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Thunder in the News: The hype continues to build in Oklahoma City

Tony Heim|
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - DECEMBER 25: Raymond Felton #2 of the OKC Thunder and Josh Huestis #34 of the OKC Thunder plan a play against the Houston Rockets during the first half of a NBA game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on December 25, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK - DECEMBER 25: Raymond Felton #2 of the OKC Thunder and Josh Huestis #34 of the OKC Thunder plan a play against the Houston Rockets during the first half of a NBA game at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on December 25, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)
OKC Thunder
OKLAHOMA CITY, OK – DECEMBER 25: Russell Westbrook #0 of the OKC Thunder celebrates during the second half of a NBA game against the Houston Rockets at the Chesapeake Energy Arena on December 25, 2017 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The Thunder defeated the Rockets 112-107. (Photo by J Pat Carter/Getty Images)

It’s the day after Christmas and OKC Thunder Nation still has a great deal of reasons to celebrate.

I waited until I got some sleep to write this piece. If you caught my recap/player grades from last night you know I was pretty excited about the victory and the overall state of the team. That’s why I figured I’d let sleep calm me down just a bit. Well…it didn’t.

Reading what non-Thunder fans have to say about this team only verifies the excitement that we’re all experiencing. I’ve provided only a couple of the plethora of positive posts surrounding this team. Let’s get to it.

Win proves Oklahoma City is legit

We start this exercise off with an incredibly profound statement from Brad Botkin of CBS Sports. Botkin notes that the Thunder aren’t ever going to have the hyper-efficient ball movement that we’ve come to expect from the NBA’s top offenses. Their supreme individual talent makes that okay, so long as the attack is spread out across all three (four) All-Star caliber players.

"And then it beat Houston, an elite team, in a close Christmas Day game, and now we can officially recognize that, yes, the Thunder are heading in a promising direction as winners of five straight and 11 of their last 14 games and currently hold the longest win streak in the West."

The Crossover’s latest power rankings says it all

It’s the day after Christmas and Oklahoma City finds themselves at #7 in Kenny Ducey’s esteemed power rankings – imagine saying that a week ago when they were ranked 13th. The Thunder’s quick rise is a testament to them finally playing up to their potential. They have ample space to improve, but their quick progression after 30-something games of stagnant play gives me reason to believe this is only the start of something special.

"Oklahoma City is actually playing defense now—AND sharing the ball—which is just a beautiful thing. I never thought a team with post-Nuggets Carmelo Anthony was capable of this."

Bye-bye Kevin Durant, hello Russell Westbrook

And to end this wonderful celebration I give you this. The perfect ending to a wonderful Christmas:

That’s it for this issue of Thunder in the News. Enjoy this five-game win streak for the time being – the Toronto Raptors very well could end it on Wednesday. And if they don’t? Well expect to see the optimism train to continue rolling on into the New Year.

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