Thunderous Intentions
Fansided

Five takeaways from a dominant Thunder season opener

By Tony Heim

OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - OCTOBER 19: Russell Westbrook
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - OCTOBER 19: Russell Westbrook /
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OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – OCTOBER 19: OKC Thunder players link arms during the national anthem before a NBA game against the New York Knicks at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on October 19, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – OCTOBER 19: OKC Thunder players link arms during the national anthem before a NBA game against the New York Knicks at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on October 19, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images) /

It was a total team performance from the OKC Thunder on Thursday night. The OK3 shined in their debut – that’s not even the most interesting storyline.

If you take anything away from this piece, I want it to be this: the 2017-2018 Oklahoma City Thunder opener was the perfect start to the season.

The Thunder didn’t play a perfect game. It’s the flashes, the two minute spurts where New York didn’t stand a chance, where we can draw our hope. We can’t ask of anything else from a team integrating two All-Stars and three bench players into their lineup.

There were times -especially in the first quarter – when the game got ugly. The key is that nobody panicked. Russell Westbrook continued to feed Carmelo Anthony even though he couldn’t hit a shot early on. Even when the game was out of reach, the defensive intensity never relented. The Thunder showed the basic foundation of a championship contending team for all 48 minutes tonight – that’s what we needed to see, and that’s what we got.

So I started the regular season with a bonus takeaway. I really couldn’t help myself after watching that wonderful game. Oklahoma City is nowhere close to Golden State’s level, but they have 81 more games to get there.

Now let’s get to the others.

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