Five Thunder Takeaways from the Christmas Day Dub

Dec 25, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; The Oklahoma City Thunder bench reacts after a play against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Mandatory Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

For those who celebrate Christmas, the OKC Thunder ended your holiday with an extra present: a 112-100 victory against the Timberwolves.

My oh my what a game. The OKC Thunder pushed their winning streak to three with a dominating performance against Minnesota on Christmas.

It’s truly incredible what this team has been able to do without Victor Oladipo these past seven games. Besides two blowouts in the first two games without Dipo, the Thunder have discovered a secret formula for success. That starts with the bench (but more on that later).

Dec 25, 2016; Oklahoma City, OK, USA; Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) reacts after a play against the Minnesota Timberwolves during the first quarter at Chesapeake Energy Arena. Credit: Mark D. Smith-USA TODAY Sports

Per usual, Russell Westbrook was electric tonight. Russ ended Christmas with 31 points, 15 assists and 7 rebounds. That’s all the talk about Russ in this column though; we already knew that he was a cyborg.

No, today were going to focus primarily on the Other Guys. 10 of the 11 players who recorded minutes scored tonight, the lone ranger being Kyle Singler (also more on that later).

You know what? I should probably stop teasing these takeaways and get right to it. Let’s begin this wonderful ride.

One more thing. Yes I realize the clips I use are not from the Christmas Day game, but the fantastic site 3ball.io has not uploaded clips yet and the game has not been made available on League Pass yet for me to cut clips. Sorry for trying to get this to you all as quickly as possible. NOW let’s begin.