Ways Oklahoma City Thunder can win the series

They might be down 3-1, but the OKC Thunder can still win this series.

The Oklahoma City Thunder are down 3-1 to the Houston Rockets. No team in the history of the 2017 NBA Playoffs has come back down 3-1. So, suffice to stay, OKC has some work to do. How do they do it? I have some ideas.

Hope immediate karma exists

I’d love to believe in karma. I tell people it exists. But I’m 99% sure that it’s not real. Too many annoying and selfish jerks are successful in life and I have yet to win the lottery despite always holding the door open for the person behind me.

Maybe, just maybe, this series will be a karma exception. The Rockets have done plenty to swing the karma momentum in the favor of the Thunder. There’s Daryl Morey taking shots at Russell Westbrook, Houston’s bench laughing at Andre Roberson at the foul line, Patrick Beverly and plenty more.

While I’m 99% sure that karma doesn’t exist, I’m 100% sure that it doesn’t work immediately. Houston will eventually pay for their sins in this series, but it won’t be this week.

Unless immediate karma does exist. And we witness not only a monumental comeback, but a potential sign of the resurrection of Jesus.

Play Westbrook 48 minutes

When Westbrook is on the floor, the Thunder are a good NBA team. When Westbrook sits, the Thunder are a bad YMCA team. So, don’t sit Westbrook.

Logic says that a player can’t play all 48 minutes. Royce Young confirms that the OKC Thunder brass has data that tells them Westbrook doesn’t do well when he plays 12 straight minutes. Screw logic and take that for data. Play him all 48 minutes. What’s the worst that could happen, they lose? They’re already doing a good job of that. Westbrook gets tired in the fourth quarter? Russell Westbrook doesn’t get tired.

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Play him all 48 and live the consequences.

Threaten trades

This is a tried and true method that always works for me in video games. Whenever I’m unhappy with a players performance, I threaten to trade him if he doesn’t play well in the next game. Nine times out of ten, the player plays well. Granted, I can control that outcome. I can go out of my way to have him play well or purposely have him do nothing.

What I’m saying is, video games are so much better than real life because you can control the outcome.

Tell James Harden that he’s the MVP

Every single player, coach, manager, etc… should tell Harden that he’s the MVP.

All Harden truly cares about his winning the MVP award. It’s all he’s talked about since January. If everyone tells him that he’s the MVP, he’ll stop caring about winning playoff series.

This is also called the “Durant Treatment.” Sometimes, if you’re the opposing team, you have to be really nice to the star player on the other team. It makes them take it easier on you. And, if you mount a 3-1 comeback on them, they end up joining you in the offseason.

Play Nick Collison

If Nene can score 28 points, I have the utmost confidence in Nick Collison dropping at least 10 in the next game. Even if you think that’s crazy, here’s what’s not crazy: Nick Collison is good for at least two points a game. He may not score those two points, but he will always get an assist on a backdoor bounce pass. Death and Collison Bounce Passes are the only two guarantees in life.

Do you know how huge two points from the bench would be? That would give them, by my calculation, two points in the series.

Rewrite Apollo 13

Everyone knows the infamous, “Houston, we have a problem” line from the movie Apollo 13. Here’s the problem with that line: it’s a lie.

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It’s not just a lie because that wasn’t the actual line said by Jack Swigert. It’s a lie because they didn’t really have a problem.

Warning lights flashed and there was some explosion and they failed their mission, but everyone survived. Given the circumstances and what could have happened, I don’t think the crew of Apollo 13 had much of a problem. A real problem would have been if Jim Lovell got ejected from the ship or the moon didn’t exist and they just got stuck in space searching for it for 50 years. That’s a real problem. Some flashing lights, an explosion that wasn’t produced by Michael Bay, and a daily L isn’t a problem. It’s life.

We have to rewrite Apollo 13 so Tom Hanks has some real problems. And in turn, the Rockets will have some real problems. Cause that’s how it works.