Author: Mike

I think this ‘event’ actually happens next Saturday. Maybe Kevin Spacey will show up and we’ll realize this was the just an extreme version of some House of Cards binge watching or just a really bad hangover. Doubtful. It is what it is and if nothing else we will discover if the crafters of the U.S. Constitution ever envisioned a canidate becoming a sitting U.S. president who’s one part Bernie Madoff, one part Larry Flynt, and one part Charlie Sheen.

Frank and Claire move over, you’ve become too boring to be watched or followed by serious followers of executive branch obsessive dysfunction. True, some will say if Hillary had prevailed there would have been plenty of storyline drama with Bill Clinton once again prowling the White House corridors in search of new intern talent, but even with Bill Clinton back and getting lap dances in rooms where Lincoln, Madison, and Washington once roamed, there would have at least been the perfunctory effort to somewhat shield all of us from all of it being shared on Twitter with a ‘She really sucks in bed’ tweet from the leader of the free world.

So here we are on the cusp of what this country has never experienced before, namely a Twitter bully with the keys to the nuclear codes with a revived Cold War between the United States and Russia lurking on the horizon. Imagine Donald Trump making the ultimate decisions during a Bay of Pigs like crisis and it doesn’t take all that much imagination to hear ‘Blow Them Up’ chants emanating from Donald Trump’s more ardent Twitter followers.

Maybe the ultimate nuclear decision to launch or not to launch will be decided by a Twitter poll of sorts from unemployed factory workers in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin acting out their ultimate frustrations. Don’t scoff, because in fact the Clintons garnered three million more votes than Caligula Lite, but in reality, those handful of voters in those three states decided the course of the Presidency, the Supreme Court, and in essence, the country as a whole unless there’s some shockingly surprising political behavior by some Republican senators when push comes to shove.

I find it odd there’s still all this clamor this week in regards to a new purported Trump revelation in regards to his character or more to the point his complete lack of character. I mean, at this point, even if there were a video showing Trump, Billy Bush, and Putin frolicking together in a Moscow brothel, what possible difference does it make at this point? Been there, seen that, and like Trump said himself, his Twitter groupie followers wouldn’t hold it against him if he shot Rosie O’Donnell in broad light in downtown Manhattan. More to the point, they’d be chanting, “Killed Her Dead.”

We are what we are now as an admitted nation of extreme dysfunction. What more need be written than the fact Billy Bush’s sex mentor garnered over 80% of the fundamentalist vote in the election…. and here’s the thing, not one conservative has mentioned in analysis of the election results–if Trump had been running against say Ronald Reagan, Bush 41, or even Teddy Roosevelt back from the grave, Trump still would have won because he is what we’ve become as a country and a culture.

So I’d give the Trump Russian porn video a rest and just admit America has fallen further from a character standpoint than even Frank and Claire thought possible, let alone our forefathers.

When Russell Westbrook missed badly on his seventh and last three point shot of the night at about the three minute mark in a one possession game, it felt like ‘here we go again’. But not so as from that air ball moving forward, Westbrook and the Thunder were almost perfect in finishing off the Memphis Grizzlies with a display of cutting, spacing, passing, finishing, and winning in a big game which now puts the Thunder at 24-16 for the season.

For me the play of the game was the Adams block, then Westbrook pushing the ball and finding Oladipo on the right wing for what turned out to be the game changer at just the moment the Thunder needed it most.

Other than Westbrook going an abysmal 0-7 from threes tonight, he was otherwise excellent in recording another triple double and becoming the first player since Magic Johnson to record this many triple doubles in an entire season since the NBA merged with the ABA forty years ago. Think about that. Westbrooks’ triple read 24 points, 13 rebounds, and 14 assists.

My tell all tea leaf important stat of the night had Westbrook only taking 19 shots while the Thunder had 21 assists as a team. Add to that the Thunder had 27 fast break points while the bench kicked in 43 points. All good things.

The Stache Brothers were again excellent in combining for 31 points and 21 rebounds. Enes Kanter played his most minutes in a game this season and is clearly elevating his game in a continual sustained kind of way as this moves along.

Victor Oladipo hit four threes and made the game’s most important shot, but what was even more impressive than him making the shot was the fact Russell Westbrook trusted him enough to allow him to take the shot. I’m circling this play in red for a reference footnote later in the season possibly. Big play from a team, trust, confidence, building standpoint.

Andre Roberson was very good again and quite frankly easily outplayed Tony Allen in my estimation. Really not even close.

Cameron Payne still looks stiff and slow to me, but again it’s been a long time since’s he’s played meaningful games.

Jerami Grant was good and Alex Abrines continues to trend his game upward as each game passes. Lauvernge did some nice things as well. But doesn’t he almost always?

For me the storylines are simple…1 the Thunder made the smart plays down the stretch against a playoff caliber team and won, 2 Oladipo hit the game’s most important shot, and 3 Billy Donovan keeps pushing more minutes of Adams and Kanter together on the floor whenever he can.

The Thunder are now back in 6th in the West and quite frankly when they play like this instead of just watching Westbrook jack threes in the last four minutes they’re a fairly dangerous basketball team.

The Thunder are now 3-3 in the month of January and play at Minnesota on Friday night.

Up front I have to admit I only watched this game when there were commercial breaks in the Alabama-Clemson national championship game. Deshaun Watson and Clemson won at the end in an exciting fourth quarter so it was a great evening all around for me.

OKC won in Chicago on Monday night by a 109-94 count in a game in which they led pretty much from wire to wire in a relatively easy road win. Jimmy Butler tried to play, but wasn’t himself so that needs to be noted on here, but during this January Month of Hell for the Thunder…any win, especially a road win is a very good thing for this basketball team.

OKC improves to 23-16 and has now won two in a row as it fights for its seeding position in the West. For the month of January the Thunder are 2-3.

When I look at a Thunder box score the two things I glance at first are 1 how many shots Russell Westbrook took, 2 how many assists the team as a whole accumulated. Anotherwords, did the ball stick in Westbrook’s hands or did the ball move. On this night, the ball moved which is a very good thing for the Thunder. Westbrook didn’t triple double shy of one rebound, but he had a very nice overall game with 21 points, 9 rebounds, and 14 assists, but more to the point, the Thunder accrued 30 assists on the night as Westbrook kept his shot total at 19. I’ll go out on a limb and state if the Thunder corral 30 assists on any given night they should win the basketball game.

Adams, Oladipo, and Kanter all had double figure nights as they should because they’re the second, third, and fourth best basketball players on this team. Andre Roberson had a another nice game as well.

To me the challenge for this Thunder team and Russell Westbrook is simple, do they want to just pursue the triple-double thing or do they want to incrementally get better every game and strive to become the third best team in the West come late April.

It’s not that I think the two are incompatible, it’s just clear to me that for this team to move forward the greatest challenge is for Russell Westbrook and the team’s other three best players to take collective ownership of the team versus than it just being Westbrook as a sole proprietor.

No more college football. Nothing more from Meryl Streep unless she has something to say at the Oscars, just my focus on the Thunder moving forward until maybe the inauguration of our strip bar owner president elect.

Thunder will host the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night in what should be a great basketball game.

The Thunder play in Chicago tonight and I’m not sure if I’m going to recap the game or not in that Alabama plays Clemson tonight for the college football national championship. Yesterday was excellent for me with the Green Bay Packers whipping the NY football Giants by a 38-13 count while advancing to the NFC semi-finals against the team I hate the most…the Dallas Cowboys. Hope Jordy Nelson’s ribs are okay.

I didn’t see Meryl Streep’s speech in regards to Donald Trump, but I heard about it and watched it on youtube this morning. Of course, everything she said was accurate, but I’m not really sure if what she said will resonant long term with America as we see it today. In defense of Meryl Streep, and this comes from my heart as a parent and the father of a son, if any parent raised their son to treat other people like Donald Trump treats people how in the world could you as a father feel like you’d taught your son anything about the journey of life and the Golden Rule. I loved what she said, it was spot on, but as she finished her talk I could visualize the Trumpsters chanting ‘Lock Her Up’ or ‘Build the Wall’ in the background… and I thought to myself did she really accomplish anything with those six minutes. And I think the answer sadly would be….no.

It doesn’t matter the Denver Nuggets aren’t very good and have now given up 120 points or more for the fourth straight game. What matters for the OKC Thunder is that in their first of three homes games in the entire month of January they beat the Nuggets by a 121-106 count inside of Chesapeake Energy Arena.

This wasn’t like the three straight road losses in that the Thunder had a working margin heading into the final few minutes and again the Nuggets are a very bad defensive team which is going absolutely nowhere. Just win the game and get some confidence heading into Chicago on Monday night. Mission accomplished on both counts for the Thunder.

Russell Westbrook notched his 17th triple double of the season and it was easy, but then again it was the Nuggets sitting on the other bench. Westbrook’s line reads 32 points, 17 rebounds, and 11 assists. Westbrook defied his 30% average shooting threes and gave his impression of Steph Curry for the second straight game going 7-12 shooting threes and being a Durant-like efficient 10-20 from the field overall. Unlike recent games of late when Westbrook has put up thirty shots or so, Westbrook didn’t monopolize the shots nearly as much and there was some offensive flow for OKC for most of the game.

There was good balance from OKC’s other starters. Adams went for 16 and 6, but should have still had more touches. Oladipo had a high energy game with 15,3, and 3. I thought Andre Roberson had a very nice game for the second game in a row with 13 points, 8 rebounds, and was 5-8 from the line. Sabonis added nine points and like Roberson was a contributor for the second straight game.

Enes Kanter did his thing scoring 14 points coming off the bench. Jerami Grant had four blocks. Lauvergne only five minutes and thus wasn’t much of a factor. Alex Abrines chipped in 7 points and continued to show some grit in his overall game.

Tonight marked Cameron’s Payne’s return from his Jones’ fracture injury in his first game of the season. Payne went 3-4 scoring 8 points in thirteen minutes of play. I thought he looked slow and pretty much like a guy who hasn’t played much in while, but Payne down the road can help this team offensively once he gets back into game shape. How much he can help this team remains to be see.

OKC improves its overall record to 22-16 and is in the 7th seed position in the West. The Thunder head to Chicago for a Monday night game against a 19-18 Bulls team led by Jimmy Butler. Westbrook vs Butler in itself is an intriguing matchup, but this is one of these January from Hell road games where Westbrook needs to finish and OKC needs to win.

Well, if you didn’t stay up to watch the Warriors blow a 24 point lead against the Memphis Grizzlies you missed quite a game. It marks the second time this season the Warriors have lost to the Grizzlies. Draymond Green and Kevin had a little spat following the end of regulation when Kevin took a shot Draymond wasn’t happy with given that Steph Curry was in the midst of a forty point night. And, yes, I’m smiling as I type all of this. Here’s the their post game comments. Draymond very passionate and animated as the alpha in the relationship, Kevin submissive and wearing his mauve scarf. My aunt has a mauve scarf like Kevin’s, just saying. Again, as a Thunder fan, been there, done that with the whole alpha, beta thing with the submissive Kevin Durant. While this was going on LeBron added Kyle Korver to his roster in Cleveland yesterday. Here’s Draymond’s post game comments.

I don’t want to get too emeshed too early with our newly elected reaklity television star president, but when it’s Fox itself even calling him out I feel like that’s completely fair game. I’m not sure it Donald Trump and his supporters remember things like the Cold War, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and quite frankly the nexus of Ronald Reagan’s presidency– so from time to time I might put something up like this just for me if no other reason.

No big surprise to me that Joe Mixon announced he’s leaving OU and making himself available in the upcoming NFL draft. He’s clearly a first round type of talent player, but with considerable character baggage attached. Mixon would be a great fit for any number of teams with his size, his ability as a receiver, his ability to return kicks, and the fact he’s a pretty good pass blocker as well.

What Mixon did was terribly wrong, and in retrospect it’s debatable if Bob Stoops and David Boren helped him long term or hurt him long term by the manner in which they handled all of this. I know this though, we are a culture of second chances and redemption whenever possible. Mixon may not get drafted because of this incident, but at some point a GM in the NFL will give him a shot to be the next Tyreek Hill. If a conservative market like Kansas City could give Tyreek Hill a second chance at football, I’m almost certain an NFL team will give Joe Mixon a chance for the very same reason Bob Stoops and David Boren gave Joe Mixon a second chance–namely to win football games and make money.

Below is Tyreek Hill’s signature moment at Oklahoma State. The next week he was arrested for assaulting his pregnant girlfriend. Mike Gundy immediately kicked Tyreek Hill off his football team. Tyreek Hill now stars for the Kansas City Chiefs who are the No. 2 seed in the AFC heading into the playoffs this week-end.

When people say it’s not about the money, it’s almost always about the money.

For the third straight game, OKC did enough things right to give itself a chance to win on the road in the final four minutes. But as has been the norm in 2017 so far, Russell Westbrook couldn’t close the game when it mattered as the Thunder lost to the Rockets by a 118-116 count on Thursday night.

It was a wonderful game to watch from an entertainment standpoint. OKC led by as many as fourteen points in the first period and trailed by as many as eighteen points late in the third period. It was a game of runs and runs being answered. It was a game featuring the two leading MVP frontrunners. But here’s the thing, even though Russell Westbrook scored 49 points it didn’t matter because it will be his last shot which defined this game and the Thunder to this point in the season.

With the score tied and the clock around 24 seconds and a three second gap left between the game and shot clock—OKC had the ball and called timeout. What they talked about I have no idea. Because no semblance of a basketball play transpired. Russell Westbrook dribbled the clock down then jacked a contested three. No penetration. No backing his man down. Just that—jacking a three.

3.8 seconds left and you know what Mike D’Antoni and James Harden decided to do, they decide to run a basketball play. Imagine that. Who would have thought? Nene ends up with the ball down low, gets fouled, makes two free throws and the game is basically over with .7 seconds left. Ball game. Houston wins its sixth straight while Oklahoma City loses its third straight.

Russell Westbrook did have a marvelous scoring night, but if Aaron Rogers passes for four hundred yards, but throws an interception with twenty seconds left that’s kind of the thought you carry around with you in retrospect.

I challenged Andre Roberson to so something in my last recap and he answered tonight with a 14 point, 9 rebound, 2 steal game. But even more, he held James Harden to another subpar shooting night and 26 points. Roberson pulled his link on the proverbial chain.

Enes Kanter was good in this game and was instrumental as the Thunder made their comeback in the fourth period. Kanter double doubled with 15 and 13, but quit getting touches as the game wore down. Same with Victor Oladipo who hit four threes on the night, but still didn’t have the trust of Russell Westbrook when it mattered late in the game. Note to Russell, please pass the f–king ball.

Stat of the night–Houston 27 assists, OKC 15 assists. This is really a very simple game. You move the ball, create space, then finish. If you don’t move the ball, you don’t contend for championships. This isn’t differential equations.

Russell Westbrook is a beautiful basketball player with the heart of a warrior,no pun intended, but until he learns how to trust his teammates this team is in for more of these finishes when they’re playing against playoff caliber teams.

If you doubt my word, ask Mo Cheeks—he knows.

OKC drops to 21-16 and down to seventh place in the West.

At home on Saturday night against the Denver Nuggets.

As bad as Russell shot the ball the last night I don’t think there’s anyway this was intentional. He would have missed him by several feet if he was actually trying to plunk him. I would think it’ll be rescinded like two other technicals were earlier this week. I know there’s no excuse for intentionally hitting a zebra in the head with the ball and youngsters at home should never plunk a zebra even if he’s having an absolutely wretched game, but this official was genuinely awful.