Bench Saves Thunder in Charlotte, 101-91

In a game which featured the most underachieving team from the West versus the most disappointing team from the East—it was pretty much a game of ugliness. At one point in the third period, it looked as if both teams were trying to out do the other to win the league wise designation for current futility honors.

But then a strange thing happened, Billy Donovan, by either coaching prescience or sheer blind luck–dialed up a winner when he inserted Ray Felton, Jerami Grant, Spanish folk singer Alex Abrines, Patrick Patterson, and Josh Hustis into the game. I think OKC was trailing 76-73 when this happened, but I’m not totally sure because I was flipping back and forth between this ugly basketball game and the Eagles-Falcons playoff game.

But then it even got stranger. The skies cleared in Deer Creek. The sun shone brightly thru overcast skies. I thought I saw some bats flying out my backyard window with Ted Cruz on his knees babbling some shit in tongues… Then there was stillness all around me. Then.. suddenly this flash of genius spurt of basketball took place on the floor in Charlotte in which no rational person could have seen coming.

It was beautiful. In a span of several game deciding minutes, each of these OKC bench players stepped up and made impactful plays which took the Thunder from down by three to up by nine when they exited the floor. Calling this an epiphany of sorts is in my view not hyperbole. No humans were around me, only the diva black lab Pauli sitting next to me. I screamed, “Can you fucking believe this?”

She rolled her eyes and said, “Mike, settle down there’s still eight minutes left.”

But to both of our amazements, the starters came back in and Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams took OKC all the way home in a 101-91 road win in Charlotte for our beleaguered Thunder. This mercifully ended a streak of maybe the three worst losses in succession in the Thunder Era and stopped the bleeding.

More than that, given that this Thunder team bounces around in the middle tier zone in the Western Conference–the win bounced the Thunder back up to the No. 5 seed for the time being.

But still, with this group of dysfunction you take any win, especially a road win and savor it.

I don’t allow the volume to be on during the Fox Thunder telecasts, but I’m guessing Brian Davis at one point compared this Thunder win to the Russians turning back the Germans in World War II. Sidekick Michael probably said the Thunder defense reminded him of the great Jordan-Pippen teams. Sigh. I have no idea. But it was nice to see any kind of win…period.

The box score indicates Paul George casually participated in this game. I didn’t see much though. Kevin Pritchard maybe knew more than Sam Presti…just saying. Carmelo wasn’t much either, but that deal isn’t the one bothering me.

Truth be known, Bad Little Dude wasn’t even why OKC won this game.

More to the point, OKC won this game because all five Thunder bench players came in and did something odd in this season of angst…namely they made plays and won Billy Donovan a basketball game.

West Texas Crude closed the week just under $65 a barrel. The Thunder won a road game. Maybe the March of Death turned in Charlotte. Who would know?

Thunder host Sacramento on Monday night.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *