Month: January 2017

No Steven Adams in Oakland versus the league best Warriors tonight. This is not good in any way for the Thunder. Adams is the only Oklahoma City big who can play defense with any consistency against the small ball lineups the Warriors throw at opposing teams. Although Enes Kanter can do some things offensively, I cringe thinking about how OKC will be able to defend tonight in Oakland without Adams. Could even be a night we see a little of Nick Collison if for no other reason than his smarts.

Oklahoma City’s tough January schedule was already going to be a struggle with a healthy Adams, now the mountain got even steeper. I haven’t looked to see how Vegas has this game listed tonight, but if you offered to me the Thunder and 20 points I’d politely say ‘pass.’ Not to be negative, but without Adams, I’m not sure what Billy Donovan does tonight. He could go with Jerami Grant and go small from the get go. He can try Kanter and see how that goes. Maybe he can even go with Lauvergne or give Nick Collison a run. I don’t know. But I know this, minus Westbrook, Adams is the most valuable player on the team for what he does on both ends of the floor.

Meanwhile, Golden State is on a nice little run after bouncing back from the Christmas Day collapse against Cleveland and the embarrassing home loss to Memphis. The Warriors stand with a league best 35-6 record and are on pace for another 70 win season as we all thought they would be given the talent of their ball team.

Conversely, OKC is just kind of surviving while trying to get through this murderous January schedule the NBA gave them as a New Year’s present of sorts. Add this Adams injury to the mix and the notion of the Thunder getting out of the month with a 6-9 mark wouldn’t seem terrible given that the Thunder will most likely be 4-6 in January after tonight with Cleveland, San Antonio, and Utah all on the road still remaining this month.

I feel sorry for Russell Westbrook. He’s not getting any consistent support. This is the second injury for Adams this season as the team was just getting back in sync ‘somewhat’ with the return of both Oladipo and Payne. Without Adams, the entire Golden State team will be sagging in the paint and just waiting for Westbrook.

But you can’t just not go out there and not compete. So the mantra tonight for OKC should be compete, compete, and compete—and do the best they can given the situation. I’m not a big ‘moral victory’ guy, but tonight if OKC can just play smart, compete for forty-eight minutes and get themselves back together with the next four days off after tonight before playing again in Utah that might be the best way for the Thunder to approach tonight’s game.

But the key word tonight is compete.

Historically, I would say this is pretty much what Donald Trump did and it actually began with his idiotic five year Birther Movement campaign which began when Barack Obama was elected president in 2008. This gave Trump an immediate voice with not only the Tea Party, but in essence, it afforded Trump the opportunity to grab the Solid South away from GOP establishment canidates such as Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich in the GOP primaries as he refined this entire election caper which culminated with him now listed as the 45th POTUS come Friday.

The difference as I see it though, is that Trump never intended to run as an Independent like Wallace, but rather he intended to kidnap and then use the GOP party as his own personal political apparatus to win the presidency over both major parties. Donald Trump isn’t even a conservative. For crying out loud, he was a Democrat up until Obama torched him at the D.C. Correspondent’s Dinner. Staid, patrician Republicans who grovel for love from the Heritage Foundation don’t admit ‘to swallowing handfuls of Tic Tacs and then brag about grabbing a handful of pussy’ in the immediate aftermath. Donald Trump doesn’t belong to any party. He just primarily belongs to himself and unless you’re an extreme partisan you would have realized this way back when he was disparaging Marco’s Rubio’s penis, Ted Cruz’s veracity, and Carly Fiorina’s face. Just saying.

So I have to admit, I laugh my ass off when I hear fundamentalist Republicans admit they voted for Donald Trump. Really? I wouldn’t brag about it publicly. Keep it to yourself. Please. I mean think of this, 82% of religious fundamentalists voted for the ‘Tic Tac Grab a Handful of Pussy’ canidate. Think about that and keep a straight face.

So–is Donald Trump a richer, more financed version of George Wallace from back in 1968… I’d have to say yes he is but with a Twitter handle George Wallace never even knew about way back when.

I saw this video and actually like this kid’s spunk. I’m surprised he’s not writing at Daily Thunder. So I’m putting it on my blog as America lurches toward the presidency of Donald Trump.

Granted, Steven Adams missed this game do to being in the NBA’s concussion protocol program after sustaining a hit to his head against the Kings on Sunday night. But keep in mind, Blake Griffin is still in street clothes rehabbing his knee from a recent surgery. Also to be mentioned is Chris Paul only played 13 minutes in this game after sustaining a thumb injury in the second quarter.

This was OKC playing on the second night of a road back to back, but to be brutally honest it never appeared the Thunder ever had any intention of putting much energy into this game even in the first half. I guess, the Thunder just wore themselves out nurturing that 17 point lead against the hapless Kings the night before.

I’m not sure if this ranks as the worst Thunder game of this season, but it must be mentioned in the same breath with the road loss to the Kings on the night before Thanksgiving and the loss at Memphis on Dec. 29th. It was a performance of boo-able proportions, perhaps even gong-able.

Without Adams, the Thunder gave up 62 points in the paint and allowed the Clippers to shoot 55% from the field and 43% from three point territory. Without Adams, the Thunder defense was literally a sieve of nothingness. And again this happened with Blake Griffin and Chris Paul playing a combined 13 minutes.

DeAndre Jordan did whatever he wanted whenever he wanted to in this game scoring 19 points, grabbing 17 rebounds, and blocking 4 shots. His performance along side of Steven Adams’ absence were the primary storylines.

Russell Westbrook not only didn’t triple double, he basically wasn’t even the best point guard on the floor even after Chris Paul’s early departure, that would have been Raymond Felton on this night. So what I’m writing here is that even without Griffin and Paul playing, the Thunder with Westbrook, Kanter, Oladipo, Roberson, and Payne were never even remotely competitive in this game.

OKC drops to 25-18 on the season and is 4-5 in this very challenging month of January for a Thunder team which in all candor hasn’t shown much overall team improvement since opening the season at 4-0 coming out of the gates. There’s been no jumpstart to date from having Cam Payne back as far as I can discern either. Truth be known, parts of Semaj Christon’s game are about on a par from what we’ve seen from Payne to date. But like I wrote a week ago, Cameron Payne hasn’t played all that much basketball at this level in quite some time.

OKC plays at the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday night in what is Round II of the Durant-Westbrook thing. If Steven Adams isn’t able to go Round II could look even worse than what we witnessed last night in Los Angeles. In Round I, OKC actually came out fast with Adams exposing Za Za Pachulia, but then Adams got two fouls and had to sit. The game then changed immediately and it was a rout moving forward with a lot of kissing and groping from Steph, Klay, Durant, and Draymond. You’d have thought those four had been on a bus with Trump and Billy Bush before the game. I know it made me feel akward.

I almost forgot the score…LA 120–OKC 98. Gotta put the score on the recap even when the team plays like they weren’t there.

OKC at Golden State on Wednesday night. Pray for Steven Adams to get well fast.

I won’t lie, the Thunder’s 122-118 win over the still dysfunctional Sacramento Kings was a very anti-climatic event for me. After living through Mason Crosby kicking two plus fifty yard field goals in the last two minutes to propel the Packers to the NFC Championship Game in Atlanta next Sunday, I’ll admit it was hard to summon passion in watching the Thunder almost blow a 17 point lead against the still hapless Kings.

I was very gentle with my wife after the game. Win with grace, lose with grace is the way it should always be. Dallas had a heckuva season and should be proud they almost came all the way back from being down 21-3. But like I wrote yesterday before the game–Green Bay has Aaron Rodgers. He never ceases to amaze me. He’s simply an amazing quarterback.

The Thunder game actually depressed me even though Oklahoma City won the game to improve to 25-17. Russell Westbrook had another triple double with 36 points, 11 rebounds, and 10 assists so there was that. Enes Kanter had a huge game with 29 points, 12 rebounds, and a +19 rating. But mainly the thing which clings to me about this game was that OKC almost blew a seventeen point lead while turning the ball over 19 times.

But still OKC improves to 4-4 in January and 25-17 overall. Given what I predicted from OKC before the season with OKC winning somewhere between 46-48 games they’re on that pace and I shouldn’t be greedy other than just wanting to see them play smarter basketball.

Steven Adams suffered what appeared to be a concussion last night and only played twenty minutes so we’ll have to see if he’s available tonight in Los Angeles against the Clippers.

Like I wrote, with the Packers very much in the Super Bowl hunt– I’m having trouble focusing on the Thunder right now. Here’s Aaron Rodger’s girlfriend, Olivia Munn, who btw very much has an Oklahoma connection in that she attended Putnam City North high school and the University of Oklahoma. This is cute, Olivia on Stephen Colbert talking about the engagement, the dog, and such.

We’ve had six NFL playoff games so far this January and not one has been what could be described as a good football game. I don’t believe any of the six have even been a one possession game. Today could be potentially the best day of NFL football in quite some time if both games play out to their potential with Green Bay at Dallas in the first game and the Pittsburgh Steelers at the Kansas City Chiefs in the second game.

And for me it’s NFL nirvana as the Green Bay Packers are my favorite NFL team period, while the Steelers are my favorite AFC team easily. Probably the two classiest, successful NFL franchises with the Dallas Cowboys, the New England Patriots, and 49’ers (pre self implosion) right there in the mix as well. But I would give the Packers, the Steelers, and the Cowboys the edge because they’ve all three won multiple championships with different quarterbacks and different coaches, while in New England it’s basically just been Tom Brady and Bill Bilichick. As far as the 49’ers, they’re so bad currently I’m not even sure Joe Montana and Steve Young actually existed or if Bill Walsh was just a figment of the Bay area’s collective imagination.

Conversely, the Packers have won championships with three different three head coach-quarterback duos in the Super Bowl era…Vince Lombardi-Bart Starr, Mike Holmgren-Bret Favre, and Mike McCarthy-Aaron Rodgers. The Cowboys have done it with four different coach-quarterback combos…Tom Landry-Craig Morton, Tom Landry-Roger Staubach, Jimmy Johnson-Troy Aikman, and Barry Switzer-Troy Aikman, Suffice it to say if the Jason Garrett-Dak Prescott combo garners the Cowboys another Super Bowl Trophy it will be a testament to how great the Cowboys’ offensive line truly is in this era of collective bargaining.

Packers vs. the Cowboys will pit the most talented quarterback in the league in Aaron Rodgers vs. that Cowboys’ offensive line and the two rookie sensations in Prescott and Elliott. In the history of the NFL, rookie starting quarterbacks have gotten their teams into the playoffs nine times, but they have a collective record of 8-15. Of the nine quarterbacks, only four have gotten their teams to the conference championship game. No rookie starting NFL quarterback has ever won a Super Bowl. Okay, so you must be wondering, who were the four? The answer to this great NFL trivia question is Shaun King of the Tampa Bay Bucs, Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers, Joe Flacco of the Baltimore Ravens, and Mark Sanchez of the New York Jets.

But here’s the thing which gives Dallas Cowboy fans hope, none of those four quarterbacks had this offensive line and a running back like Zeke Elliott alongside him. So even though Aaron Rodgers is the most talented QB in the league, I don’t feel it’s improbable the Cowboys could get to the Super Bowl with Prescott, that offensive line, Elliott, Dez Bryant, and home field potentially in the NFC Championship Game.

The Packers are my favorite team, the Cowboys are my wife’s favorite team, though I’m not sure we’ll be able to watch this game in the same room.

Two games like the ones on tap in Dallas and Kansas City later today are what you hunger for as an NFL fan in January. I’m set with the pizza and the wine. Not sure what arrangements my wife has made for food and drink. If she’s nice she can have some of my mine. Can’t wait.

Lots of things to consider historically as we head towards the inauguration of reality television star Donald Trump next week-end. Who can we really compare him to historically? Hitler? The despicable Roman emperor Caligula? Perhaps, a meshed combination of the insecure Richard Nixon, racist George Wallace, with a touch of porn star publisher Larry Flynt sprinkled atop the bad hair? My mind remains open as I explore all the historical possibilities.

During Trump inauguration week I’m going to formulate my official historical comparison of Trump. Let’s start with Hitler.

This loss doesn’t really shock me because at some point Karl Anthony-Townes, Andrew Wiggins, and Coach Tom Thibodeau are going to get it figured out and become a pretty decent basketball team. Who knows, maybe it might even start to happen with more frequency the second half of this basketball season.

The T Wolves beat the Thunder on Friday night at home for their third straight win, and for those who don’t follow the NBA as a whole the Wolves have now beaten James Harden and Russell Westbrook in successive games. I picked the Wolves to be an 11th or 12th place team or so in West ‘this year’, but once Thibodeau figures out what he wants to do with his point guard position, I think it’s pretty clear Karl-Anthony Townes and Andrew Wiggins are two guys you can build a team around.

I guess at some point in this recap I have to write about how bad the Thunder were on Friday night in Minnesota. Fairly bad, but more to the point, Russell Westbrook and Steven Adams were awful. When Westbrook and Adams are both bad on the same night I’m not really sure there’s a current team in the NBA this Thunder can beat, albeit on a Karl Anthony-Townes night where he feasted on the Thunder for 29 points and 17 rebounds. Wiggins was just so-so, but with Zach Lavine out with an injury, even Ricky Rubio lit up the Thunder on this night.

This Thunder team can’t win games unless Westbrook and Adams play well, end of story. Russell Westbrook did garner his 19th triple double of the season with a 21 point, 11 rebound, 12 assist night, but he also had ten turnovers and was a putrid 1-10 shooting threes. Russell Westbrook shot 7-23 from the field, while the Thunder had 19 assists coupled with 18 turnovers. More to the point, Steven Adams only had FIVE SHOT attempts the entire game. None of that equals a win in the NBA.

Even more to the point, Alex Abrines and Jerami Grant between them didn’t score a point much less make a three. On the night, the Thunder were an abysmal, brutally bad 3-20 shooting threes. On a whole, the Thunder shot 38.8% from the field. Again the Thunder were collectively horrible on the offensive end, but I put most of this on Russell Westbrook because we’ve talked about this before, namely the ball has to move for this team to have a chance, it can’t just be Westbrook chucking threes when he’s pretty much a career 30% shooter from beyond the arc. This isn’t complex. Minnesota only scored 96 points in this game. It’s not like 97 points by the Thunder is an unreasonable goal against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

But like I wrote at the top, it’s not as if this loss really shocks me because overall the margin is narrow for this Thunder team on any night and Karl Anthony-Townes is an exceptionally talented player.

The Thunder drop to 3-4 in the month of January and now have five more in a row on the road before they see friendly fans again in Chesapeake Energy Arena on January 26th versus the Dallas Mavericks.

Next up the Thunder in Sacramento on Sunday night after the Packers-Cowboys divisional playoff game at Jerry’s World. Go Aaron Rodgers! Go Russell Westbrook!

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.