Thunder Win 6th Straight With Win in Orlando, 126-117

With OKC missing both Steven Adams (ankle) and Terrance Ferguson (back spasms) the Thunder still did what they needed to do against a 20-30 Orlando team which is going nowhere. Just win and that’s exactly what the Thunder did with a 126-117 win on Tuesday night.

That’s the mantra right now in OKC as the Thunder won their sixth straight and improved to 32-18 as the goals for the league’s highest pay-rolled team are in reset mode with 32 games remaining in the regular season.

These Thunder aren’t going to catch the Warriors, but the realistic reset should be to see if Oklahoma City can catch Denver and possibly capture the No. 2 seed in the West. Denver holds a 2-0 series lead head to head with the Thunder so far this season, but still, that should be the goal for the Thunder.

Orlando isn’t much and it shows why every year it was wise of Billy Donovan to change his mind about coaching the Magic and taking the Thunder job instead. But that doesn’t matter. In the midst of an 82 game season and being on the road without two starters any team in the league would take this road win which was played in an arena which looked like it had more Thunder fans than Magic fans in attendance.

MVP candidate Paul George dropped 31 first half points and finished with 35 points. Streaky sixth man Dennis Schroder picked up the scoring slack with 18 of his 21 points in the 4th period when the Thunder finally corralled a Magic team which doesn’t appear to have any plan with what it’s doing with its basketball team. Maybe Howard Schultz could buy the Magic and move them back to Seattle and nobody would notice…especially the fans in Orlando.

Former Thunder backup point guard DJ Augustin starts at the point for these Magic and that in in itself should tell you where the Magic are as an NBA franchise currently. Augustin came to the Thunder with Kyle Singler in the dubious Reggie Jackson trade with Detroit. Add to the fact, DJ Augustin was Kevin Durant’s point guard for Kevin’s one year of college ball played in Austin at Texas. So many ironic little twists here and there. We have no idea if DJ Augustin is coming to Nick Collison’s jersey retirement ceremony or if that’s okay with Berry Tramel, but I’m guessing that would be a pass for DJ. BTW, I met DJ after the one game Durant played in Norman versus OU. Very nice guy.

Russell Westbrook had a nice game, but again he knows what he can do physically with DJ any time he wants to at the rim or in the paint. This isn’t rocket science. But still for Westbrook, it was one of his steadier games of late with 23 points scored on 12 shots.

Nerlens Noel started in place of Steven Adams and played around 34 minutes of very solid ball. Again, in Noel, the Thunder have a unique defensive talent as the No. 7 guy in their rotation. Just me thinking out loud here, but if I’m Sam Presti…. I’d take the money I’m going to save from not having Alex Abrines on my payroll next season, plus the money I’m going to save from redoing Andre Roberson’s option year and I’m going to do my best to keep Nerlens Noel in Oklahoma City.

Wild Thing Jr. (Diallo) started in place of Terrance Ferguson and was okay. But it was stunning in watching him play these minutes how in comparison how good Terrance Ferguson has been of late. Terrance Ferguson has turned himself into a ball player. So in essence that has made up for the Jeremy Lamb and Dion Waiters experiments at the shooting guard position. In fact, for me, Sam Presti finally finding his two way shooting guard is right there along with Paul George’s excellent play as the second most important storyline for the Thunder fifty games in this season.

Jerami Grant was excellent. I love Jeremy Grant and he’s always got a spot on my basketball team as long as I’m the GM. So versatile. Jerami Grant is my third most important storyline for the Thunder this season.

I give Billy Donovan good marks because even with the two scratches he didn’t go very long with Abrines and basically played with eight players. I felt like I was watching a Mike D’Antoni coached team. Keep staggering the bench lineups. That’s my fourth storyline.

The Thunder now head south to Miami for a game against the Heat. I think Dion Waiters is still playing for the Heat last time I checked. I have no idea if he’s attending Nick Collison’s jersey ceremony, but if he is we just have to hope Berry Tramel is okay with it. It’s so interesting to follow the former Thunder players and how their careers have panned out.

But in closing, we clearly know how Kevin Durant’s career panned out and unless Berry Tramel for some reason which I don’t understand has chased off Durant from coming…he’s still planning on attending Nick’s well earned night.

Now…in some circles, I guess this ceremony will either give NBA general managers the green light to pursue Durant this summer or pass on the NBA’s second or third best player who never in his time in OKC did anything wrong except decide to leave when he became free to do so under the rules of the NBA’s collective bargaining agreement.

Moving forward…the Thunder in Miami on Friday in a game the Heat need to win to stay as the No. 7 seed in the East.

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