Happy Holidays to Thunder Nation from Thunderous Intentions. While you enjoy the NBA holiday slate of five matches we took some time to come up with a few stocking stuffers for our favorite OKC Thunder players.
Frankly, while a couple of them are silly, they all would be useful to the individuals we picked them for. Especially, the last one on the list – – albeit there’s a hidden agenda behind that one in particular!
So with no further adieu… check out TI’s three stocking stuffers for your OKC Thunder stars.
Invisible face shield to protect Aleksej Pokusevski’s face.
Enough of the poor guy getting hit in the face. It was bad enough Dillon Brooks gave him the elbow to the eye but the match versus the Pelicans was barely underway and BAM he took another shot to the same eye from Jonas Valanciunas. OUCH.
The original injury occurred in a scrappy affair versus the Grizzlies that the OKC Thunder won despite missing both Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Josh Giddey. It was also a bit of an awkward night for the refs as Ray Acosta assessed Ja Morant with two technical fouls which found him ejected in the first half.
This is Lisa, a Ja Morant superfan who lives in OKC. She was at the center of the interaction that got Ja Morant ejected.
— Joe Mussatto (@joe_mussatto) December 18, 2022
“I was just telling Ja, ‘let’s go.’
“He was just like he can’t do much because (the refs) missed a call.” pic.twitter.com/KkZqQcIBiR
POKU’s injury occurred in the third quarter at 8:18 when Brooks drove into the paint and as the Thunder wing rose with verticality to block the shot, Brooks laid the ball in but brought his elbow down clipping Aleksej in the eye.
In the offensive play prior, Pokusevski had just drilled a 3-pointer. The referees had to stop the game because Pokusevski was bleeding from his eye. That the refs didn’t bother to look at the play is somewhat inexplicable given how many offensive fouls are being called this year for push-offs. You’d think an elbow to the head would garner a look.
Instead, POKU had to leave the game with blood dripping down his face and be attended to. In the end, the OKC Thunder forward showed his grit by returning to the hardwood and helping his squad pull off the victory beating the top Western squad in the process (tied with the Nuggets).
Anyway –the first gift under the tree is an invisible face shield for POKU.