At the deadline, Sam Presti opted to stay put with his underachieving roster and play his hand out to the final cut of the cards. Meanwhile, LeBron and his management team in Cleveland went to work and decided to salvage their basketball season. It was a sagacious piece of work by Team LeBron. They got rid of Isiah Thomas, Channing Frye, Jae Crowder, Dwayne Wade, and Derick Rose and replaced them with four honest two way basketball players. Enter George Hill at the point, Jordan Clarkson as a shooting guard, Rodney Hood as a scoring swing player, and a big in the mold of Nick Collison when he was in his prime by the name of Larry Nance. If you didn’t know who Larry Nance was then you do now if you’re a Thunder fan who only watches Thunder games.
Forget the fact All-Star forward Kevin Love didn’t play in this game due to his broken hand. Forget the fact Vegas got suckered by making the Thunder a home three point favorite. Forget the fact Cleveland played this game with only one All-Star player versus OKC’s Big Four. If you took OKC and gave the three you shouldn’t be betting NBA games. This wasn’t a surprise if you’ve been paying attention.
I went to the game and it was certainly entertaining, but I never had any feel whatsoever OKC was going to win this game despite what happened in OKC’s 148-124 win on January 20th. None. Because I watched every minute of the Cav’s win over Boston on the road on Sunday and pretty much felt this was what was going to happen.
If you break down this game it’s very simple. Ignore the fact LeBron scored 37 points and was magnificent. Ignore the fact OKC’s Big Four scored 92 points. Here’s the bottomline. Cleveland now has ten honest two way basketball players and LeBron. OKC has two stars in Westbrook and George, a semi-elite center in Steven Adams, an aging and overpriced Carmelo Anthony, an absent Andre Roberson, and a remaining roster absent of Jerami Grant and Raymond Felton which has serious flaws.
Alex Abrines, Pat Peterson, and Josh Huestis played a combined 45 minutes in this game and contributed a combined SUM of zero points.
Meanwhile, Cleveland’s new bench scored 51 points on the night. Let me be frank to the local OKC college level media in Oklahoma City, if these new Cavs played the Thunder in a series they would win in five games…and the thing is I don’t think Cleveland has enough to beat either Golden State or Houston. But–these Cavs should once again win the East.
Since Andre Roberson’s torn patella, the Thunder are 3-6 and still trying to find themselves. Did OKC miss Andre in this game? Of course they did as the Cavs torched the Thunder for 16 threes on the night while Billy Donovan replaced him in the starting lineup with a defensively suspect player in Abrines who’s alleged nich is offense.
Obviously…Sam Presti and Billy Donovan think Alex Abrines is a basketball player of some sort. My thought would be he’s not what I would have gone forward with moving beyond the trade deadline for the role Billy Donovan has given him post Andre. But it is what it is and since Clay Bennett isn’t paying me for my insights it’s his situation… not mine.
On a more positive note–the after game meal at the German beer hall was excellent. I had the German pretzel, the Italian sausage with the green and red peppers and the duck fries. And some sort of post Octoberfest German beer.
We then proceed to the outdoor for the postgame cigar. We ended up sitting next to a table of Hispanics. I immediately shared with them my thoughts on Donald Trump. We bonded.
I then pulled out these two massively long cigars for myself and my cousin. The Hispanics’ eyes got wide as they stared at the length. I nodded and smiled knowingly then said, “These are Cubans…Little Marco Rubios.”
They loved it and we laughed together at the ridiculous thought of Presidente Trump.
So even though the Thunder lost the post game we had fun. In that we realize this isn’t a Thunder team to take too seriously.
The Thunder at Memphis tonight to play the hapless Grizz.
Hope the Thunder don’t lose.
Happy Valentine’s Day.