Not exactly what we wanted….

Good morning. If you can call it good, I really wanted to post yesterday but every time I tried to think about the game, I just got mad.

It sucks but I do think that it was needed, to be honest. Sometimes to put that sense of urgency on we gotta get knocked down, still…. We had the game won all we had to do is play defense one more possession.

Marks philosophy for the game was to foul while we were up 3 to force the free throw game obviously that was an unpopular play in the eyes of many.

Personally, I get it. Gameplay was getting bogged down, Jokic took 10 free throws in the last 6 MINUTES of gameplay, with I’ll give maybe 1 or 2 of those calls…. Maybe. And at that point, the air had been all but killed in the building. In any case, the game had been slowed down to a point where the only thing it felt legal to do was take free throws, and I’m not sure if that was the reason or if we were just doing it because we were scared, but who knows besides Mark?

And don’t get me wrong, I’m extremely frustrated that we lost. I was at the game, and I don’t think I uttered a word until we left the building.

The free throws were not the only reason we lost; however, it was more or less a culmination of what the national media will call inexperience. maybe they are right? It’s hard to believe that the best defense in the league, and apparently all time, is getting knocked out in the 2nd round again. I personally don’t think so, I think this gives us a kick in the ass that we need to get going. Also, Chet should’ve made those free throws, obviously, but even if he does, we still probably go to OT and then maybe a loss as but who really knows. Additionally, as much hate as he gets sometimes for whatever reason, JDub is going to be the key to winning not only tonight but this series. The man just had a career high for playoffs last series, he shot 5/20, okay, but I’d rather him be taking 20 shots over Caruso every time. Dion Waiters once said “I’d rather go 0/30 than 0/9 because if you only shoot 9 times, it means you lost confidence”. he was still solid defensively and had 2 blocks and 2 steals.

I’m going to try something different for this game and give keys to the game per game number:

Game 2: 2-Keys

Key 1: Get the offense going early. A big key with the Thunder this year was their net rating. Last series game one against the Grizzlies, they won by 51, and in the first half, they got up by 32 at halftime. The offense has been the key in these games. We have been generating great shots even last game we just have to knock them down I know it’s easier said than done but we have to play within ourselves and knock them down I have complete faith in Shai to continue scoring consistently.

Key 2: GET A REBOUND. Seriously I know JDub was being ironic about the way to get a rebound but seriously. Hartenstein and Chet got outrebounded by Jokic alone that shouldn’t happen even though Jokic is a generational player. They beat us in 2nd chance points and points in the paint. I even saw Christian Braun get a rebound through three of us yesterday and it is just a momentum killer.

Overall, we know what our defense can do they’ve been doing it all year consistently we as a group need to lock in and get it done and if we don’t maybe we don’t deserve to be the best in the league.

Final score prediction 120-103 Thunder, I hope we have something figured out and I think we do and go back to Denver with some momentum.

A little bonus here is us accidentally walking in the thunder parade to the arena we were actually in the front of the parade at walking to the arena. We didn’t realize all the OKC media people were taking pictures and videos lol.

Anyways happy Gameday!!

THUNDERUP!!!!