Recap: Thunder win, sort of... Against eight man Golden State Warriors

Sometimes when you win, you actually lose... Face at least...

The tendency after a win is to praise the players from the winning team that stood out. Why? It’s their job to win... I did my donkey job(s) for donkey’s years and never got praised by anyone... Other than a few drunken customers...

So we won’t be doing that today...

Sadly, not anyone can make the NBA, or I wouldn’t be writing this. You have to be tall. and good at actual basketball, or named Singler... Then tonight, GSW broke that rule by trotting out a Who’s That starting line-up of Alec Burks, GR3, Big Willie, rookie Eric Paschall and the two-way contract of Ky Bowman. Notice I did them the dignity of looking their names up - they deserve it.

There’s a cricket saying ‘flat-track bully’ which is about a batsman who flourishes mainly when the pitch is basically rolled-mud, which gives the bowlers no assistance...

Thus, I expected a few old pros to put runs on the board today, and they did with Gallo getting 15 and Chris Paul 20, but the top scorer for the 4th time this year was Dennis the Menace with 22. I take this as a bad sign of where our team is at, especially our starters. We aren’t getting consistent starter production - which is not unheard of, but the three never takes up the slack.

This was supposed to be a chance for the rookies to show out against a, bunch of G-Leaguers and they didn’t take it. Pure and simple. The team coming away with players in their back pocket today is the Warriors. They had eight men (including three rookies) and we used 10. Their eight were ferocious though and fought tooth and nail, taking the lead in the first quarter and not surrendering it until the end of the fourth. They only lost when our two savvy vets took over and excluded the rest. Sport is a cruel mistress, there are no moral victories, but there is pride and there are doubts and they affect your foundation in opposite ways.

We’re rebuilding. We need to sift through silt looking for glimmers of gold. But it was Golden State who may have uncovered nuggets, with guards Bowman getting 24 points and GR3 collecting a career high 25 - on his way to being GR8? - leading all scorers.

The sole-redeeming feature of today’s debacle is I got the margin right... And ESPN didn’t... Didn’t even pick the winner correctly...

Questions.

1) Diablo is out, and seems to be always out. This makes T-Ferg the default SF, and worse drags Egypt’s second best NBA player ever the TermiNader into the rotation... Stick with it, it’s a question I swear... So why isn’t Adams sitting too? He’s clearly struggling...

2) Gallo and his ‘big and roll’ with Adams, has been one of the few bright spots this season... He’s also smart and a shining example to any young player... Moreover, he mans the problematic four spot... What I’m hinting at, is there any chance he’d re-sign and what would it cost us?

3) Christmas is coming so naturally the first and only Noel is playing well. Probably because he’s hoping all his Christmas’s come at once with a huge payday next season. Note, Noel has already turned down a maximum or maxim-ish $70m deal at Dallas, on the suspect advice of his now fired agent, Happy Walters, now presumably known as Unhappy Walters... He’s since signed with ‘super-agent’ Rich Paul of Klutch Sports. While he klearly kan’t spell, Rich Paul can haggle - all rich people can - so all our current Noel love may end up costing us... How much is the question? Mostly, but more exactly, how much are you willing to offer? What is our favourite stick- figure mop-top actually worth to this franchise?

4) The Dubs didn’t win, but still rubbed our noses in it, with the cheapest starting-five of all time - or this decade at least... Alec Burks, GR3, Paschall, Big Willie and 2-way contract Bowman cost GSW a combined $7m for this season. They used only eight players in total, including three rookies. Coming off the shallow bench were Poole, Chriss and Spellman, collectively costing another $5.5m. So, altogether a $12.5m NBA squad, including three rookies, almost beat us... Hmm...Meanwhile, our starting-five cost around $90m this year... Even more the next... So what’s the question? Simple, it’s why? Why me? Why can’t I have a cheap effective winning team?