be noted on here, but during this January Month of Hell for the Thunder…any win, especially a road win is a very good thing for this basketball team.
OKC improves to 23-16 and has now won two in a row as it fights for its seeding position in the West. For the month of January the Thunder are 2-3.
When I look at a Thunder box score the two things I glance at first are 1 how many shots Russell Westbrook took, 2 how many assists the team as a whole accumulated. Anotherwords, did the ball stick in Westbrook’s hands or did the ball move. On this night, the ball moved which is a very good thing for the Thunder. Westbrook didn’t triple double shy of one rebound, but he had a very nice overall game with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 14 assists, but more to the point, the Thunder accrued 30 assists on the night as Westbrook kept his shot total at 19. I’ll go out on a limb and state if the Thunder corral 30 assists on any given night they should win the basketball game.
Adams, Oladipo, and Kanter all had double figure nights as they should because they’re the second, third, and fourth best basketball players on this team. Andre Roberson had a another nice game as well.
To me the challenge for this Thunder team and Russell Westbrook is simple, do they want to just pursue the triple-double thing or do they want to incrementally get better every game and strive to become the third best team in the West come late April.
It’s not that I think the two are incompatible, it’s just clear to me that for this team to move forward the greatest challenge is for Russell Westbrook and the team’s other three best players to take collective ownership of the team versus than it just being Westbrook as a sole proprietor.
No more college football. Nothing more from Meryl Streep unless she has something to say at the Oscars, just my focus on the Thunder moving forward until maybe the inauguration of our strip bar owner president elect.
Thunder will host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night in what should be a great basketball game.