Views from OKC: January is over, time to celebrate!
By Tony Heim
Welcome to Views from OKC, Thunderous Intentions’ daily roundup of the best OKC Thunder stories across the web.
New to Views? Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll make this a daily destination. Well, let’s get started!
Russell Westbrook almost pulled off the impossible
“Oklahoma City finished 7-8 in January, its first month with a losing record this season. … Westbrook, Sabonis and have started all 49 games. … Oklahoma City played eight of its last nine games on the road, closing that stretch with a 4-5 record. The Thunder will play nine of their next 11 at home.”
I dare anyone to watch this game and tell me Russell Westbrook is not the MVP of the league. Westbrook almost beat the Spurs by himself. Seriously. He almost single-handedly brought the Thunder back from 16 down in the second. Russ shot 7-17 from the field; the rest of the team shot 23-68. That’s 33.8%
And now it’s time for primetime game take two!
“Believe it or not, the Bulls are one of the few teams that Westbrook — the league’s MVP front-runner — hasn’t dropped a triple-double on in his career. He came close in early January during the first meeting in Chicago and there’s nothing about the Bulls lately that says he won’t get one on Wednesday night.”
Well this is a lot better. Oklahoma City played true championship contenders the last two games, and fought their butts off in the process. Now they get this incredibly dysfunctional Bulls team to come west. I have a feeling Russ is gonna be fired up, which may or may not be a good thing. All I know is they can’t afford to lose this game.
Views from Twitter
It's clear Cam Payne isn't what the Thunder thought he'd be #OKC
— Jonathan Mitchell (@Jon_Mitchell3) February 1, 2017
People. Stop worrying. Cameron Payne is in a new role in his sophomore season. He’s played 12 games because of a foot injury over the offseason. The shots are going to start falling; Billy Donovan wouldn’t be okay with Payne pulling the trigger if he wasn’t confident in the 22-year old. It took time for Alex Abrines to get adjusted to the NBA three-point line, but look what he’s done the last two months. Cam, like Abrines early in the year, just needs a few more games to get acclimated to shooting in-games.
Russell Westbrook has played like a guy who could win MVP tonight. Unfortunately, his team hasn't played well enough to support his case.
— Adam (@AdamJoseph____) February 1, 2017
Yeah we need to talk about this. Why is Russ getting penalized for his teammates? If anything he should be getting MORE praise. Last night Ryan Anderson and the Rockets blew out the Kings. That’s right. Anderson led the team with 25 points, James Harden scored 10. Oklahoma City literally cannot win without Russell Westbrook playing well. By definition, he is the most valuable player to any team. Period.