Last night, the Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Atlanta Hawks 102 – 99 on their home court. Seeing how Klay Thompson lit the Pacers up for 60 points, nobody cared about that. They also probably didn’t care that last night’s Warriors win brought them to two straight.
But, when the season began, everybody was talking about Oklahoma City and the Thunder. Kevin Durant literally built the Thunder from nothing and Russell Westbrook was his right-hand man. They almost did the impossible and beat the Warriors, then Durant joined them.
Before Kevin Durant left OKC, there were rumors of him not getting along with Russell Westbrook. When the season began, most critics hated the Warriors and wanted them to lose, which they did. Meanwhile, Westbrook put up monster numbers and the Thunder were the early top team out West.
By the time the Thunder played the Warriors, the magic wore off and OKC was back to normal. As expected, the new big three in Golden State wore the Thunder out. That was the midst of a tough stretch for the Thunder and then the real expectations of the team’s failure began to become the topic of discussion.
Slowly and quietly, though, the Thunder have fought back, starting with an exciting overtime win in Denver. They followed that up with wins over the Pistons, Knicks, Wizards, Pelicans, and, last night, the Hawks. Westbrook is out here playing like an MVP again, but nobody is talking about that, either.
