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It was compelling, must see NBA basketball for a half as the San Antonio Spurs attempted to take a 4-0 regular season head to head lead with the defending champion OKC Thunder.

The first half went back and forth with excellent pace, multiple lead changes, and the Spurs not seeming to give too much credence to the fact a month ago people were referring to this Thunder team as perhaps the greatest in NBA history.

But in the second half at PayCom… the Thunder gradually found their mojo again and methodically wore down San Antonio for a much needed 119-98 win over the now seemingly mortal Spurs who as a group have yet to win a playoff series or even participate in one as a group under head coach Mitch Johnson.

Let’s keep a few things in mind as we think about this game. Lu Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein didn’t play. Coach Mark consequently went with a ten man rotation which came through for him in a beautiful manner as the game moved along.

This was a game for a grinder like Mike J. If you watched the game and have studied the box sheet it emanates blue collar get it done work by three or four guys who didn’t start this game for the Thunder. What I also liked was this victory had nothing to do with OKC turning over the Spurs with the Forty Minutes of Hell routine.

OKC only turned the Spurs over 11 times. Both teams had eleven turnovers. Nolan Richardson was nowhere to be seen at Paycom on Tuesday night.

Forty Minutes of Hell was instead replaced by the Thunder getting in front of their opponent defensively and taking the body and commanding space on the floor. This was more like Coach Eddie Sutton basketball with more physicality in the defensive zone.

As the Thunder continue to get older and evolve and aren’t able to play the frenetic Forty Minutes of Hell style this is what I would hope Coach Mark and Sam Presti see as a significant part of their defensive template moving forward.

Yeah, for certain, Shai was my No. 1 Star of the Game with a stellar 34 point, 5 rebound, 5 assist, 4 block, +29 night. I mean..Shai led and the team followed, but what I saw from that second unit was in my mind special. So special in fact…JayWill-Ark, Alex Caruso, and Ajay Mitchell were my No. 2, my No. 3, and my No. 4 stars of the game.

This MJ is a grinder. I created the Touughness, Smarts, Nasty, BasketballSoul metric (TSNBS). Yes, every team needs those three stars at the top of the payroll, but to win championships you need guys like my other Stars of the Game from last night stepping up when the lights get the brightest and the games really mean something.

This in no way is me suggesting Isaiah Hartenstein or Lu Dort are now expendable for the rest of this season. It’s just me making sure on my blog we never forget the importance of role players in the quest or the journey.

Caruso was Caruso and he doesn’t need me to hype him on my blog at this point. My grandon lives just south of Denver and proudly wears a Caruso jersey. I do feel though I should hype what I saw last night from JWill-Ark and Ajay Mitchell. I thought both of them were superb in what they gave Coach Mark. Simply superb. Hopefully, this game doesn’t get forgotten once we reach the NBA Playoffs when it truly matters.

JWill-Ark…11 points, 10 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocks, +30 (team best), and 22:56 of game minutes. If JWill-Ark were next to me right now…I would push Little Nick Gallo away and give JWill a hug. This is the dude I saw when he played at Arkansas.

Ajay Mitchell…I got on Coach Mark’s last year on my blog in the Denver series when he let Ajay see the floor in Game 1 and it was a part of the Thunder losing that game. That will not will a consideration in these coming NBA Playoffs. Ajay is on the cusp of becoming a stud.

Again…Isaiah Hartenstein and Lu Dort didn’t play last night. But maybe in retrospect that made this game easier for Coach Mark to navigate as far as minutes, roles, and rotations. Maybe it took away the need for Coach Mark to overthink the nuance of the rotations.

He’ll always be Coach Mark to me…even if the Thunder repeat and go on to win a third NBA championship down the road as well. I love the Coach thing. I have five and six year-old grandchildren.

The Rockets on Thursday night in Houston, then the Heat in Miami on Saturday. This could turn out to be the most interesting week of the regular season when we’re looking back on things in late April.

Have an aspiring Wednesday in Oklahoma.

Love, Mike J

This one was pretty much what I thought it would be over the Miami Heat at PayCom. This Heat team to me looks like a borderline Eastern Conference play-in team which was missing Norman Powell.

The Heat does very little for me with the way their team construction is at the top. On my poll …I have them somewhere between 16-20 on my current overall NBA ranking poll. They’re kind of fun to watch here and there with Bam, Tyler Herro, and Davion Mitchell blurring around the court. But I can’t imagine Coach Spoelstra feels strongly about this group at the present.

The Thunder minus Isaiah Hartenstein were back at full strength and ‘somewhat’ flashed Forty Minutes of Hell in the second half as the Heat ended up turning the ball over 23 times. You do that as a team against the Thunder and you’re begging for a double-digit loss.

Like 124-112, voila. This is not complex. If you allow the Thunder to create pace and tempo thru easy transition baskets…you as a basketball team are done.

So now we have a Thunder week I’ve had scheduled for a bit. The Thunder host the Spurs on Tuesday. I am not sure of Wembyama’s status at this point. If he doesn’t play…the game will be irrelevant to me. If he plays and Hartenstein plays it will be must watch NBA for me on Tuesday night inside of PayCom.

Then on Thursday the Thunder travel to Houston to play the point-guardless Rockets. Again…this is one I want to see. This is one I want to observe and take in for Mike J’s data-bank reference for April.

And then the Thunder travel to Miami on the week-end for a road game to close out this set of three games I’ve had circled. Of course, in this NBA—we never know who is going to be on the court and who is going to be on a DNP list with a scratch, bump, or bruise. Let me tell you NBA dudes this….y’all made a wise decision choosing the NBA over the NFL or NHL as the place to become generationally rich. Just saying.

So while I’m excited for this week, but MJ is still guarded keeping myself in a state of cautionary reality before we see who actually plays in these games.

The Thunder sit at 33-7 which gives them not only a 5-6 game cushion for the No. 1 seed in the West, but also a comfortable cushion over the East as we all saw last season HOW VALUABLE that No. 1 seed can be given the way the Denver and Indiana series extended to seven games.

If I were a Thunder ‘fanatic’…which I’m not. I like the Thunder, but I’m not at this point obsessed with the Thunder. I wouldn’t be concerned with doing the Warrior thing and trying to go 73-9. I would not in any way be obsessed with that. The Warriors lost that year in the Finals anyway.

I would think the mantra inside of the Thunder Bunker where Coach Mark and Sam Presti make these kind of decisions is just get healthy and make sure that when the time comes to shrink the rotation from twelve players to ten players that adjustment is made before losing a Game 1 to the likes of Denver or whoever emerges in the West as that other team to beat.

If that team turns out to be San Antonio or Houston or even Minnesota, what Mike J is saying here is…learn from last season. Don’t screw around in a home Game 1 and take care of business so as to possibly avoid playing a Game 7 against a healthy, capable team. That’s the very reason you want the overall No. 1 seed.

As far as football goes…I would say at this point Coach Cignetti should after winning this national championship game versus the ‘Canes at Hard Rock Stadium, decide to take the Green Bay Packer job and restore the required mental toughness to my Packers who at 9-3-1 never won another game this season after Micah Parsons went down.

Have a peaceful Monday.

Mike J

I meant to do this yesterday, but all the football around me this weekend derailed me getting this done on Saturday. So better late than never.

As I wrote on here last spring when the Thunder won the NBA championship… the three Thunder players I was most happy for were Shai, Lu Dort, and Kenrich. I still feel that way. Those three guys were the core nucleus of the team which was eventually put together from the tanking and the rebuild.

These three guys to me are the core culture of what Sam Presti built and is trying to maintain in Oklahoma City as an NBA franchise.

But Kenrich has probably been my favorite because his value to this team as a non-rotational player who doesn’t always get minutes is beyond the value of draft picks or trades or the other distractions of the NBA vernacular.

Kenrich is this Thunder team’s version of Nick Collison in my estimation. Kenny Hustle is the living, breathing, day to day example of what a professional basketball player or any team member in any team sport should bring to the table.

The other night in Memphis what Kenrich did is pure gold. His team is struggling right now and have been since the loss to the Spurs in the Emirates NBA Cup semis. Key players are hurt currently and even Shai missed the Memphis game on Friday.

The Thunder got down by 21 to Memphis on the road the other night and it appeared a third straight loss was on the horizon. But that is not what transpired. Instead, Kenrich lit a fire under his team with a 21 point, 8 rebound game which eventually turned the Thunder’s way late in the game.

I love Kenrich Williams. I do. I love what he stands for and contributes to this Thunder team which is trying to be the first NBA team in eight years to repeat.

So, for me on this Sunday morning before the Miami game tonight, I just wanted to take the time on my underground blog to be very clear what Mike J feels about Kenrich Williams and his role on this year’s Thunder basketball team.

Being where I’m at in my own Stage 4 journey, and where I’ve come from these past three years in that process…I hope its not corny for me to write that whenever I get down a little…I think to myself, “Mike J…suck it up and be like Kenrich.”

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if every person we knew took care of their business like Kenrich.

We all need to ignore the noise around us and focus on our own personal virtue checklist everyday.

Moderation. Patience. Justice. Love. Kindness. Mercy. Grace. Humility. And charity.

But most of all…when we getted knocked down, we take a deep breath, exhale slowly, reset our center self, and find the inner strength to continue the journey.

Have a peaceful Sunday.

Thank you, Kenrich.

Mike J

What a great game for both teams and both quarterbacks. This one had a little bit of everything a college football fan could want in a game of this magnitude.

I thought there was pass interference on the last play and Ole Miss should have had one last snap from the twenty yard-line, but that’s the way it goes on most Hail Marys. If that play had happened earlier in the game …I’m fairly certain a flag would have been thrown.

A complete fairytale for both teams. Trinidad Chambliss and Ole Miss have nothing to be ashamed of in the manner in which their season played out to the very last snap. I thought when I saw Trinidad play OU in Norman he was the best player in the country, and after what has transpired since I still feel that way.

How in the world could he finish eighth in the Heisman voting? I don’t care if he missed the first three games or not. He was in my mind the singular most impactful player in college football this season along with Mendoza. Those two should have been one-two in the voting…either way.

For Carson Beck…a fairytale as well. Born in Jacksonville, Florida and a Florida high school star– it seems fitting that in his final season of college ball he has a chance as a starter to claim the national championship in Hard Rock Stadium right there in south Florida.

I wonder what Kirby Smart and Bulldog Nation are feeling today? Kirby had Carson as his backup for two national championships and went with Gunnar Stockton instead. Karma can be a bit of a bitch sometimes.

So many storylines in this one. Lane Kiffin comes out looking like a complete punk, while eveyone involved in the Ole Miss program is to be complimented for the manner in which they handled the Pos’s exit to Baton Rouge. Even Lincoln Riley didn’t do what Lane Kiffin did. Kiffin’s a great offensive mind like Lincoln, but a five star pos as far as MJ is concerned.

I feel as though at this point I need to play the Body Heat video just for Lane Kiffin this time. I could care less about Lincoln…he had Caleb Williams and like Brian Kelly he’s to date hasn’t made the College Football Playoff with SoCal as Kelly didn’t with LSU. There is no typical Okie angst on my part as far as Lincoln. If he’d stayed…we’d still have a shitty passive-submissive defense. I love Coach BV.

Hope Indiana and Oregon can give us the same type of show tonight.

Love, Mike J

When this season started most who follow the NBA thought it would be a battle between the defending champ OKC Thunder and the rebuilt Denver Nuggets. Last night the Thunder came back late to finally beat the 12-24 Utah Jazz in overtime by a score of 129-125, while the Nuggets still without Nikola beat Boston on the road by a score of 114-110.

Amazingly…through all these injuries which have decimated the Nuggets….here they stand on January 8th only one game behind the Spurs for the No. 2 seed in the West. Aaron Gordon and Christian Braun are both back on minute restrictions and Jamal Murray is playing some great basketball as of late with a 22 point, 8 rebound, 17 assist night in Boston last night.

We all thought the Spurs were still a year away from being the team which could unseat the Thunder. That very well might turn out to be the case, but this could also be a case where the Nuggets without Nikola for a month are all going to upgrade their play and become a team which could still win the West.

I mean, last night, Peyton Watson scored 30 POINTS hitting six threes. That doesn’t even regisister with me. Generally speaking, I would be thrilled with Peyton scoring 30 points in three games combined. If Peyton becomes a real player, a dependable player, that coud be a huge storyline for the Nuggets.

Maybe this period of time without Nikola will help these other guys break their dependence on him to do everything when he comes back in three weeks or so.

The Thunder now stand at 31-7 and are stuggling mightliy without both Isaiah Hartenstein and Alex Caruso. OKC was extremely fortunate to beat the 12-24 Jazz last night. Very fortunate Shai, who was a game time decision, did play and carry his mates on his back with a 46 point performance.

We’ll get a better barometer on all of this next Tuesday when the Thunder play the Spurs and we see if indeed as Jim Traber claims…the Thunder are scared of Wembyama. I think its more than that. I think its a combination of things. First and foremost…it’s hard to repeat when every other team in the league has you in their crosshairs everytime they see you coming up on the schedule.

The 82 game NBA regular season is a marathon. Several seasons contained within one. OKC will get it back together I feel certain, but what exactly Denver turns out to be after 82 games is still a puzzle to be put together.

Mike J

This is the biggest football week of the year minus the Divisional Playoff week and the Super Bowl itself. So what I’m saying here is Mike J in no way even considered the possibility of the Thunder losing to this Charlotte team at home, let alone being routed by a score of 124-97.

The Thunder drop to 30-7 and given the fact I don’t cover Thunder games against bad teams on my blog…that’s where I’ll leave this disastrous performance for the time being.

If you want the Little Nick Gallo, Royce Young, Michael Cage sugar coated takes on this game…this ain’t the blog you should be reading.

I need my football post-season face totally emersed on football this week.

Eternal mercy and forgiveness.

Mike J

I find it unbelievable five years later this is where we landed as a country after the darkest day in American history.

Even living in the reddest of the states in our union this in no way is how I visualized Americans would desecrate the American Rule of Law, our judicial system, and the very heart of our Constitution.

Of the People, by the People, and For the People is now a punchline from the richest, the whitest, and the most influential conservatives in our country. If you don’t fall in this demographic…too bad. Right?

Justice for all is a joke these people flaunt now that it has all played out in this manner.

I cannot think of one Republican now serving in the United States Senate I have any respect for whatsoever. And remember… I was a Republican from 1976-2000 and was never a registered Democrat a single day in my adult voting life.

These aren’t the words of a lit, woke, far left lunatic. I can promise you that.

Instead of the person who instigated this insurrection being impeached by a 100-00 vote in the United States Senate, and then perhaps serving some symbolic time in a federal penitentiary…this person won a second term as the President of the United States. And blanket pardoned every single person involved in this insurrection in which four people died and over a hundred people were hospitilized.

This is the path you people chose for our country in the name of One Big Beautiful Bill with perhaps an attached nuanced form of apartheid governement moving forward.

I keep thinking at some point our Better Angels will appear. But I now realize that in no way is happening. Not a chance.

We have shown the rest of the world who we really are and what we don’t believe in.

So that’s pretty much it for me on the cusp of our Fifth Insurrection Anniversary. The silver lining for me is I won’t be here all that much longer. This won’t have to be the America I have to live in. Thank God for that.

MJ is headed somewhere else. Much more noble and glorious than this bullshit. I can assure you of that.

Take take, America.

Love and peace.

Mike J

I took a little breather from NFL football last night to watch the Thunder play a 20-14 Phoenix Sun team on the road. The reason I did this is because OKC’s schedule these first 36 games has pretty much been trash and perhaps the easiest schedule of any team in the NBA a mere five games away from the halfway point of the regular season.

When Phoenix has a healthy Devin Booker and can keep Dillon Brooks’ worst instincts under control, plus get some offensive help from a third player…like in the case last night…Jordan Goodwin–this is a Phoenix team with the way they play defense who could be interesting to watch in the Western Conference.

Devin Booker may have slayed the the now 30-6 Thunder with the game winner, but it was Jordan Goodwin who put the Suns in the position to take down the Thunder with a career scoring night. On the night…Jordan scored 26 points and dropped eight threes to give the Suns a three headed scoring triangle which in essence outplayed the Thunder’s three stars of Shai, JDub, and Chet.

In the NBA you just have to have that third guy who gives you offense on every night and if Jordan Goodwin can evolve into that role for Phoenix…I would say the Suns who now sit in the No. 7 spot in the West will be fun to watch.

One game means nothing for the Thunder. They still sit atop the West with a comfortable margin over second place San Antonio, but the schedule will get much tougher starting January 13th when the Thunder play at San Antonio in a game which will signal the first half marker of the 82 game regular season.

When you’re playing shitty teams with suspect guard play..its easy to turn on the Forty Minutes of Hell routine and create turnovers which create transition points.

I’ve written this a hundred times at least on this blog the past two to three seasons. If a team takes care of the ball, plays tough-minded defense, takes care of their boards, and has three guys who can consistently score the ball the Thunder are mortal even though I love calling Shai… Superman.

So…you know what?

Since Jordan Goodwin played like Superman last night in Phoenix-I think I’ll play Shai’s song for him.

Have a wonderful Monday and maybe tomorrow I’ll discuss our NFL Playoff schedule.

Mike J

We had a wonderful family Christmas in Colorado and to be brutally honest I haven’t watched either an NBA or college basketball game in two weeks.

The Christmas Eve service we attended at a non-denominational church near Washington Park was beautiul. The family meals planned by Elaine and Chris were exquisite. Watching Chronicles of Narnia with our two grandchildren, Robert (6) and Aubrey (5) was illuminating to say the least. And my grandaughter insisted I watch the Eloise movie with her as well.

Hanging out with Perk (brown lab, age13) and Tucker (St. Charles Spaniel, age13) near the fireplace was sublime. The three old guys hanging out for old times’ sake. I cried of course as I’ve become a world class weeper these past three years on the cancer journey. But good weeping.

So there’s really nothing I can blog about the Thunder’s now 30-5 record and their easy win over a team of Golden State reserves tonight in San Francisco. With Jokic now hurt, plus Wemby injured again, plus the Rockets’ obvious point guard situation—this might well be a situation where it’s best to sit back and watch the College Football Playoffs and what should be a incredible NFL Playoff Tournament to the Super Bowl.

I mean…what are these guys blathering about on the internet? The Thunder in reality are probably going to play maybe 12-14 meaningful games the rest of the way against several good teams who could conceivably challenge their bid to repeat.

Then the real season will commence with NBA Playoffs…which I love.

So basically…what I’m going to do is to continue idling on my NBA content on the blog and enjoy the football seasons before me.

I mean..wow. Serious congrats to the Ole Miss Rebels and their quarterback Trinidad Chambless for what I thought was the game of the season to date in last night’s remarkable Sugar Bowl upset.

Lane Kiffen, dude…you didn’t need to move onto the cesspool of college football at Baton Rouge to win a nati0nal championship. Trinidad IS SPECIAL!!!!

We now have four teams in the national semifinals who have never won a national championship in the playoff era of college football. Ole Miss and Indiana have never won a national championship in college football period.

I think this is great for college football. Plus, I think a 16-team format starting next season would be even greater whereas Texas and Notre Dame would have made the field this season.

NFL tomorrow for me where I will see if Baker and the reeling Tampa Bay Bucs can somehow emerge as the winners of the NFC’s feeble South Division and back into the Playoffs. Baker is BTW no longer anyone’s leader in the clubhouse for this season’s MVP award.

I’ll get to that tomorrow with my three MVP finalists.

Plus, congrats to Shai for being named Sports Illustrated Man of the Year. An award he richly deserves.

Faith, grace, hope, and eternal love. Plus charity.

Mike J

I’ve thought about this for a day before posting my OU-Alabama Playoff Game thoughts’.

So here’s where I’m at on Sunday morning… to all you Alabama fans—Merry Christmas from Sooner Nation and enjoy the trip to Cali. You played a mistake free game and took advantage of my Sooners’ holiday generosity.

Football is a simple game when you have teams with comparable talent on the field. I wrote as much on my Friday post here on the blog. In games like these you can’t give points away and beat yourselves in every facet of the game.

You just can’t do that and expect to win the game. OU did that in all three games they lost this season…Texas, Ole Miss, and Alabama on Friday night.

Speicifically…you can’t give up a pick six, you can’t fumble a punt snap on your end of the field, you can’t drop a touchdown pass, you can’t have your Lou Groza award winner miss two fourth period very makeable field goals, you can’t have a bad punt from your endzone in the fourth period just after your offense has scored to close it to 27-24…you can’t do these things and expect to beat a good football team.

But most of all what you can’t do is in caps…HAVE A GOOD FOOTBALL TEAM DOWN 17-0 IN YOUR HOUSE WITH THE CROWD GOING OUT OF THEIR MINDS AND TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THEIR THROAT.

You just cannot do these things even if you outgain and out-time posess a storied program like Alabama on a night when they played mistake-free football.

It is what it is. I’m still extremely proud of these guys for never quittting. This wasn’t about quitting or lack of heart or any of that. This was more about my Sooners just not as of yet having that more mature clutch gene in them as a collective whole to take that amazing 17-0 start and send Alabama home for the football season.

I had a blast in the student section near the pep band. It was amazing over there until Tate missed both of those late field goals.

It made me feel young again and those kids made me feel like some sort honorary fan-legend from the days of Fairbanks and Switzer. They were so cool. It will be a memory I will cherish forever. It was way beyond awesome.

Also…thanks and love to my son Chris for making all this possible. In getting me into that student section area…I had to sit in Row 66. You don’t sit a play over there the entire game. The complete polar oppositre from the tea sippers on the west side.

MJ is proud to say he made it standing every play from scrimmage. Albeit, I did sit during the clock running period between plays to get brief rests to reset. I will admit though…the trip down and to the car back wasn’t as easy as the trip in. But like the team….I’ll need to work on my conditioning and mental toughness to address this for next season.

But I’m taking a break from the blog till after the New Year. I need a break from sports for a bit to recharge my battery.

But in the end, to my Sooners by way of Coach Lomabardi…’sometimes we need to lose a game to fully understand where we have to become more mentally tough to win the prize we desire most’.

Have a wonderful Holiday season.

Love, Mike J

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