Views from OKC: Thunder on a three-game win streak
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!
Thunder win, but we shouldn’t be happy
“Dallas was without four of its top five scorers. Forward Wesley Matthews sat out with a right hip strain, forward Dirk Nowitzki rested on the second game of a back-to-back, guard J.J. Barea was out with a left calf strain, and guard Deron Williams was out with a sprained left big toe.”
Sure we can talk about how the Thunder were on a back-to-back, or how they had just played six games in a row on the road. But ultimately it doesn’t matter; last night was the game that showed us that OKC is still a fairly young and immature team. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, it’s just a byproduct of having the fifth youngest roster and the third youngest rotation in the league. We got the dub, and that’s all that matters.
Related Story: Thunder take down shorthanded Mavericks
Enes Kanter is the perfect microcosm of that immaturity
“Kanter, who had slapped the floor in frustration a few minutes earlier, walked to the bench during a timeout and slammed his fist into the padded chair. But as he brought his arm down, the folding chair flipped up slightly and Kanter caught his forearm on the metal edge. He quickly went back to the locker room for X-rays, which confirmed the fracture.”
Now this one is just stupid. Why are you hitting all these inanimate objects Enes? What did they do to you? Site Expert Tamberlyn Richardson has a fantastic reactionary piece on the injury, including what happened and the consequences that will result. I’d check it out if I were you.
Views from Twitter
Billy Donovan says Enes Kanter has a right forearm fracture. I saw Kanter briefly in hallway & asked what he did. He said: "nothing smart."
— David Aldridge (@davidaldridgedc) January 27, 2017
Let’s take solace in the fact that Kanter understands his actions were stupid.
In today's NBA utter non-surprise, Russell Westbrook has been chosen as an All-Star reserve by West coaches, according to league sources.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) January 26, 2017
Let’s take solace in the fact that Russell Westbrook will still have an opportunity to freeze Kevin Durant out of a basketball game.
#RussellWestbrook hits em with the Shammgod then knocks down the 3!#ThunderUp pic.twitter.com/Nl1u0U51tC
— NBA (@NBA) January 27, 2017
The fact that Russ is now making the Shammgod an everyday thing is incredible. For one, the Shammgod is one of the most lowkey legendary moves in basketball history. Secondly, it’s really not THAT effective unless executed properly. In the above play, I’d give it an 8.7 out of 10 stylistically but a 5.2 out of 10 in efficiency. He couldn’t even shake big man Dwight Powell don’t @ me.