Thunder in the News: The Thanksgiving/Warriors win edition

Today’s Thunder in the News celebrates everything life has to offer. Family, friends and most importantly, the OKC Thunder defeating the Golden State Warriors.

Happy Thanksgiving Thunder Nation! What better way to celebrate than a whopping win over the Warriors? If you’re like me you spent the first 40 minutes of gametime just waiting for the impending collapse. But it never came, making the last eight minutes of the fourth quarter the best eight minutes of this Thunder season.

A recap of the most eventful game of the season

That was playoff basketball. The ‘Peake was rocking all night, the players on both sides showed their raw emotions and the actual game was quality (at least for the Thunder). If you somehow missed out on the action here’s a basic recap. If you want a more in-depth look, specifically on the Thunder side, our own Sinjin Snope dished out player grades from last night’s victory.

"Golden State (13-5) had not faced an atmosphere like this all season. The Thunder jumped on the Warriors from the outset and never really relinquished control."

FiveThirtyEight proves to be clairvoyant once again

Chris Herring posted his piece about the Thunder’s fixable problems only seven hours before tipoff against the Warriors. Obviously they took everything he said to heart and consciously made a decision to change.

So I’m slightly kidding. Although OKC handled the Warriors fairly easily, they did it with a similar style we’ve seen all year: great defense and lots of offensive isolation. It just so happened the Thunder’s shots were falling while Golden State’s weren’t. Don’t be fooled by one game – Oklahoma City hasn’t completely found the solution. But like Chris says, there’s a clear identity in OKC that has the making of something special.

"Based on what we’ve seen from their defense, if and when their offense gets going, it should transform them into the contender so many people thought they’d be this season."

Giving thanks to the King of Oklahoma City

After his performance last night, Russell Westbrook deserves this spotlight. While we all witnessed/know about his on-the-court performance, I want to thank Russ for the non-basketball entertainment he provided us. Like this:

https://twitter.com/FanAllegiance/status/933530407299149824

Or how about when he called KD soft?

Or my personal favorite, the floor stomping down the court:

We do not deserve Russell Westbrook. Nobody deserves Russell Westbrook. But he’s ours, and I’m thankful for it.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everybody. Enjoy your family, friends and any other person/thing that brings a positive impact to your life. We hear at Thunderous Intentions are thankful for all of you – here’s to a fun rest of the season 🙂