The Side Part: Reunion

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Well that’s one. After the Season From Hell the Season of Perpetual Hope began last night and all in all it was a success. A six point win over another title favorite, the Spurs, the Thunder winning 112-106. Maybe the most encouraging part of the win was how imperfect a performance it was. It was not sharp and that’s to be expected. It was the first game of the year and everything that comes with that — the rust, the pressing, figuring out spots — was on display for all to see.

But man was it good to see everybody. Our friends returned and they were just as cool as we remembered. Durant was guarded well by Kawhi all night and generally looked like a superstar who had missed over half the previous season, but when the clocked ticked on toward Winning Time he made plays as he always has. He missed some shots he’ll make going away in the future, but a little clank here and there is to be expected considering where his nerve/excitement level was probably at last night.

He was also being guarded by an alien life form. At this point Kawhi’s defense is like an airborne virus. He doesn’t even need to be directly on you to be present within you. Anthony Davis and Draymond Green and Some Other Guy That Won’t Win Like Gobert Or Someone will get plenty of shine from people for DPOY this year, but if Kawhi stays healthy it’d be difficult to imagine him not repeating. He’s in Deion Sanders’ “I cover the other fourth” analogy territory. Nobody in the league can rip a guy like he can and Durant’s ability to deal with that, to lose some (many, last night) battles throughout the game and still keep his head and his confidence, and make big shots when it counted — what a perfect reminder of the monster he is. What an unsurprising thing from him, too. He’s long made shots when the Thunder needed them. I’m upset with myself for having any doubt when that three was in the air that it’s final destination would be BUCKETS. And didn’t you feel like you got to rediscover Durant a little bit last night? When he took those long strides we’d become so accustomed to over the years, didn’t part of you go I forgot about that? HOW DARE I FORGET ABOUT THAT BUT I FORGOT ABOUT THAT. I FORGOT ABOUT THE DEPTH OF HIS HOW DID HE DO THAT(?) ABILITIES. SHAME ON ME.

Russell Westbrook is still a heaven-spun mixture of the bones of some future species of cheetah-shark. The guy’s a chark. He’s making us make up animals. The Spurs still don’t have a single guy beyond Kawhi who can do anything with him, and Durant’s keeping him plenty busy. Danny Green gets deserved credit for being a good defender, but Russ just eats against the Spurs. Tony Parker’s helpless against him. Same with Patty Mills.

Russ is out to prove that last year’s explosive season was no fluke. He had to sit for the entire playoffs as everyone tripped over themselves to love on Curry and Harden — for good enough reasons, sure — but Russ is heavy on confidence and short on subtlety. He tasted dominance last year and though I’ve never got an opportunity to even eat a place with that dish on the menu, I’d imagine it’s not something that you’re just cool never eating again. The only thing missing from his performance last night was the rebounding, and he didn’t not corral them for lack of effort. He was as active as he always is. There just weren’t that many boards to go around. Kanter hungry-hippo-d 16 of them at an insane rate. That combined with Durant, Ibaka and Adams all playing significant minutes, there just weren’t a ton to go around.

And as for turnovers, if Russ is attacking, being aggressive and putting the defense in compromising positions to the fluid tune of 33 and 10 then you deal with 5 TO’s. If he’s putting up numbers like that nightly you invite the 5 TO’s over to your house for a movie. You watch what they want you to. You bake them cookies, let them sleep in your bed. Tuck them in and tiptoe out of the room and shut the door super slowly while you turn the handle so the click doesn’t wake them. When they wake up in the morning you have breakfast, coffee and a cab waiting on them. Kiss them goodbye. Tell them you love them and that you can’t wait to see them again.

Certainly there were less than stellar things that happened last night. Ibaka did not play particularly well. You’d like to see him be more effective than, but the shots were there, and they were good shots. He’s an elite catch and shoot guy at this point and if history repeats itself he’ll again find himself in the upper echelon. Kanter’s defense, as it will be, was porous. Haberstroh tweeted out this morning that his defensive rating was at 118.1 last night. That’s, you know, not good. At all. Not even in the dreamland I like to occupy.

But he was active in the post, and scored and rebounded at an incredible rate. He did what everyone got used to him doing during his tenure with the Thunder last year. Against second units (and he was giving it the ones, too) he’ll feast. Adams wasn’t spectacular, but he was solid, and that’s all the Thunder need him to be. He played great post defense against Duncan and Aldridge and his hair looked immaculate. The Mitch McGary Fan Club aka #Garys didn’t get a chance to get going last night, but the time is coming when our redeemer will puppy dog sprint into our lives once more. Coming off a concussion it’s possible Donovan was just holding him out to be safe, or maybe he thought Collison was a better play against the seasoned front line San Antonio trots out. Collison played a forgettable 8:22 SAID NO ONE EVER HE IS THE GREATEST AND WILL BE REMEMBERED AS SUCH.

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Have you ever gone to a reunion filled with people you wanted to see? A bunch of friends from high school? College, if high school wasn’t fun? I don’t mean that sarcastically. Sincerely, have you ever gone and seen friends that you haven’t seen in awhile? And before you got there, on the way to the hotel or the campus or the Arby’s or wherever it was, you were imagining how they were going to look? Not that you don’t know, really. You’ve seen pictures of them on Facebook or Instagram. You can see what they look like. But maybe your mind wanders off to imagine the details of the person. How will they look? Happy? Sad? Tired? Will they be joyful? Will they be as fun as they used to be? Will we be able to talk about the same things we used to talk about? Will we find the same things funny? Will it take us some time to get back in the swing of things? Or will it be like none of us ever left each other? Will it be like we have seen each other every day since that last day we were all together?

Last night all our buddies came back and they were what we remembered them to be. They were fun, and good, and you looked at them and thought:

Oh, yeah. I knew I loved being with them. I’m so glad they didn’t turn into jerks. They’re all still so great.