The Side Part: Strange times

I can’t decide if the most Thunder thing in the world would be for them to beat the Warriors tonight by 15, or lose to them by 40. It feels like both, somehow, would fit, narratively speaking. When Durant, Westbrook, and Ibaka have been healthy, the Thunder have had countless moments, these usually come in the playoffs, where people sound the double sirens saying that disaster has officially come for them. It’s happened against the Grizzlies, Spurs, and Clips at different times. And always, when the main three have been healthy, the Thunder have dealt with the questions, weathered the storm, and survived. This weird year, though.

The regular season has been strange, and that’s only taking into account what’s happened on the floor. Add in the off the court stuff, of which there has plenty, and the season feels like it’s coming at you sideways. This is the most confusing Thunder team since they got to Oklahoma City. They’re properly confounding, schizophrenic. I could make more sense out of Earl Watson-Robert Swift PnR’s and Desmond Mason iso’d on the wing than I can this.

There are these euphoric basketball moments at times. Plays where you see the full breadth of their abilities, Durant and Westbrook running the break with one another, Westbrook’s chemistry with Adams on those lobs, the ball actually and finally moving till it lands in a capable someone’s hands for a corner three. And in those moments you look at this team and you say: They can win the whole thing. But then Mr. Hyde comes out. And there are the TO’s. And the ball sticks. And they can’t get stops. And they go without a field goal for seven minutes. And you wonder, you put your hands over your face when you do this, this is after you’ve thrown something, a remote or a hat or a bottle, and you look at an empty space in the carpet and you say, “What is going on?”

Last night’s game was the poster child for the thing where you think they’ve got it in the bag and you have to wake up early tomorrow so you go to bed and then you wake up and are just casually checking Twitter to avoid starting your day and you see a picture of Trump’s son on some past safari holding the dismembered, bloody tail of an elephant and then a promoted tweet from Ancestry.com and then Nike’s releasing new Air Maxes and GQ’s linking to something about Why A $10,000 Suit Costs $10,000 and then wait, the Thunder lost? If it were a video game the Clippers would have pulled the chord on the console early in the fourth. OKC was dubbing them. How did they lose?

Fourth quarters with this Thunder team are like trying to hold onto sand. Since the All-Star break they’ve simultaneously, somehow, found ways to both inspire confidence and make people worry about the state of the team, all at the same time. They are losing leads with an insane amount of regularity against quality teams—to the point where you’re watching the lead balloon and in the back of your mind thinking They better not lose this, though—but they are also the team in the league who looks like they can give the Warriors the most trouble. The Thunder look so great at times, Durant and Westbrook playing better than ever most cases, and those moments of transcendence coupled with letdowns like last night’s are what make them the most bi-polar team I can remember.

They’re 2-5 since the All-Star break. Every player on the team has taken turns, at times, seeming weirdly out of it. There are possessions late in games where they have looked like they don’t know what to do. They get back to enjoying a view of Durant or Westbrook dribbling and then launching something from 22 feet. And where before those moments were frustrating, now they’re infuriating, because fans have vacationed in a land of free flowing offense, with multiple options playing confidently, whipping the ball around, driving closeouts, kicking to shooters. You see them play like they did late in the game last night and you are just shouting at your television with your hands on your head, “Remember how good you are.”