Thunder Make a Statement With Win Over Sixers

Eighteen days ago, after a brutal loss to Minnesota, the Thunder had lost three games in succession to Phoenix, Portland, and Minnesota. It was an ugly, almost completely unwatchable stretch of basketball. In all three losses, Billy Donovan cleared his bench early and waved the white flag. In my mind, it was the worse three games in a row in the Thunder era in Oklahoma City. It had a PJ Carlisemo feel to it. It really did.

But since that fateful stretch of games, OKC has won eight games in a row and saved their season. It would not be a crazy statement to say right now the four teams in the NBA playing the best ball are Golden State, Oklahoma City, Houston, and Boston. That wouldn’t be crazy talk. My NBA Power Poll would be those four teams plus the Cleveland Cavs and Toronto Raptors as the six teams in the league with a ‘chance’ to win the championship this season. I cannot believe I’m writing this in that on January 10th after the loss to Minnesota–I wrote that the Thunder had no chance to win the Northwest Division, let alone the O’Brien Trophy.

But here the Thunder sit eighteen days later as winners of eight straight letting it be known they could actually be the second best team in the entire NBA heading towards February. One could even make the call the Thunder are currently playing the best ball in the league right now. One could say that with a straight face.

A team which three weeks ago looked like they didn’t care enough or feign interest in half of their games is now playing with a chip on their collective shoulders and is on fire. The Thunder are now 10-3 in the month of January and 22-8 overall since December 1st.

On Sunday evening inside Chesapeake Energy Arena, the Thunder had every excuse to be a no show. It was their third game in four nights and the second game in a back to back with the imagery of Andre Roberson pulling himself along the floor still raw in their minds. A heartless performance very well would have happened perhaps three weeks ago, but not on this night, not with this Thunder.

Instead this Thunder fought, bled, scratched, and clawed their way to their eighth straight win with a rousing 122-112 win over the trash talking Sixers. It was simply a helluva game with an energized crowd which was of course energized by the reigning MVP…Russell Westbrook. Bad Little Dude was once again incredible as he went for 37 points, 9 rebounds, 14 assists, and multiple chest pumps and ‘fuck yous’ to the Philly bench. It was as good as anything we saw last year when Westbrook weaved magic upon the basketball world in breaking Oscar’s record.

More to the point, since December 1st, there’s no reason to rule out Russell Westbrook from this season’s MVP race if the Thunder continue their upward spiral. Tell me who’s been better or more valuable to his team than Westbrook in this stretch of 22-8 ball? The answer is… no one. Russell Westbrook has been the best player in the league for the last sixty days or so.

But it’s not just Westbrook. Paul George started playing with a consistent edge. Carmelo figured out his role and has made the transition from not being the best player on a bad team to being the third or fourth best player on a championship contender. And then there’s Steven Adams. In these last sixty days– Steven Adams has emerged as one of the elite centers in the league.

But what would OKC do without their defensive stopper in Andre Roberson for the first time since the win streak started against the Sixers in this game? What they did was bear down, play mentally tough as one, and find ways as a team to beat a good Philadelphia team. A playoff caliber Philly team.

Combined, OKC’s Big Four combined for 102 points. The only other Big Four in the league right now resides in Oakland. And don’t think the Thunder and their fans haven’t been salivating to play the Warriors twice in the month of February since the Thunder’s blowout win on November 22nd. If OKC takes care of business between now and then the best two teams in the NBA could conceivably be playing each other on February 6th.

This will give the Billy Donovan four more games to figure out how best to redistribute Andre Roberson’s minutes between Terrance Ferguson, Josh Huestis, and Jerami Grant. Again, Alex Abrines is a non-starter for me in this conversation–he shouldn’t be on the floor except as an occasional three point specialist in very narrow windows of play. He cannot defend without fouling.

On this night–Terrance Ferguson struggled while both Jerami Grant and Josh Huestis looked equal to the task. Especially Jerami Grant—who I thought played one of his better games of the season. I would think this will be a continual process where Billy Donovan tinkers with combinations of minutes depending on the night and the opponent.

So… here we sit fifty games in and the Thunder have revealed themselves to not be frauds. At this moment they are the hottest team in the league playing like a team with something to prove to the world.

Tuesday night in Washington D.C. the Thunder go for their 9th in a row versus the Wizards.

A season has been saved. The expectations have been reset. Being a Thunder fan is a special feeling again.

Winning is fun.

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