Today’s OKC Thunder in the News celebrates two things: another Oklahoma City win and Russell Westbrook sticking up for his teammates.
I know I’ve said it a couple times this season, but I can say this with 100% certainty. The Oklahoma City Thunder have arrived. The funny thing is it took a random comeback victory against the Brooklyn Nets to convince me of this. All season long we’ve seen this team fall to non-Playoff teams, solely because of a lack of energy. That played out to begin the game, but a furious rally in the second half solidified my sentiments that this team is a legitimate threat come Playoff time.
What a fun Felton fourth frame
Although the Thunder were down double-digits, they truly didn’t play a bad first half against Brooklyn. The Nets were making virtually everything they threw up while OKC couldn’t buy a shot. The fact they found a way to win when their shots weren’t falling is the sign of a great team. Oklahoma City’s bench was animated and the crowd was raucous for a random January game – you can feel the aura around this team increase as the victories continue to stack up.
"Down 15 with 1:28 to go in the third quarter, the Thunder could have folded. At the start of the fourth quarter, Donovan’s club had made just 2-of-17 three-pointers and 14-of-35 (40 percent) of its shots in the paint, while Brooklyn had made 13-of-32 threes."
Russ takes shots at the entire Association
Russell Westbrook hit a game-winner, but that wasn’t one of his top five shots from last night. That list is completely composed of different excerpts from the quotes below:
Russell Westbrook called it “outrageous” that Paul George was not named an All-Star: pic.twitter.com/62vmKKbFSx
— Royce Young (@royceyoung) January 24, 2018
The Warriors, the Rockets, Damian Lillard and even non All-Stars were all apart of Russ’ wonderful rant. For those that say he isn’t a good teammate, I direct you to quotes like these that prove how much he cares about his teammates success.
Jeremy Lambert’s thoughts on Thunder trades
And finally we end with a quick trade primer from Thunderous Intentions’ own Jeremy Lambert. Per usual, Jeremy does a great job describing the state of Oklahoma City while straying away from seriousness. I agree with everything he says except for one thing (granted this piece was written prior to the past two wins): the Thunder are not guaranteed a fifth-seed finish. Only three games separate them from the 3/4 seed. If they keep playing with the level of intensity we’ve witnessed the last two games there’s an outside shot OKC will host homecourt advantage in the first round of the Playoffs.
"Williams would be the case scenario for the Thunder. But the better scenario would be for them to figure out the bench unit."
That’s it for today’s issue of Thunder in the News! We’ve got all the content your heart desires over at our homepage – check it out and dive into hours and hours of OKC analysis, features and other random riffs.