Deonte Burton canned a 3 at the first quarter buzzer. PG loved it, celebrated with fans, and met Russ at mid-court for a celebration. You knew something special was brewing.
Thunder up 36-26 after one quarter. Paul George dropped 17 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists in the first quarter. High-fived all of Oklahoma City on his way to the bench. #ThunderUppic.twitter.com/TKQ7mr4LyD
Russell Westbrook went on to obtain a 10th straight triple-double, giving him sole possession of the longest such streak in NBA history. This is your weekly reminder to take it all in. If you’re a Thunder fan, you’re REGULARLY seeing history made. We are spoiled, folks.
Can we coin the term Triple-Double City yet? Paul George messed around and got himself one against the Blazers, as well.
PG and Russ became the FIRST pair of teammates to have 20-point triple-doubles in the same game.
Westbrook: 21 points, 14 rebounds, 11 last, 2 blocks
Listen, I’m not going to spend much time on this. It is what it is. The Thunder looked ready to head into the All-Star break and I can’t blame them. I’m useless the day before Christmas/Spring Break.
That being said, the Thunder lost a game they most definitely had no business losing.
Russell did something cool though:
Russell Westbrook: All-Time Leading Scorer in Thunder history.
I cannot wait until the Seattle SuperSonics are a thing again. 1. I don’t like the mucky shared history thing. 2. Can you imagine how big of a rivalry OKC vs. Seattle is going to be? I’m here for that.
Westbrook went on to extend his triple-double streak to 11 games. The Thunder would lose though, so we aren’t allowed to get excited about it. You know the rules.
(Russell had quite a performance, though. Season-high 44 points, 14 rebounds, 11 assists, and two blocks.)
My thoughts going into the Dunk Contest: Hamidou’s got a shot at winning this thing, but probably won’t. I just wasn’t confident the judges would give him a fair shake.
I was wrong. Hami was, by far, the best dunker of the night.
Are we all going to ignore the fact that it took Russell Westbrook ONE TRY to get a pass of the corner of the backboard perfect?
A big part of Dunk Contest is not having to try your dunks over and over until you get them right. Hami was fantastic at this. Everyone else, not so much.
I think we’ll see this one replayed for a few years. No, it’s not a Top 10 all-time dunk, but it looked so good from every angle.
Kudos to all involved. So cool to see Shaq be a good sport (was he in on this from the start?!) And the rook has some charisma to him we haven’t seen yet! Also — we got this incredible picture from the Thunder:
It was a pretty relaxed night for our Thunder duo and I’m fine with it. I try not to care too much about these, but was definitely hoping Team Giannis would pull it out in the end. Go figure, the ONE time I actually want Steph to hit some threes, he can’t.
Great moment as Russ sets an (illegal) screen to set up the Dirk three. The Brodie loved it.
I like the signing. The Thunder needed someone who can come in with the second unit and bring the nasty. I think Kieff has some dog in him and that could come in very handy in heated Playoff match-ups.
Russ isn’t slowing down with PE’s of his Why Not Zer0.2. The box the shoes come in have been just as much fun to watch. Check out the Bear Jordans:
Tag your Valentine so they know what kind of chocolates you’re expecting.
I hope the Thunder enjoy their break because we are getting into serious basketball seriously quickly.
Predictions:
Win @ Jazz | 57% Confidence | I think Westbrook’s triple-double streak comes to an end here. No idea how the Thunder will play coming out of the break. They were absolutely rolling the past few weeks.
Win vs. Kings | 80% Confidence | I think OKC shows up at home against a good Kings squad. There’s no Iman Shumpert to drop 30 points, either. Definite plus.
Buckle up. Things are going to get intense down the stretch in the Western Conference.