The Side Part: A December to remember basketball event
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1. My boss does this thing where he calls the Thunder the Thundies. In listening to him, it’s sort of like he thinks it makes him knowledgeable about basketball, to call them something else. It establishes some intimacy between he and them.
Like, you give somebody a nickname when you’ve been around them for a little while and you’ve gotten close. He gives the Thunder a nickname to have something to talk about with me.
What’s up with the Thundies?
What’s that?
The Thunder.
Oh. Better now. Durant and Westbrook are both back. Won their last three.
Thundies back on track.
I mean, I hope so.
Thundies.
Yea.
Hey, can you call this person back for me?
So on.
2. When Tyreek Hill caught that second punt I was already cursing very loudly over bites of Domino’s. I was calling Stoops a combination of the things that Buddy Rich called his band. How do you re-kick to a world class sprinter? There are pictures of him online in USA track gear. You don’t ever re-kick to a guy with access to USA track gear. He got access to that gear by being very fast. I’ll stop beating a very dead horse. But now that Bedlam has come and gone, Hill having ripped out the hearts and souls of Sooner fans, lit a match, and set them on fire in that south end zone, we can all band back together under one blue and orange cause: Thunder basketball.
3. This is what the Thunder’s schedule looks like for the rest of December:
Dec. 11 – Cleveland
Dec. 12 – at Minnesota
Dec. 14 – Phoenix
Dec. 16 – at Sacramento
Dec. 18 – at Golden State
Dec. 19 – at Los Angeles Lakers
Dec. 21 – New Orleans
Dec. 23 – Portland
Dec. 25 – at San Antonio
Dec. 26 – Charlotte
Dec. 28 – at Dallas
Dec. 31 – Phoenix
That’s a rather murderous row of games to close out 2014. The West is The Rock with a 4×4. The one probable gimme in that whole bunch is LA. You could extend that out to Charlotte, maybe, but other than that, these are all games it’s going to be necessary to work for. At San Antonio is not at all a fun Christmas gift. It’s not a Nintendo 64. It’s not a Super Soaker. It’s a terrible Christmas gift. It’s socks. That whole schedule is socks. The Running Hornaceks, Curry and Klay and Kerr and friends, The Boogie Brigade, another helping of Velvet Radiation, LaMarcus, Dirk, Phoenix again, on and on and on.
I’m saying, things are not going to be getting any easier. It’s going to take great basketball to make a move up the standings. Greatness is a distinct possibility with this squad, but still, there is no breathing room. Slumps are not an option. There can be no letdown. It’s pedals down until the end of the year.
4. The easing into it is now over, the Thunder having recently dispatched a Who’s Who of bad to exciting-but-still-mediocre Eastern conference teams over the past three games. After Durant’s return was ruined by Anthony “Velvet Radiation” Davis and his merry band of PeliCANs, the Thunder rolled onto three much needed W’s in a row, beating the 76ers, Pistons and Bucks. And while those were nice, they were also expected, and very necessary. Now, though, a real quiz comes heavy and with a great deal of hype surrounding it.
The Cavaliers and their homecoming king — unless his knee has other plans — are in Oklahoma City tonight. So is TNT. A big game before Christmas probably doesn’t actually exist, but this certainly feels like one that does. The Thunder, having started a few miles behind the rest of the pack, are frantically scrambling for wins now that they’re at full strength. The Cavs, at 13-7, come in having struggled more for these first 20 games than people might have anticipated, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this is a team that will have a lot to say about where the Larry O’Brien trophy resides at the end of the season.
It’s still so early. No championships have ever been won in December. This is the meeting of two teams still very much evolving, very much still figuring themselves out. The Thunder are re-assimilating folks old and new into the lineup. The Cavs are figuring out this new three-headed monster they’ve been given. Tonight should be fun.
