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My goodness. I mean…my goodness. Seriously.

Just when we were almost ready to retire the greatest shooter who has ever played the game after his lackluster game against the Thunder the other night…Steph goes for 46 and 49 points back to back versus Wemby and the Spurs to take the lead in their Group C Pool standings last night in San Antonio.

Hopefully for the sake of some interest in the Emirates NBA Cup tournament this season…we’ll see Steph advance with his Warriors to the championship game.

I think one thing which is hurting Steph versus the Thunder is the game officials are so preoccupied giving Shai every soft foul call imaginable they aren’t reciprocating with Steph. I think what this does in reality is take away from Steph being given the same type of coddled Free Throw Merchant officiating that Shai receives on a nightly basis in the Association.

No way from what I’ve been witnessing does Steph get that last set of free throws in a game against the Thunder…especially in Oklahoma City. No way, no how.

Shai knows this. Sam Presti knows it at well. If someone merly breathes on Shai there’s two free throws coming at the line in front of the Trump rabble which occupy the Pay.Com Arena. Look at those people sometimes close up when the camera is scanning the stands. Scary…right? The zebras in Oke City are terrified of the fake Christian insurrectionists.

So we’ll have to see how the next game between the Warriors and Thunder is called in San Francisco.

But anyway…Steph isn’t dead yet. Far from it.

Is there a greater joy in in an NBA game than when Steph goes off? MJ doesn’t think so.

The Thunder’s game versus the Hornets holds little interest for me this evening. I’ll either be delirious from OU upsetting Alabama on the road as a 6.5 road underdog or I’ll be an emotional trainwreck.

Eternity for forever.

MJ

It’s been a busy week for me what with the foilage trip to NW Arkansas and an excursion to SE Oklahoma to eat at the iconic Roseanna’s Italian Cafe in Krebs, Oklahoma– plus my once a month cancer blood lab and treatment week…but I’ve been watching the games at both the NBA and college level during the interim.

It’s way too early to make any real judgements at the college level, but at the NBA level it’s pretty much following the script I thought it would in the Western Conference. 1 OKC, 2 Denver, and 3 Houston–if they can locate a point guard replacement for Fred van Fleet. Then depending on the breaks of the season injury-wise and such… 4a San Antonio or 4b Minnesota with a healthy Anthony Edwards.

In no way do I think Golden State has the current roster to win the West, but as they showed last night on the second night of a back to back in San Antonio they still have No. 30 on their roster. Despite being absolutely shut down down the night before in OKC by a defense which was missing JDub, Lu Dort, Aaron Wiggins, and the defensively versatile Kenrich Williams–Steph is still capable of going off against anybody in the league on those nights his worn out body allows him to do so.

Steph dropped 46 pts last night as the Warriors upset the young San Antonio Spurs by a count of 125-120 to improve to 7-6 on the season. But unless Johnny Kuminga starts showing me something on a more consistent basis I can’t put much more faith in the Warriors than a finish somewhere between 6th or 7th in the West. There will be nights when Steph looks like he did in OKC on Tuesday night versus the Thunder, but that’s not enough in the stacked West.

Nikola, from my view, came into camp heavy, slow, and out of shape. That has been taken care of and he now appears to be in form to play the kind of ball we expect from him in the NBA blogging world.

Denver’s other guys will need to incrementally get it together as the season moves along and figure out a way to be a better overall defensive team if they aspire to dethrone the Thunder.

Back to the Warriors for a second though…Johnny Kuminga…it’s time, like Peyton Watson with the Denver Nuggets, who wasn’t given an extension—it’s time for you to figure out the NBA game and move beyond neighborhood gym pickup level of play. Let’s go, buddy. Pick it up.

Back to the OKC-Denver thoughts…point blank from me is the Thunder without JDub playing a single game to date is the defending champ and by far the best defensive team in the league. The ascension of both Ajay Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins’ games has me wondering how in the world Coach Mark is going to make all these guys happy with minutes if the Thunder ever get fully healthy.

A helmet sticker to Isaiah Hartenstein for his excellent play this past week and his off the court award he won from the NBA for being a tremendous overall human being to the Oklahoma City community beyond the basketball court. MJ fell in love with Isaiah when that ten year-old Archie ran over to him in the championship parade. Hope Sam Presti figures out a way to keep Isaiah beyond this season with the 2nd apron looming.

Below…Isaiah presser after his career double, double game versus the Sacramento Kings.

As far as the Lakers without LeBron…as we witnessed last night, and even though I love Austin Reaves like a favorite uncle–the Lakers without LeBron aren’t all that much.

In closing..if you picked the Detroit Pistons to be in or near first in the East then you must be a ‘serious’ okcthunderground.com reader. I’m not picking the Pistons to win the East just yet because of their youth, but with Cade Cunningham showing the basketball world what he’s capaable of becoming–you doubters can understand why I had a Cade Cunningham Journal his lone college season at O State even though I bleed crimsom.

Which brings me to OU at Alabama on Saturday at 2:30pm on ABC…you guys better leave that slow start and penalties back in Knoxville if you want to improve to 8-2 with a serious chance to participate in the College Football Playoff.

Boomer!

Eternal peace.

MJ

It appears we have a strong freeze and northern winds heading our way by Sunday afternoon at the Deer Creek mini-ranch. No. 12 OU is off this week-end with a week of rest from taking on Division I’s toughest football schedule.

I’m a little worn as an avid Sooner football fan from having to deal with Michigan, a sneaky good Temple team which beat that Tulsa team which physically beat down O State on the road and has since not won a game themselves. Then there was Auburn which fired Hugh Freeze last Sunday. Then came the John Mateer injury. Then the game Michael Hawkins started against Kent State and did okay in a 42-0 win. Then of course, the game versus No. 10 Texas where John Mateer played hurt and probably shouldn’t have in retrospect. Then the shutdown road win at South Carolina against the No. 1 QB prospect in next spring’s NFL draft. Then the heart wrenching close loss to No. 6 Mississippi at home.

Then of course last Saturday’s big-time step up on the road win against then No. 14 Tennessee.

I know I need a break just like the players and coaches. Taking on a schedule of this magnitude is tough and the programs like Tulsa, UCO, and O State have no idea how tough it is to get up every week to take on a national power of sort.

After the break…on the road at Alabama, home versus Missouri, and home versus LSU. I’m not sure my Packers are playing a schedule this tough.

So is’s off to NW Arkansas with the wife to take in the amazing beauty of NW Arkansas as we hope to hit peak color before Sunday’s first winter front arrives.

And if by chance we get back in time Saturday night to see Porter’s 2-0 Sooners take on No. 21 Gonzaga on the road at 9:30 pm on ESPN 2 then I guess MJ will have to watch the basketball game.

Otherwise no sports for MJ on Friday or Saturday as we behold the autumnal beauty of the Ozarks at peak color ‘we hope’.

The beauty is beyond the pale.

Have a great week-end.

BOOMER!

MJ

Without Chancey Billups and with Jrue Holiday the Portland Trailblazers look like a different group. This in no way was a horrific loss considering who sat out for the Thunder on Wednesday night. Nope. In fact, if Jrue stays healthy and can be the glue to this young team…the Blazers might be a team we put on ‘a team to watch this season’ list.

But what OKC is doing in relation to Shai’s heavy, heavy minutes these first tens games makes little sense to me.

If you’re going to play by the load management Bible then I would suggest Shai be the benefactor of much of this load managing.

Like the other MJ, Michael Jordan, this MJ has little tolerance for excessive tank,ing and excessive sitting by certain NBA players. It takes away from the authenticity of the regular season games. Tanking and too much load management are two of the primary reasons the NBA iniated the Emirates NBA Cup. That being, to make organizations put more authenticity into the regular season games.

I love these Thunder players most of whom became members of the organization due to the draconian tanking of Sam Presti. Yeah…figure it out–the Thunder have depth like no other team in the Association and much of that depth is because of so many players still on rookie scale deals or low enough salaries to keep the Thunder out of the 2nd apron of the payroll tax.

So…let’s look at who didn’t play for the Thunder last night…per my Top 6 Thunder list I posted yesterday…2 JDub, 3, the seemingly always brittle and bruised Chet H, 4 Caruso, 5 Lu Dort, and 12 Kenrich Williams.

That would be five of the Thunder’s Top 12 sitting last night against a pretty good team while the cornerstone of the franchise logged a heavy 38 minutes while keeping his team competitively afloat with 35 points.

This is bullshit. This is precisely what Michael Jordan is currently talking about in a public manner. That being, the overall softness of the current players in the NBA. Caruso and Lu Dort should be ashamed of themselves. I expect this type of bullshit from Chet, but not those two.

If I were the FBI and the NBA …I’d be as concerned about the overuse of load managementand tanking as much of that of point shaving in low profile games.

But in closing let me write this down before logging off…Shai, Aaron, Ajay, I-Hart, and perhaps JWill played their asses off last night. If you Thunder fans are still going to keep booing Kevin Durant who seldom missed games with Thunder except for the Jones fracture season…you might want to hope this load management is applied in a more nuanced manner so as not to burn out Shai before the real season begins in April.

Jrue Holiday is a nice fit for these Blazers. He went 6-10 from behind the arc last night. Jrue’s the type of hybrid guard who in my view could not only replace Fred van Fleet for the Houston Rockets, but give the Rockets the type of two-way guard play they will need if they’re to overtake the Thunder in the West. We’ll have to see how many games Jrue plays this season by the week before the trade deadline.

The West is starting to take shape a bit. OKC, San Antonio, Denver, Lakers, Rockets, Warriors, Blazers and maybe the struggling TWolves who now have Anthony Edwards back on the court.

I think this year’s trade deadline will be fascinating to see which team in the West adds the neccessary player to challenge the Thunder.

But if I’m Sam Presti and Coach Mark…those heavy, heavy Shai minutes might be something to start tracking if the other players are so soft they can’t pull their links on the proverbial chain.

Peace, grace, and dignity.

MJ

First off…congrats to the Thunder for starting the season as defending champs at 8-0 with a workmanlike road victory over a Clipper squad which in reality is nothing more than a play-in type of team without Kawhi Leonard.

Like the real MJ, Michael Jordan….this MJ, Mike Jackson, is already weary this NBA season of watching more load management than stars stepping up and leading their resepctive teams. Not at all the case with Shai though as he’s been everything you’d want from your MVP and franchise player.

1/8th of the way through this young NBA regular season and Shai is already my in the clubhouse leader to defend his MVP as well as the NBA championship. He’s got that look in his eye MJ loves. That hungry look.

My notion is Shai has taken all Sam Presti’s pre-season words to heart and is completely in a zone to make this Thunder group the first NBA team to repeat since the Warriors did the trick in 2016-17. Repeats are all around us currently in the four major sports if you’re paying close attention.

The Florida Panthers of the NHL repeated this past June and will be looking to three-peat this hockey season. The LA Dodgers just repeated in front of us with a seven game thriller in one of the best World Series of all-time. If I had to pick the Super Bowl champion right now on November 5th…MJ would pick Jalen Hurts and the Eagles to repeat as well.

Which leads into my take on the Thunder a mere eight games in..the Thunder in my book are somewhere between a solid favorite to a prohibitive favorite to repeat depending on the health of their Big 6.

My Thunder Big 6 goes in this order currently…1 Shai, 2 JDub, 3 Chet, 4 Caruso, 5 Dort, and 6 I-Hart. If these six guys stay healthy and it will be tough for anybody to derail the Thunder…even the Denver Nuggets as they continue to search for team chemistry with this new team they’ve put together.

Something else to consider though…the emergence of Aaron Wiggins and Ajay Mitchell trning this into a Big 8. Last night… Ajay +31, Aaron + 26. That’s where the Nuggets and evevry other team in the league have a problem, that being, two guys at N. 7 and No. 8 like Ajay and Aaron.

I had a great time at the OU doubleheader on Monday evening. Both the men and women should have very competitive teams. The women especially… if they reach their potential should be at the least an Elite 8 type of team if the young newcomers figure things out by January.

My OU seat this year is right next to the OU student section and the band. I love it. It’s like being young again as I was in the late 70’s and early 80’s.

Both schedules get challenging in a hurry as the OU men travel to play at Gonzaga this week-end, while the Sooner women host UCLA on Monday night. MJ will be in his seat on Monday night for certain. We’ll find out quite a bit about point guard Lia Chavez on Monday night I would suspect. She looks like a big-time baller to MJ though. She just needs to gradually acclimate herself into the role of starting point guard. Notice how little of Coach B’s presser dwelled on her freshman guard. Jennie knows this is a process in which the seniors are comfortable with.

Love, kindness, and peace as always.

MJ

What a massive week-end of sports!

Toronto gives away the World Series with some of the worst base running I’ve ever witnessed. Literally…the Blue Jays had basic base running gaffes dealing with their third base coach in games 3, 6, and 7. The Jays would have been better served with a dead corpse coaching third base in this historically good World Series.

But give Dave Roberts and the Dodgers credit for gutting it up in the final two games in Toronto and pulling off their repeat. Yamamoto did end up winning the official MVP, while my pick Will Smith was second. Both were deserving.

Toronto fans must feel sick this Monday. They had the Series in their grasp, but pissed it away with sloppy base running and some unfortunate luck, the ball sticking in the bottom of the wall play… and Kiki Hernandez’s incredibly smart ‘on the ball play’ to pull off the double play to end Game 6. Toronto needs to get a new third base coach and evidently spend more time on basic baserunning fundamentals beyond just trotting around the bases on homers and gestures with their hands.

My Packers sucked offensively yesterday at home and lost to the suddenly very respectable Carolina Panthers. My Broncos won their fifth straight by winning at Houston over CJ Stroud and the Texans. Leading MVP candidate Baker Mayfield was idle…hopefully next week he’ll have both Mike Evans and Chris Godwin back in his receiving arsenal.

Everyone loves Baker accept Jim Traber and surly O State fans who’ve never come to terms with their overall record in Bedlam. Other than Patrick Mahomes…is there another NFL player doing more ads than Baker?

Right now I have Baker with a slight MVP lead over Josh Allen.

My Sooners?

Great win at Knoxville.. A great win to put the Sooners in a position to travel to Alabama in two weeks and see what they can do defensively against Tide QB… Ty Simpson, who is my leading Heisman candidate. MJ never wants players to get injured, but if Ty Simpson were to get concussed this coming Saturday in their game versus the universally hated LSU Tigers…grief would not overcome MJ.

Owen Heineke…as I wrote yesterday was impactful in the first half Saturday in Knoxville. His play, plus that of Taylor Wein and Kip Lewis were almost as impactful. SEC Play of the Week had to be Owen’s massive hit on the the Vol QB who fumbled the ball right into the massive hands of R Mason Thomas.

That play was a FOURTEEN POINT SWING…ON THE ROAD when the Sooners were about to be knocked out with a second round TKO.

Massive play for my Sooners. Just massive. With massive being being the key adjective of the Sooners’ inspirational comeback win.

Off week for the Sooners this week-end… and much needed for Kobie, R Mason, and offensive tackle Derek Simmons, who in my mind is the Sooners’ best offensive tackle.

MJ had a rousing workout this morning and is now headed to Norman to watch both Jenni B and Porter’s basketball teams kick off their basketball campaigns. I think both teams will be good. Porter did some significant work with the roster this off season.

The Thunder improved to 7-0 with an easy win over the horrifically bad New Orleans Pleicans on Sunday night. MJ doesn’t cover games on his uniquely high quality content blog. I only cover games were both teams put reasonable teams on the floor or field of play.

Off to Norman for a great evening college basketball.

MJ

It’s never over till it’s over and these Sooners aren’t ready to pack in their CFP hopes just yet. It was shaky in that first period of tumult, but Brent Venables young men steadied themselves like a pummeled boxer in the corner from a knockout via the R Mason Thomas Scoop & Score and in reality pretty much dictated the terms the rest of the way in Knoxville as the Sooners prevailed in a mild upset by a score of 33-27.

OU improves to 7-2 overall versus the toughest schedule in CFS and 3-2 in the overall toughest conference of the four Power 4 conferences. True, Ohio State and Indiana are ranked higher, but the overall depth of the Big 10 isn’t nearly as deep and treacherous as the SEC.

This was the first game since John Mateer’s hand injury that in reality he really turned it loose with his running game. When Mateer can run as he did versus Michigan and Auburn, and as he did last night against the Volunteers—these Sooners are a different animal. Add to the running game mix is the fact 240 lb. running back Xavier Robinson is finally healthy again and doing what he did the back third of last season.

With Mateer now playing fearless again, plus the fact Xavier now has a two game streak of 100 yard plus games– these final three games of the regular season still offer a glimmer of hope for the Sooners to crack the Top 12 simply because I feel certain the Committee will reward a hot team on a late run with two losses who has the played the most challenging schedule of the combined 153 CFS teams.

OU thankfully has an off week now as that will allow both R Mason Thomas and linebacker Kobe McKenzie to get healthy for the Alabama game.

Lest we forget…last year’s national championship game featured two …two loss teams–Ohio State and Notre Dame.

Alabama hosts LSU next week-end. Maybe OU will get lucky and the dysfunctional Tigers will play inspired and physical ball versus the Tide and bang them up a little for the Sooners. To me…the key for OU versus Bama will be can they get their pass rush to Ty Simpson, and will the Sooners be able to RUN THE FOOTBALL ENOUGH to be two dimensional?

So many helmut stickers from last night….so here I so in this order….

1 John Mateer As JM goes the Sooners will go.

2 Kicker Tate Sandal Tate accounted for 15 points last night. Best kicker in the country so far this season.

3 R Mason Thomas Even though he got knocked out of the game his Scoop & Score was in essence a 14 point play.

4 Owen Heineke Toughest motherf–ker on the field last night.*

5 Taylor Wein Maybe the second toughest motherf–ker on the field last night.*

6 Kip Lewis Prolly MJ’s favorite player on the team these past two seasons.*

That’s it for MJ today. Maybe tomorrow or tonight I’ll talk about those two amazing LA Dodger game ending double-plays in Game 6 and Game 7 which gave them a repeat World Series championship. Will Smith was my MVP, Yamamota…a very close second.

Peace, love, and mercy.

MJ

• Footnote…below is what Owen, Taylor, and Kip gave us last night in Knoxville. More of this will be needed in two weeks if the Sooners are to derail the Tide on the road. Job well done last night, guys.

I had the San Antonio Spurs as one of my four teams I ‘thought’ might emerge this season as a Western Conference contender and so far they haven’t let me down even with the injury delay to D’Aaron Fox’s season.

Two weeks into what so far has been an injury marred season and it seems every team in the Association has injury issues. Yet we see OKC at 6-0 with the Spurs at 5-0 headi into Emirates NBA Cup play.. Don’t worry though, MJ isn’t embracing the Spurs as ‘his’ team like he has with the 3-1 Denver Nuggets, but I think at this point it would be prudent to start including these Spurs on the blog.

BTW…Robert, our six year-old just began his first youth basketball season in a league at the Denver University facilities and is already showing his grandfather an outside shot very similar in style to that of his favorite NBA player…Alex Caruso.

But back to the Spurs… this could be the season, and as fervent NBA fans we hope it is that the Spurs once again emerge as a force in the West to signal the beginning of the Mitch Johnson Era in Hill Country.

I loved Pop, but it was time for the transition and it appears they have the right person in place. The NBA schedulers appear to be prescient in having tabbed OKC vs San Antonio as their No. 1 premier time slot matchup on Christmas afternoon. I have already have that slatedfor my Christmas Day schedule and since Robert loves Caruso there won’t be any argument as to the television being tuned into the game. RJII will be donning his Caruso jersey while MJ has on his powder blue Jamal jersey.

To me…the Spurs looked poised to do what OKC did two years ago…that is, break out of the tanking syndrome, start playing real basketball, and probably crack the fifty win barrier if they can avoid Wemby getting injured.

And BTW, Chet Holmgren didn’t die in Game 4 this season. Coach Mark has assured the Thunder fanbase Chet’s regular season isn’t over after the back bruise he suffered in Dallas.

When Chet returns of course will remain a mystery though since Oklahoma City in reality doesn’t have a legit beat writer covering the team like other cities do. As it is in Russia, Iran, and Saudi Arabia…when the time comes–the team will announce Chet’s full recovery from the back bruise he suffered in Game 4 in their own manner.

But enough of that. As you will see and hear from the video…Mitch Johnson is a high energy, positive coach who will probably emerge as one of the league’s best coaches as we see this season unwind. Plus, of course…he has Wemby. Don’t ever forget the First Axiom of Coaching: layer Makes the Coach. Always.

Chet…get well soon, buddy. You and JDub are both max guys now and even though Shai won’t say it–me and the real Michael Jordan will—you dudes are being paid ig boy dollars to help him through the 82-game marathon season so he can walk once the NBA Playoffs begin. Know what I mean?

Let the Emirates NBA Cup play begin as soon as this World Series concludes and Toronto has a parade.

Eternal love, the fake MJ.

I actually like the LA Dodgers. I’ve seen some of these guys play in Oklahoma City for the AAA Dodgers. There was that one night when my son took me to watch Clayton Kershaw pitch on a rehab assignment versus the Iowa Oaks which turned out to be one of the great sports nights of my life. My son then took me to a watch party with his friends to watch Floyd Merriweather fight the white trash cage fighter…what’s his name.

It was iconic. Merriweather won the fight, then I ended up at the Waffle House in north Oklahoma City at two in the morning. The place was packed with other people who watched the fight. I was the only white in the place, but fully embraced at the counter by the crowd when I announced my love for Merriweather.

It was a turning point moment for me as an older brown man. It was like an out of body experience or at the least being the feature on an Anthony Bourdain episode some place far away from Oklahoma. It was on that night, at that Waffle House, at that counter—that I realized MJ enjoyed being around black and brown people more than the phony white Christians who would eventually turn into the very same fake Trump Christians we witness today…but not as much in Oklahoma City and Norman as we do in Oklahoma’s other seventy-four 1920ish counties.

So as I’ve sat watching these incredibly tough Blue Jays oversome the loss of George Springer in Game 3…and the loss of Game 3 in the 18th inning—I must admit… I’ve fallen love with these guys for what they have done in these last two World Series games.

I wonder if Shai and Lu are as amped up as I am about the Jays winning their first World Series since 1993?

Who was president in 1993? It was Bill Clinton. Year one, first term. Who would have known the depths of hatred one blow job would have on the Republic. Who would have known Clinton, beyond the blow job, would leave the legacy of five succesive budget surpluses in his presidential, two-term wake.

Who would have known…Bill Clinton did what every Republican president since Reagan has never done even though they all are fake fiscal conservatives as well as being fake Christians as well.

Who would have known the revenue tax policies of Reagan, not Bush 41 so much, but certainly Bush 43, and Trump– would have the U.S. national debt at a staggering 37 trillion as I posit on the modest, award-winning okcthunderground.com blog.

So in closing…I have to admit even though I love the older Dodgers on the team like Clayton, Will Smith, and even Max Muncey—my competitive baseball heart is with the resilient Toronto Blue Jays to win this World Series and have one helluva parade which I’m sure would be something all Canadians and probably somewhere around 270 million Americans could use right now given the darkness of the Trump era as far as real Christian values, real compassion for other humans, and real fiscal responsibility go.

So good luck to the Toronto Blue Jays., and in the name of Joe Carter, Jr—finish the job!

Peace and eternity forever.

Go Jays!

Del Mar bound in January!!!

MJ

Putting aside the pathetic NBA gambling scandal story being broken last week…otherwise it was a stellar week for the NBA on Opening Week.

OKC’s Thunder as defending champs has proudly presented itself as the clear cut favorite going 3-0 last week without JDub, Caruso, and Kenrich. Add to the fact–Shai has been even better than last season’s MVP version with a 55 point effort on the road versus the injury depleted Indiana Pacers.

This is where I give Chet an encouraging pat on the back for his solid 31 point performance in Game 3 on the road against the Atlanta Hawks. This is exactly what Shai needs from Chet every third game or so, especially with JDub out. Shai got some much needed rest in the 4th period against the Hawks. Keep this in mind…Shai played a combined 92 minutes in the Thunder’s first two wins over Houston and Indiana.

Here’s what I would also say three games in…none of OKC’s three wins have come against a team I currently have in my Top 12. Houston doesn’t have a point guard and is 0-2, Indiana is not even remotely the same team they were last season on their run to the Finals, and Atlanta appears to have a very serious identity issue as a basketball team.

The Thunder are in Dallas tonight playing the confused Dallas Mavs who I do not currntly have in my Top 16 poll. Cooper Flagg’s NBA debut was in three words…horrific and borderline unwatchable. Hopefully, for his parents’ sake it will be better for him tonight versus the Thunder.

The Denver Nugget are 1-1 two games in with a tough road loss against the better than I thought they would be Golden State Warriors. Aaron Gordon in my mind has passed Jamal Murray as the Nuggets’ second most valuable player behind Nikola.

Another tough road game tonight for the Nuggets at Minny. Then the Nuggets have very four winnable games against the same type of competition the Thunder have faced their first four games. Cam Johnson struggled in his first game as a Nugget, then was much better agianst the Suns with a 15 point performance in Game 2.

Coach David Adelman doesn’t need Cam Johnson to be a star. He already has three of those in Nikola, Aaron, and Jamal. What Coach Adelman needs from Cam is 14-16 points a game and some game to game consistenty Michael Porter Jr. could never delievered when it mattered.

Otherwise…I think Denver game by game will look more comfortable as a team as they define their roles. Denver has not extended Peyton Watson…and I agree with that move. Peyton, buddy, this is Dr. El Prez in Deer Creek, Oklahoma home of the semi-iconic okcthunderground.com…let me give you some unsolicted advice—PICK IT UP IN HURRY IN A SIGNIFICANT MANNER.

In closing…don’t sleep on the youthful 3-0 San Antonio Spurs or the aged Golden State Warriors if Steph and Jimmy B stay healthy.

Peace, love, harmony, and mercy.

MJ