1. Gotta work backwards here and start at the end. Goodness gracious the last 3:00 of that game are likely to haunt me for awhile. The only counter to that would be that Rockets fans would have been able to say the exact same thing. You don’t often see a game where BOTH teams and ALL players choke down the stretch at the same time. That was nuts. Pure chaos. The effort was phenomenal by both teams, but the execution was dreadful. SO many chances for the Thunder. What was maddening was that it was EXACTLY what we wanted. That was our game. That’s how we’ve been winning all year long and t ..read more

 1. Interesting times. Perhaps “interesting” is far too positive of a word. But I like to see myself as a generally positive person so I’ll leave it at as interesting. It is unrealistic to think that in times like this we can keep social and political issues out of any area or any arena. Sports included. Humans play these games, run these leagues, and broadcast these events. In the specific case of the NBA, the league is predominantly comprised of young African American men. I know many want an “escape” when they watch sports. I do too. But there is no way to fully escape reality right no ..read more

 1. Much like Game 3, lots to unravel here. But the one thing I learned in journalism school (other than I did not want to be a professional journalist) was not to bury the lead. For me, the “lead” in this game is a bit more murky than usual. The game went down to the wire, but I actually think it was decided (or at least saved) in the third quarter. That onslaught from the Rockets out of halftime was absurd. Not only did they start 8-8 from three, but they scored 17 points in three minutes on 100% shooting. Many of those shots were contested. That is a very hard punch to take and get off ..read more

 1. Well, lots to unpack here. In terms of game analysis there is a lot to cover; these types of games make basketball geeks pretty happy. But I’ll start with something a little more personal and fan-related. I made an ass of myself for the first time in almost half a year tonight. I should probably clarify that: I made an ass of myself for the first time in almost half a year tonight as it relates to watching sports. There, that should make my wife happy (I actually almost started a fire in our backyard today so I have a feeling she might take issue with the general “made an ass of somet ..read more

 1. I’m often wrong about sports. But I’m honestly not very often truly surprised. Perhaps that’s what a lifetime of watching games religiously does; call it instinct or cynicism or experience, but I’m not often legit surprised by outcomes. Now, I’m not saying an individual game result hasn’t left me shocked— that happens a lot. I’m talking about deeper outcomes. This series would fall into that category. I thought it was a 50/50 series and I picked the Thunder in 7. So the fact that we could lose the series isn’t surprising to me in the least. What DOES surprise me is how inferior we’ve ..read more

 1. 483 days. That’s how long we waited between Thunder playoff games. The last time we watched them in the post season, Lillard was waving goodbye to the 2019 Thunder season; little did we know he was also essentially waving goodbye to the Thunder as we knew them. It’s been quite the eventful 483 days since that shot— both for the Thunder organization and the world at large. I did, however, find myself in the same exact spot tonight where I sat for that late night game in Portland 483 days ago— on my couch. And I was pretty pumped when the game started. And I got pretty frustrated pretty ..read more

1. Thunder decided to take this game halfway seriously. I’m not a huge fan of half measures though. I understand it meant very little in the grand scheme and I understand the goal was likely to get the key players one last good sweat before next week. But I didn’t like the spotty defense at all. Our starters also struggled in the third quarter after Miami had gone to their bench. It was good that the team battled back from the early hole to keep it close at the half, but I don’t think the starters gained much of anything tonight other than perhaps a high-level practice. I also doubt it cost th ..read more

 1. First quarter was cool. I should probably just stop there. I’m not shocked at this point by any level of “load management” implemented league-wide, but I will say I’m a bit surprised that after a five month hiatus that so many teams seem to have taken a “meh” approach to the seeding games. Now, truth be told I suppose in actuality very little was on the line for the teams other than the West teams battling for the play-in game. And those teams haven’t subscribed to any load management. Entering the bubble the Thunder had a slim shot at the 2/3 seed, but any hope of that went out ..read more

Well, not quite sure where to begin or even HOW to begin. My last blog post was after the thrilling Thunder victory in Boston back in early March. My plan was attend the Utah game, but with my business about to be effective by what was then a POSSIBLE shutdown, I decided to give my tickets away that night. So I was not in the building the night the world stopped turning on its axis. I was watching though. At first I was simply too depressed to write about it. Just crushed as a fan. Then, I started finding it impossible to discuss damn near anything without venturing into politics or social tak ..read more

1. For those of you who dabble in Twitter, Rex Chapman is a must-follow. While he is a former player and current analyst, his feed has very little to do with anything related to basketball. His “block or charge” tweets are gold and he also posts some random funny/uplifting videos. One of his other angles is about dogs. He is clearly a dog lover and enjoys posting videos showing dogs doing amazing/funny things. His text on all of these tweets is simply, “Dogs, bruh.” And when I watch the Thunder this year, sometimes all I can think to say is “this team, bruh.” So that’s how I communicate in gam ..read more