Welcome to OKCThunderGround!

That was a serious Game 3 beatdown… which in essence was an elimination game for the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’m not shocked they won, but I’m semi-aghast at how good the Twolves looked or how bad the Thunder got whipped in every facet of the game.

For those of us who aren’t novice level NBA followers, like most of the Thunder fanbase…it’s not all that complex if you follow the right Thunder blog and don’t allow yourself to be homered to death by the Little Nick Gallos, the Michael Cages, and the Royce Youngs of the Thunder homer mill. I’m not on anybody’s payroll. I do this this because I have a genuine passion for NBA basketball as a whole, and not just for the Thunder.

I’ve always kept my promise in that regard… I blog the objective NBA basketball truth on this blog. I at times may shamelessly troll you a bit if you act stupid enough to deserve such treatment, but in the end…I’ll write the truth on the Underground.

This was only one game. A home game. But here’s the thing neither team in this series has yet to lose a home game. Heading into Game 4 in Minnesota on Monday night in my mind if the Wolves take care of business…this series is basically up for grabs hypothetically speaking.

The pressure is still clearly on the TWolves backs for Game 4, but if they win then all the pressure shifts to the Thunder in what would be a pivotal Game 5. OKC would at that point want no part of their own Game 6 elimination game in Minny.

How did this monmental shift take place on Saturday night?

1 For one thing…the Wolves only turned the ball over 10 times in this game and only had two live ball turnovers in the first half. OKC lives on live ball turnovers. It is the gas which fuels their Nolan Richardson super-turbo engine. They thrive on odd man rushes like a hockey team. If you take this aspect of their game away from them and make them straight up beat you with the three-ball…they’re beatable by teams who are defensively solid.

2 Shai only had four free throw attempts in this road game. That’s 10 less free throws just by Shai than he averaged in the first two Thunder wins. For the most part..I love the other parts of Shai’s game, but all the faking, flopping, and falling to get to the free-line diminishes his reputation. Every other fanbase is going to start doing what the TWolve fans did on Saturday night and start chanting ‘Free Throw Merchant’. when he’s on the line.

Shai…please take this advice from MJ….enough of the faking, flopping and falling to get to the line. Michael and Kobe never faked to this degree. If you keep it up…you’re going to look in the mirror one day and see James Harden looking back at you. Take that as you may.

3 Minnesota lit it up hitting the open threes which Coach Finch alluded to in the first two games- postgame pressers. The looks for the most part have been open in this series, difference in this game was the Wolves were a blistering hot 20-40 beyond the arc, while the Thunder were a pedestrian 14-44.

4 The rookie from Illinois…Mr. Shannon’s 15 points were a spark off of a TWolves’ bench which scored an unthinkable 66 bench points in this game. Think back to Denver’s bench production the round previous. Nikola would be in disbelief of such bench support.

5 Both Julius Randle and the human basketball slug Rudy Gobert were much better in this game after being bench in the second half of Game 2. Julius is not a slug, but the way he played in Game 3 is the way he needs to play the remainder of the series for Minny.

6 The angry Minnesota crowd was what you want from your fans. They were clearly angry with all the preferrential treatment Shai received in the first two games in OKC.

Let’s not overthink this though. Playoff basketball is not getting too high or too low. It’s adjusting on the fly and emotionally reacting to a wide range of human competitve emotions.

One last thing…Shai was a -36 in this game, while AE was +3 ….

7 Your star has to play like Batman…not Batgirl–and your team can’t can’t get outboarded 51-32. Just sayin’

MJ is ready for Game 4 and congrats to Patti Gasso’s Sooners for their 9th straight advance to the College World Series.

Mike J

Do I think Shai gets some serious home cooking inside of the Pay.Com Arena?

Yes, I do, but that’s not the reason Minnesota is down 2-0 back home hoping they can win Game 3 in what should be a more friendly zebra arena where Shai won’t be on the line every time he’s bumped or slightly jostled.

The reason the TWolves are down 2-0 in this series is because they have not been able to control their live ball turnovers, and the fact they’ve at times really played some stupid basketball in this series. The manner in which Minnesota has ended the first halves in both of the games in OKC is a clinic on HOW NOT TO FINISH A HALF ON THE ROAD.

Stupid teams are like dogs who play in the street… in that you don’t see them around very long. Plus, of course the pylon-slug Rody Gobert did virtually nothing in either of the first two games in OKC. How he scored 27 points in a game versus the Lakers is still beyond me.

Of course..in OKC with the Thunder in their building you know run fueled live ball turnovers are coming…so you as a team and a coaching staff have to better react when the Thunder are in one of their Forty Minutes of Hell runs in the second half or whenever during the 48 minutes of play.

OKC plays like a college team. This is not standard NBA Playoff basketball. This is Jerry Tarkaninan-Nolan Richardson hoops. Without the live ball turnovers the Thunder can literally offensively stall at times if you force them to beat you from behind the arc. But if you’re fueling a run of Thunder 2 on 1 layups via turnovers…you have little chance of beating these guys once…let’s alone four times.

If we see an OKC-Indiana Finals…we’re going to something very different as far as NBA Finals pace. Because Indiana in my my mind is the team in the league best suited to run with the Thunder, plus the Pacers like the Thunder have impressive length and athleticism on their roster.

But back to Shai’s 29 free throw attempts in the first two games in OKC. This means in the irst two games Shai has been on the line 14.5 times a game, while Anthony Edwards has been on the line 17 times for an average of 8.5 attempts in the two games.

So I looked up a few players and here’s what I found:

Michael Jordan over his career averaged 8.2 free throw attempts per game.

Kobe over his career averaged 7.4 free throw attempts per game.

Larry Bird over his career averaged 4.4 free throw attempts per game.

So…to Jaden McDaniels comment on the push in the back to Shai,”I wanted to at least get called for a foul when I fouled him.”

I don’t disagree with that assessment, but you guys gotta be smarter as a group if you don’t want this series to not end in four or five games.

Hope we see better games in Minnesota on Saturday and Monday.

Mike J

What a beautiful acceptance speech!

You know…I love chick flicks. My wife of 45 years pretty much hates sports and the chick flick movies are the part of me she has instilled in me between all of the never ending parade of sporting events of which I have ever participated in or watched or blogged about in my life.

If I was a player on Jeopardy and saw the category Chick Flicks…MJ’s eyes would expand and then I’d run the category. Swear to God.

See what I mean?

Shai’s speech beyond the stats of Paris’s presentation genuinely teared up this older man. Absolutely made me pause and think to myself..”What a lovely man Shai’s better half has shaped through her presence and steady influence in his life.”

Some guys go their entire life and don’t figure out what Shai has already realized in his still young life.

As is well documented on this blog, I’ve cried quite a bit to myself out of joy during the cancer journey and this made me cry in a very good way. This was a joyous cry.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander made me cry. He made me remember the first time I realized I had fallen in love with my wife.

Thasnk you, Shai.

Congratulations, Mike J

In defense of the Minnesota Timberwolves very low energy loss in Game 1 of these WCF’s…like me—they seem to be confused as to what constitutes a foul in games played inside the Pay.Com Arena in Oklahoma City.

I’m completely objective in this series because neither one of these teams are where my basketball heart resides, but, man …on Sunday the Thunder were allowed to tackle and urinate on Nikola Jokic, while in this Game 1 of these WCF’s Rudy Gobert, the interior defensive stalwart of the Wolves, found himself bench-ridden 1:48 into the game with the tickiest-tack foul second foul one could imagine in what never turned into a knife fight.

Now…let be clear here on the blog…the officiating wasn’t the reason Minnesota shot 15-51 from beyond the arc or the reason OKC turned 19 Wolve turnovers into 31 points. No…in no way did Minnesota perform at a level in the second half which would warrant them winning this game. That’s not where I’m going with this.

Where I’m going with this is the zebras the remainder of these NBA playoffs don’t need to treat Shai and the other Thunder players as if they’re pristine little glass figurines out there. Call it the same as far as physicality allowed…call it both ways so we as NBA fans are allowed to see real playoff basketball on both ends of the floor for both teams.

ALLOW THE WOLVES TO DEFEND AT THE SAME LEVEL YOU ALLOW ALEX CARUSO TO DEFEND.. I love physicality. I love watching basketball knife fights here and there. MJ loved the Detroit Piston Badboys.

Shai’s mommy isn’t going to come out of the bleachers from the Edmond soccer field bleachers and attack you zebras if her little baby gets bumped into now and again. I mean, Doris Burke, on the telecast said it best when she said,”This is why Shai is called the Free Throw Merchant in NBA circles.”

But enough of that. The Thunder did enough in the second half to easily pull away down the stretch and gain a 1-0 advantage in this series. I thought Shai was good in the second half after a poor first half. JDub and Chet supported Shai’s 10-27 night with some solid play in the second half. So..I guess the three AT&T guys are my 1-2-3 Stars of the Game.

Kenrich Williams did very nice things for Coach Mark in the second half of this game with 9 points and a +19 rating in ten minutes of action. Plus, he seemed to slow Julius Randle down a bit. I love Kenrich. I wish he was a Denver Nugget. I pleaded with the Nuggets’ front office to see if they could acquire Kenrich at the trade deadline, but to no avail. Kenrich gets my 4th Star of the Game. Maybe now…the Nugget front office will follow some of my advice.

Game 2 on Thursday night inside of the Pay.Com Day Care Pre-K facility where we don’t allow touching or overly agressive children wearing non-Thunder apparel to participate in recess.

Anthony Edwards and his buds need to step up and play much better if they want this to become a compelling WCF which goes beyond four or five games.

Have a beautiful day.

Mike J

I’m amped and ready to see what should be an extremely physical Western Conference Finals between the Thunder and Minnesota TWolves. 7.5 seems about right considering the Nuggets were 10 to11.5 point road dogs in their four games inside of the Pay.Com Arena. And if you’d taken the points in those four collective games with Jokic you would have gone 2-2. So there’s that.

I feel for the referees in this series because in a sense the Minnesota TWolves are a mirror reflection of the Thunder as far as their defensive intensity. Though Minnesota is a more traditional NBA defensive team in the sense their offense doesn’t live and die in transition with the live ball turnovers.

To me..tonight in the first 16 minutes or so we’re going to see what the NBA officials are going to allow Alex Caruso to get away with as far as his hands being all over Anthony Edwards or Julius Randle or whoever Coach Mark has his doberman guard.

BTW…if Coach Mark guides his team to the NBA Finals..I’ll start referring to him as Coach D here on the Underground because at that point in my mind he will have traversed the canyon from being a developmental coach over there at the Little Girls U8 girls soccer field on Danforth Rd in Edmond to an NBA championship coach. I’ve told you MJ haters on here on my private mailbox…I’m a Libra and at the end of the day I’m always fair-minded no matter if I have to correct an intial narrative. If the Thunder don’t win this series however…he’ll still be Coach Mark on the only honest Thunder blog in Oklahoma.

If I’m Coach Mark here’s what I’m saying to my team…do not allow these guys the chance to breathe. They do not thrive at our pace. Turn up the pace. Everytime Anthony Edwards even thinks he’s going to touch the ball get inside of his space and time just like Caruso did with Nikola in Game 7… until the refs do not allow you to tackle him. Make Julius Randle, Naz Reed, Jaden McDaniels, Mike Conley, Donte, the slug Rudy Gobert, and Alexander-Walker beat us. Get inside of Anthony Edwards’ head and stay there this entire series.

Plus, everytime the ancient Mike Conley brings the ball up court I want us to trap his old ass and make him look like Russell Westbrook did in Game 7. That being, like someone who should be reminded he’s an old guy trying to hang with you young thoroughbreds and should probably consider this his last run.

Conversely..if I’m Coach Chris Finch I’m telling my team if they turn the ball over more than 14 times tonight there’s a fairly strong liklihood they’re going to be 0-1 heading into Game 2. Take care of the ball and make these guys run half court offense with Rudy Gobert taking the rim away from Shai’s toolbox in this series. Make the other Thunder players beat you shooting threes and see what happens. Throw some zone at them as well. Mix it up.

I’m thinking it will be a tough six or seven game series. Kind of like those old battles the Thunder had with the Memphis Grizzlies when they had Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol, and the then young MIKE CONLEY.

Defense and an iron will win championships. I said it in my Game 7 pre-game breakdown and nothing has changed, nor will it through the course of these NBA Playoffs. Defense wins NBA championships as it does in the NFL and NHL as well.

No space. No time. No shelter. No nothing.

Good luck to both teams tonight in Game 1. Give us a good show.

Mike J

First off, congratulations to the OKC Thunder for advancing to their first Western Conference Final since 2016. This win is not only the biggest win for the franchise since that fateful June of ’16…I would say it is the biggest win in the Thunder era in Oklahoma City to ‘date’.

If the Thunder had lost this game…I shudder to think how the Thunder fanbase and the Jim Traber callers would have reacted. It would have been semi-ugly that’s for certain. But instead–the Thunder now stand as the only No. 1 or No. 2 seed left standing in either of the conference finals.

What we as NBA fans have witnessed in these playoffs is virtually the changing of the guard in the NBA hierarchy. Left standing instead of LeBron, Steph, Kevin, Giannis, Jimmy Butler, Jayson, Nikola and even Luka are four younger teams—three of which play in small to medium sized markets.

The New York Knicks are the only team left in this year’s NBA Final Four which plays in a big city market. And consider what Michael Breen said during yesterday’s game when it became obvious the Nuggets had run out of gas and were done for this season: “This for the first time in NBA history marks the first time we will have a different champion in a consecutive seven year stretch.”

Anotherwords, what Mike Breen in my mind was saying is…”How hard it is in this collective bargaininng era to stay atop the league without going too deeply into the salary cap tax.” But this isn’t unique just to the NBA, ask the GMs in the NFL and the NHL as well. It’s tough to not only repeat, it’s tough to maintain the talent integrity of your first championship team.

Enter these Denver Nuggets who for the second straight year failed to get beyond the conference semi-finals do the fact they no longer have Bruce Brown, Ketavious-Caldwell Pope or Jeff Green.

The same narrative has befallen the Colorado Avalanche since their Stanley Cup season… as their fourth best player is now a member of the the Dallas Stars post-trade deadline and probably one of the leaders for this season’s Conn Smythe Trophy if the Stars advance beyond Edmonton to the Stanley Cup Finals.

What I’m saying is it’s tough to repeat…even for Patrick Mahomes when he doesn’t have affordable personnel around him.

But for these Thunder I would advise…THE FUTURE IS NOW. YOUR CHAMPIONSHIP WINDOW IS FULLY OPEN AS IT MIGHT NEVER BE AGAIN. Sam Presti will have to max JDub and Chet…and from that point forward the roster will change accordingly. The luxury of going 12-deep will not be there. Tough decisions will have to be made to keep the top four core intact.

So again from this objective view..THIS CHAMPIONSHIP WINDOW MAY NEVER BE AS OPEN AS IT IS RIGHT NOW. Go grab it is what MJ is saying. This should be your championship season…take what should be yours and have no regrets. Follow that 68-win season with an NBA championship and have a parade.

Eight more wins to claim a championship is where these Thunder are…and the next eight wins will be even tougher than the eight we have just witnessed. But from where I sit…I would say Sam Presti pushed just the right off season buttons in making this team a serious NBA championship contender, and now the favorite with the four teams we have left standing.

My Three Stars from Game 7 were in this order: 1 Alex Caruso, 2 Shai, and 3 a tie for me between Christian Braun and Aaron Gordon (for playing as well as he did).

No star for JDUB. He basically made a bunch of layups created off of the many turnovers created by Caruso and others. What I’m doing right now is openly challenging JDub…”Dude–it’s great you finally showed up in this series as Shai’s Robin, but to win a championship…Batman will need Robin more than once every 3.5 games. Challenge yourself.”

Some additional advice to the turnover prone Minnesota Timberwolves as well…”I’m for the Thunder from this point forward, but I want to see a compelling Western Conference Final to cover on my blog. So I’m giving you this salient scouting advice…if you turn the ball over 20 times or so and give these guys 37 live ball turnover points this will not be a compelling series.”

Anthony Edwards…this is when you either do or don’t show the world what the face of Team USA is going to look like in the coming future.

I’m sad the Nugget season is over obviously, but equally excited to see if the Thunder can win an NBA championship in Oklahoma City and have a parade. The White House visit part with that ‘person’ still makes me want to potentially puke though.

‘Taking whatever is mine.’ Tom Petty

Know what I mean, Thunder? Make Little Nick Gallo faint from joy. Talk about a dude who’s paid some dues. Carry him off into the sunset.

Sadly, Russell Westbrook was a Game 7 worst with a -34 rating. Maybe later today or tomorrow before the OKC-Minnesota series begins…I’ll blog on what I would do this off season to make the Nuggets championship contender next season. I only have one trade exit move and it’s the same move I would have made last summer after the Game 7 defeat to Minnesota. This does not need to be draconian at all.

Good luck, Thunder

Mike J

First off, thank both teams for giving me such a great series to cover in what otherwise was a very weak NBA conference semi-final round. It’s been a joy for me to have this opportunity on okcthunderground.com. This is why you start your own NBA basketball blog.

I mean, when you really think about it …this is the first serious playoff round the Thunder have participated in as a relevant contender since that fateful conference final series versus Golden State in 2016. Almost a decade ago…think about that as you settle in this afternoon. Maybe last year versus Dallas approached that status for some, but not really when you objectively gauge how weak the Thunder were on physicality and rim protection on their interior defense.

Defense wins championships….don’t ever forget that axiom in team sports.

I’ll be clear…I like and respect both teams, but my basketball heart is with these Denver Nuggets. When I was at my lowest point physically and emotionally in the early stage of my Stage 4 cancer journey…it was this group of guys who made me smile and gave my heart some hope during their championship journey. I’ll never forget the championship parade in Denver on Father’s Day week-end. It still brings a tear to my eye.

These Nuggets have further galvanized that warm feeling of basketball love with their refusal to give up even through the injuries to Jamal, Michael, and now Aaron. Add to the fact their coach and general manager were both fired with three games left in the regular season.

These guys have never surrendered… never quit. And never just said, “Piss on it…let’s go hit the golf course or the lake or whatever.” Instead, they’ve hung in there with interim Coach David Adelman and have given him everything and more they have left in their collective tanks.

Common NBA basketball sense would tell you the Thunder should win the game this afternoon.

But there are those rare occasions when a dogged heart shared by a group of guys can overcome conventional expectations. That in essence..is what makes team sports such a great thing and an inspiration to all us to work harder and stick with it in our own daily lives.

That being said, don’t give up.

I have no idea if this is one of those days. I hope it is.

That’s why we play the game.

Enjoy the game.

MJ

Ya…Oklahoma…MJ here on the road and heading south. Have already passed Newcastle, Blanchard, and Lindsey with Jamal and the Boys still fresh on MJ’s mind from last night.

Oh, wait…there was some Trump Regular Unleaded at $1.35 a gallon just west of Lindsey. Sign says if you buy $20 dollars or more you get free Trump bitcoin. MJ will pass on that one though.

Five miles west of Lindsey now and just passed mobile home park with people in front who looked like they were in Delieverance. Truck better not break down for sure if MJ wants to continue surviving cancer. Oh, wait.

A huge poster of Trump and Markwayne Mullin. Ya…clearly there are some white boy dumbasses west of Lindsey for certain. Seriously…truck better not break down or MJ could be in a bind wearing this Jamal jersey.

Anyway…gotta get my eyes back on the road as I near my Alex turnoff roads in search of lunker bass and spry bluegill with a fly rod today.

MJ wearing Jamal’s powder blue jersey today. Proud of Jamal for playing through the sickness last night showing real Vince Lombardi toughness. My advice to Coach Mark is to tell his guys to stop flopping so much and maybe they’ll have more energy in the second half. Lu Dort should be ashamed of himself.

Take care, Oklahoma.

Love, Mj

As a Denver Nugget fan all I can say at this point is…thank the basketball gods this was the night he broke out and showed an indication he can become the Nuggets sixth man next season and fill the hole which has been there ever since the departure of Kentavius-Caldwell Pope to the Orlando Magic.

This was the kind of break-out game Denver had to have from either Julian, Peyton Watson, or Russell Westbrook. Julian’s 15 second half points were clutch with the Nugget season on the line. But it was more than the 15 points…Julian’s defense was stellar and it has been on the defensive side of the ball where it’s taken him time to gain the trust of either Michael Malone or David Adelman.

Even if Denver loses Game 7 in Oklahoma City on Sunday…I would think this game helped clear the path forward with the team’s construction heading into camp in August.

I’m not going to dwell much on Russell Westbrook’s struggles in this game for this reason…Coach Adelman yanked Russell early in his first rotation because it was apparent he wasn’t the guy on this night to give Denver what they had to have from the bench. Kudos to Coach Adelman for sitting Russell Westbrook.

My thought is the leash will be short on Sunday for ither Russell or Julian depending on the play of each.

I would think on Sunday in Game 7 if everyone else is ready to go and Aaron Gordon’s hamstring isn’t an issue Russell would be the 8th man. We’ll see how it goes. How Julian handles a hostile crowd who don’t want to see a Thunder collapse in the city’s biggest NBA Playoff game since the Game 6 meltdown loss to the Warriors in 2016.

I thought both Jokic and Jamal were excellent in this game. Michael Porter was a little better as well hitting a couple of threes. Peyton Watson’s overall energy was good. Christian Braun was a stud with a clutch 23 point performance.

Christian Braun is a winner..period. He won the MVP for the Kansas Jayhawks when they won their last NCAA championship, and then the next season he filled a valuable role on Michael Malone’s NBA championship team. C-Braun is one of those rare players who brings talent, toughness, smarts, and an absolute hatred of losing. MJ loves C-Braun’s game.

So for me the two things I’m looking at on Sunday are;

1 How much C-Braun and Aaron Gordon bring to the arena for this Game 7…, how will they fill the stat sheet,

and, 2 Is Shai’s Batman going to show up with the 3rd AT&T amigo or play invisible as they both did tonight in inside of Ball Arena.

I did not have this series going to a Game 7… so for me this is a bonus game of sorts. Cool. The PGA doesn’t do it for me in this format this soon after the Masters. A Game 7 will be better. Should the PGA even be a major anymore given the LIV landscape? Wish Dan Jenkins was still around to talk that one through.

Big Perk put the Thunder at around a 60% probability of winning. I want to wait and see how Aaron’s hamstring is before I blog on Game Day. If Aaron is good to go I’d have it around 55% Thunder-45% Nuggets. If Aaron doesn’t play I’d have the Thunder at 85% to win and carry the spread. We’ll see.

I’m still stunned at all these Oklahoma media types who thought this would be an easy series for the Thunder. This is a prime example of why I kept my blog. That being…most of these cats in OKC don’t even know the NBA existed before Hurricane Katrina. Minneota is going to be tough as well.

I’m gone fishin’ tomorrow southwest of Alex, Oklahoma with my Joe Carter Sr. fishing pole.

Y’all in Oklahoma…please don’t start the Civil War while I’m down there….your 401s are only down 22% for the year so far. China, China, China.

A song after a Game 6 win is always nice since I can’t drink or have victory cigars anymore according to Dr. Showalter.

Mike J

So here we are…Game 6 tonight in my newly adopted hometown of Gatewood, just a bit north of Denver proper, University of Denver, Wash Park, Bonnie Brae Park, the iconic B-Brae Ice Cream Parlor, plus the entirety of the Bonnie Brae area where my grandchildren learned to run, ride a bike, skateboard, kick a soccer ball, throw a football, hit a slapshot, and play some Mrs. Pac-Man here and there.

But most of all…the place where I was allowed to be the honored guest reader at Robert’s pre-K class in what I hope will be a prelude to some things I do with the Russell Westbrook Reading Bus in Oklahoma at some juncture moving forward.

Putting aside…Dionne Warwick, I actually did pray for Russell last night and again this morning. What I prayed for was not victory per se for the Nuggets, but for Russell to play well and to help his own legacy take a bump forward for a more positive ending.

Nikola went out on a limb for Russell and gave him this opportunity. From my perspective…I just want Russell to play well and take this to a Game 7. I want Russell to have this moment where he elevates the semmingly always snarky narratives which surround him… some of which are deserved.

That’s it. I just want the Nuggets to play at their highest level possible considering the limitations of their roster and either extend or end this series tonight in Denver.

OKC winning in no way upsets me because I truly respect the manner in which these Thunder players go about their business.

I don’t think this Game 6 is about X’s and O’s at this point…I think it’s about how much gas is left in those four guys’ hearts…Nikola, Jamal, Aaron, and C-Braun.

It is what it is. 4 on 10 basketball needs some help in Denver tonight.

Maybe I should loan Russell my No. 1 pre-game song for tonight as well. Couldn’t hurt…that’s for certain.

Be kind to one another. No shooting each tonight in Bricktown or at the airport if the Thunder advance.

MJ