Lucky number seven prevails as the OKC Thunder extended their win streak this time with a convincing victory over the Houston Rockets. TI dives into the key takeaways from the victory.
Beginning the season with four consecutive losses raised concerns over the OKC Thunder roster makeup. Although Russell Westbrook was out for two of those losses the prevailing concern was a lack of shooting and floor spacing.
Albeit, part of the issues stemmed from the need to integrate several key contributors into the mix. As they say hindsight is 20-20, since the team not only rebounded to find flow, but is flourishing. Again, Thunder fans must keep in perspective the level of competition they’ve faced. Still, a seven game win streak sure does offer reason for optimism.
Preseason most pundits predicted the Houston Rockets would battle the Golden State Warriors for West supremacy. I took the opposite stance feeling the loss of Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute would create issues defensively. To date, the latter position is proving more accurate. That’s not to say Daryl Morey won’t make a trade to right the ship or the Rockets can’t rebound. This past week Morey talked Jeff Bzdelik out of retirement in the hopes he can fix what ails the Rockets defensively.
And yet, this might be the least of Houston’s problems. At one point during he game as the OKC Thunder were scoring at will several members of the TI team and I discussed how disjointed the Rockets offense appears. I posed the question – Are the Rockets that bad or are the Thunder that good? The answer probably lies somewhere in the middle. Sure, an aggressive Thunder defense played a factor. But, missing the best offensive player (Russell Westbrook) and the best defensive player (Andre Roberson) it sure points to specifically how many issues Mike D’Antoni has to fix.
In terms of the win for the OKC Thunder there is a plethora of positives to pull from. Let’s take a look a few of the main ones.