Taking care of business shows how mature the OKC Thunder are despite being the second-youngest team in the NBA.
This is not supposed to happen. Look, I understand the Portland Trail Blazers are an extremely bad team. Especially with their CVS Receipt Injury Report, they are in the driver’s seat for the worst team in the association when you take out all of the players who were sidelined for this game.
So why did this win mean so much for the OKC Thunder? Fresh off an emotional baseball series sweep of the Golden State Warriors that included an 18-point comeback with Chet Holmgren hitting a jaw-dropping shot to force overtime, the Thunder were able to re-focus less than 24 hours later.
Along with the emotional ending the night before, this was the second leg of a road-road back-to-back that saw Jalen Williams sidelined with a hip injury he sustained during the Golden State Warriors contest the night prior. After playing in the Chase Center two games in a row, this was the third game in four nights against a lackluster opponent.
This OKC Thunder team, which is still the second youngest squad in the NBA, was able to create their own juice. To be self-motivated for this game and to compartmentalize the Warriors tilt that took social media by storm in order to finish off this business trip shows just how mature this Thunder team is.
That is incredibly hard for even veteran-laden teams to figure out. To take these contests, especially on getaway day, and cap off a back-to-back like this. A dominating win that was not only a wire-to-wire victory but saw zero starters playing more than 22 minutes in this game.