With Steven Adams missing his third straight game with a calf contusion, the OKC Thunder went about taking care of business with a 92-79 win over a punchless Chicago Bull team. OKC came out fast hitting the Bulls in the mouth and when the period ended OKC led 27-7. Game pretty much over.
It was an ugly game to watch for the most part. Both teams shot poorly from the field, but OKC is simply the better team.
Paul George struggled shooting the ball on this night after two performances which were Durantesque to the core. Carmelo Anthony returned to the lineup and had a decent game. But on this night the two players who led the Thunder with their overall court energy were Russell Westbrook and Jerami Grant.
Westbrook was fantastic supplying energy with steals, dunks, and chest pumps. It was one of those Bad Little Dude nights when you just kind of sit back and realize what a unique athlete Russell Westbrook truly is. It’s what you expect from the reigning league MVP….leading by example and doing whatever it takes to get his team a win.
I thought Jerami Grant was superb as well. Jerami played 34 minutes and continued his excellent play this season. He does a multitude of things to help this team and his overall game is evolving every night right in front of our eyes. Moving forward—Jerami Grant will be a very big piece of this OKC Thunder team.
The bench played pretty well as Felton, Patterson, Huestis, and Abrines all chipped in with nice nights.
Josh Huestis has been a pleasant surprise for me. He does some nice things out there. You can see some things in his game coming together.
So the bottomline is OKC has righted the ship from 4-7 to get back to 7-7 with three straight wins over three teams under .500 themselves. Three straight wins since the loss at Denver and the subsequent discussion amongst the stars in the aftermath of the Nuggets loss.
You get the feeling the Thunder are feeling more comfortable with themselves and ready to start beating some playoff caliber teams.
The Thunder will have a chance to begin this trend of beating playoff caliber teams when they visit the Spurs on Friday night. On the road, the Thunder are 2-5 and overall against playoff level teams in the West…1-3 so far this young season.
It’s time for the Thunder to start winning some games against good teams.