We’ve been told the OKC Thunder have been holding back in anticipation for the NBA Playoffs. They almost held back too late, but on this opening game of post season for the Thunder they looked like a team who could make some noise in notching a 116-108 win over the Utah Jazz in Game I of this first round series.
Paul George was a monster. Literally a monster as he scored 36 points on a 13-20 shooting evening and going a Thunder best ever in going 8-11 from the beyond the arc. Even KD never made eight threes in a game. I had no idea.
Russell Westbrook was excellent as well scoring 29 points and looking every bit the part of a player Paul George should hang around with beyond this post season.
OKC came into this game ranked 29th in free throw shooting and 27th in three point shooting efficiency.
So who were these guys tonight at the Chesapeake Energy Arena?
OKC went 14-29 (48.3) shooting threes and 20-23 shooting free throws (87%).Basketball is fairly simple. If you play defense, move the ball, and shoot the ball like the Thunder did tonight you give yourself a chance of being pretty good. The Thunder were pretty good tonight.
Steven Adams, Carmelo, Corey Brewer, and Alex Abrines were all pretty good tonight as well.
Even though OKC got off to a horrible start—I was calm just by the fact I wasn’t having to listen to dumb goofy stuff on the Fox Thunder telecast. I hung in there, stayed calm, and allowed Matt Pinto to steer me thru the early game waves.
Not that Clay Bennett or Sam Presti give a shit what I think, but I think what I’d do is kind of change things around and stay with this new broadcast lineup and move Brian Davis to the post game show if he can contain himself and not come across like Trump’s buddy Sheriff Joe with his murky use of adjectives in describing the team’s franchise player.
The BBQ from Earl’s was sublime. I put away a slab of the St. Louis style ribs and a box of okra.
The Thunder lead the series 1-0 and Game 2 is in Oklahoma City on Wednesday night.
I’m thinking the German beer hall in Bricktown with the food order going …German pretzel, duck fries, and the green pepper and German sausage plate platter with maybe some German beer.
This is me, the new casual Thunder fan who can roll with it.
Life is good.
Paul George postgame.