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Sorry, Minnesota Timberwolves and Washington Wizards. I know the Thunder plays you this week, but I couldn’t care less. It’s Heat Week.
Oh, sure, I’ll be watching the T-Wolves game and attending the Wizards game, just like always. I want the Thunder to win both, and it will be embarrassing if they drop either. But ultimately, as I’m sure many Thunder fans would agree, I’m focused on the Miami game at noon Sunday.
All of the “Thunder is the anti-Heat” talk was so abundant and repetitive last summer that I got tired of hearing it before the season even started. But that doesn’t mean there’s not at least a hint of truth to it, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t crave a home win over any team more than I want one over the Heat (with the possible, and I do mean possible, exception of the Lakers). It’s been circled on my calendar since the day the schedule came out. It’s on ABC. The arena will be rocking unlike any other regular season game since the team arrived in Oklahoma City. In short, this may be the most anticipated regular season game in OKC’s brief NBA history.
It is a battle of contender-building methods. There’s no hope of assembling a Heat-like collection of free-agent talent in Oklahoma City. Sorry, but it’s going to be hard to sign anybody other than a middling free agent if another team in a more desirable city is able to dangle similar dollars. I’m not saying any free agent who regards central Oklahoma with disdain would be right in doing so, but it’s reality. The only way OKC is going to be successful someday after the Kevin Durant era ends (hopefully in another 15 years…) is through more luck in the draft and resourceful front office moves. There will never be an easy-bake juggernaut here like the one assembled in Miami. So it’s easy to think 0f this as a one-game test of whether the Oklahoma City strategy is a big-time winning one, especially if you’re viewing it with blue-tinted glasses. And it will be easy to think that of all the other Thunder-Heat games in the coming seasons. Read more…
Commentary
Miami Heat
(The idea that KD is good and LeBron is bad was discussed a few weeks ago, but just on the surface. What about their teams? Is this truly a good versus evil type of dynamic in the NBA this year? JG takes a closer look.)
Far too often in sports, professional athletes and teams are given exaggerated names or labeled with one of a million cliched analogies that they just don’t deserve. Hyperbole runs rampant in the information age and so many, many a fan rolls their eyes when they hear words like “the game of the decade” or “the best _______ I’ve ever seen” so much so that a doubting reluctance to pay attention to any demonstrative title or name becomes almost second nature.
The reason I say this is to try and illustrate how much disdain I personally feel when a team or athlete is hyped to an unbelievable degree or labeled as something so outlandish and absurd that all you can really do is laugh about the strained connection some writer or media member tried to make between a true icon of the sports world or a timeless character from books, movies, history, etc and some modern day athlete playing a game for a living.
Why? Well, because I’m about to do just that.
You see, I’ve been diving into the defining traits of the all-time great modern villains in literature and film, or as I like to call them, the Degrees of Diabolicalness, for my book’s website and I couldn’t help but notice the striking parallels between legendary, epic villains and—the Miami Heat.
Now while that might not be all that surprising, the realization that the Miami Heat would be the NBA’s version of the Empire led me to an almost inevitable inquiry: If the Miami Heat are the Empire, does that make the Thunder the Rebellion?
Read more…
Commentary
Miami Heat, Oklahoma City Thunder
vs. 
Miami Heat (20-18) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (21-18, 11-9 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 7:00 CST
View from the enemy: Hot Hot Hoops
Home games get more and more valuable as we go. The Heat are a good team. But these are the home wins the Thunder need to start putting away. If you can beat them on the road, you should be able to beat them at home, right? No, don’t bring up the Spurs game. Read more…
Preview
Miami Heat
BOX SCORE
(AP Photo/J Pat Carter)
I have no idea what is going on here. This actually comes to mind.
So the Thunder drops a bad one at home to the Clippers. Then heads out on the road – the place they were 8-33 last year – and beats the 7-2 Miami Heat 100-87. That gives Oklahoma City its third straight road win, the first time that has happened for this franchise since 2007. Did we see this coming? Yes and no.
I think it’s clear this team is going to win games. If you picture them at all like last year’s group, just forget it. This is like a Wayne Knight transformation. Like I’ve said, it’s not about hoping to be competitive anymore. That was last year. But it’s also not really about expecting wins. This team is at the point where you expect to have a CHANCE to win. And when you do that, you come out on top a lot of the time. Read more…
Recap
Miami Heat
vs. 
Oklahoma City Thunder (5-5, 3-2 road) vs. Miami Heat (7-2, 5-1 home)
TV: FS Oklahoma (Cox 37, HD 722, Tulsa Cox 27, DirectTV 679, UVerse 753)
Stream: Click Here
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 FM Tulsa)
Time: 6:30 CST
View from the enemy: Hot Hot Hoops
Offensive Rating: Thunder – 101.9 (25th), Heat – 105.9 (16th)
Defensive Rating: Thunder – 99.5 (4th), Heat – 99.2 (3rd)
Pace: Thunder – 90.9 (25th), Heat – 90.8 (26th)
Can someone tell me why the HEAT always capitalize their name? I’ve always wondered this but never wanted to ask. So I am now. Why do they shout their name at us? Anyone?
Anycrap, Oklahoma City travels to Florida for a two-game tilt in Miami and Orlando. Right on time too because the weather decided to get extremely cold here in Oklahoma. So enjoy your sun boys. This is a game last year where I watch only to hope to see a competitive team. I watch just to hope it finishes in single digits. This year, I’m not EXPECTING a win, but I’m watching because I realistically could see one. Read more…
Preview
Miami Heat
BOX SCORE 
Not the most exciting game ever. At least for the first three quarters. Kevin Durant was in foul trouble and didn’t play a ton. The Tulsa crowd was a little sparse mainly because of the competing Boise St./Tulsa game (but the official attendance was over 10,000 which is pretty nice). Scott Brooks was tinkering with lineups and a lot of deep bench guys saw action. And it just felt like a preseason game. Lots of whistles, lot of turnovers and quite a bit of sloppy play.
But it picked up very nicely in the final 12. Durant had 18 of his 30 points in the fourth as the starters came in and played well leading Oklahoma City to make up a nine-point deficit to win 96-91. What was good about this game was that it was an ideal demo for closing a tight game. The Thunder needed stops, needed quality execution and needed to make smart plays down the stretch. Check, check and check. Both coaches saw the opportunity to get some serious work in, as the starters played almost all the key minutes. And the Thunder were the ones to finish it out.
The best part? The defense. The Thunder got close by Durant going off. Then hung tight moving between down one and down three for a few minutes. But what won the game was OKC got a few stops, capitalized on the stops and did what needed to be done to win. While just a preseason game, encouraging it is. Read more…
Recap
Miami Heat
vs. 
Miami Heat (0-3) vs. Oklahoma City Thunder (1-2)
TV: Thunder TV – KSBI 52 (Cox 15, HD 715)
Radio: WWLS The Sports Animal (98.1 FM, 640 AM, 97.1 AM Tulsa, Web Stream)
Time: 7:00 CST
View from the enemy: Hot Hot Hoops
Another preseason game. Sigh. HOWEVA, it’s at the new BOK Center, which is neat. I went up to the new arena a couple weeks ago for a concert and I was really impressed. Very nice. Hopefully events like this can begin to extend the Thunder brand more into Tulsa. It’s a slow process for this team to build a brand, but doing it in two nice sized markets will definitely benefit the team and especially its TV deals.
As for the game, my eyes are on No. 9 and No. 9 alone. He’s all I want to watch. When he gets the ball, in my mind he turns into that little league bench player that never scores. Shoot it! Shoooooot it! Come on, SHOOT IT! If we’re lucky, he’ll knock out a few light bulbs on the scoreboard with a monster rejection. Hopefully this all isn’t a preseason aberration and Sir Iblocka/Chewblocka/King Congo lets us all down. That would break my heart. Read more…
Preview
Miami Heat
