Views from OKC: Thunder sip sweet taste of revenge in statement win

Views from OKC  is a daily roundup offering the best National articles on the OKC Thunder across the web.

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With that, let’s get started with an outstanding tweet recognizing Russell Westbrook‘s 18th triple-double of the season. Notably Westbrook continues to average a triple-double on the season, and leads the league with 18 such performances. Yet, more importantly in just 40 games this season Westbrook has already equaled his triple-double output from last season.

Conley on Westbrook:

ESPN writer Ramona Shelburne offers a must read interview with Mike Conley. The Grizzlies guard discusses signing the richest contract in NBA history. Shelburne asks Conley about his amazing healing powers after literally breaking his face and back in less than a year and gets his take on peer Russell Westbrook:

“This next game is against Russell Westbrook. How do you approach defending him and playing against him?” – Shelburne

“Conley: It’s definitely one of those challenges I look forward to. He’s doing something the league has never seen. His athletic build, his size, and his [ability] to push the ball, are all things you have to think about when guarding him.

You’ve got to try to slow him down, make him uncomfortable. Put him in areas where he’s taking contested jump shots and nothing where he’s being the aggressor and getting into you and causing you to foul and get him on the free-throw line or finish in the paint. If you can limit the amount of opportunities, the easy opportunities he gets, you have a chance for a good night for your team- Conley”.

Conley of course is limiting his answer because, well he’s not going to give away the farm on Westbrook. That said, Conley’s answer seems to leave out the fact Russ is one  of the best mid-range scorers in the Association. So, he probably means limit Westbrook’s shot attempts by forcing him outside the three point line.

Related Content: Why Westbrook deserves to start All-Star Game, a statistical comparison of backcourt players

Statement Game:

Royce Young broke down the post game for ESPN echoing Thunderous Intentions Rich Condon’s post game round up sentiments of the Thunder victory being a statement win:

For the Thunder, it’s a critical win ahead of a six-game trip that will see them away from home for 15 days. January is filled with difficult games for them — mostly on the road — which made beating the Grizzlies especially important. They’re 3-3 in the month so far, with three close road losses to playoff teams. The urgency was there against the Grizzlies — the tone was set Tuesday with the talk of disrespect and payback — and Westbrook made sure to run the Thunder to the finish line.

With the Thunder embarking on what is unquestionably their toughest portion of the schedule, beating Memphis is huge. Getting the win by leading from the tip straight through to game end was the most impressive part of the victory.

Remember, this is the same Memphis team who came back to beat Golden State recently. Moreover, the Grizzlies are 45-17 in games decided by 3 points since 2011-12 (6-1 this season). So when Zach Randolph scored to cut the lead to 2 points (86-88) with just 2:33 remaining, it felt like another late quarter collapse was entirely possible. Which is what made the victory all the more sweet.

A stitch in time saves 9:

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Though not widely reported, Victor Oladipo took 9 stitches to his tongue following an elbow in the Denver game.  A Reddit thread did offer some insight.

For Oladipo who is known to enjoy singing as part of his off court time, this could spell disaster. But, as 10 before Tip pointed out pregame via Fred Katz of the Norman Transcript, apparently Victor has found a new off court passion.

Katz said the big story in OKC is Oladipo has become the third member of the dance troop of Russell Westbrook and Cameron Payne. I guess for the time being Victor has traded in his microphone for dance shoes!

Related Story: The new Big Three in OKC – Shall We Dance?

Pregame Roberson spoke of having an axe to grind:

Scuttlebutt prior to last night’s tip cited Andre Roberson as feeling disrespected by the Grizzlies in their last outing. Once more Fred Katz was the man on the spot to elucidate on the situation

Roberson and the Thunder got their revenge alright. There were many individual stand out efforts such as  Adams late game block followed by Oladipo’s dagger three. But, there was one specific moment which punctuated the feeling of the revenge win:

Must Read: Five Shooters the Thunder Should Target

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