National Basketball Association

Views from OKC: LA who? Tomorrow is Warriors Wednesday

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 7:39 p.m. ET

Fansided, Tony Heim/FanSided via Thunderous Intentions

Credit: Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Welcome to Views from OKC, Thunderous Intentions’ daily roundup of the best OKC Thunder stories across the web.New to Views from OKC? Glad to have you here, and I hope you’ll make this a daily destination. Well, let’s get started!

Thunder loss proves how important Steven Adams is

“Head Coach Billy Donovan’s club will get back to the drawing board before taking on the Golden State Warriors on Wednesday, and within the NBA’s protocol, will evaluate the availability of Steven Adams, who missed tonight’s game due to a concussion. Regardless of the schedule – every NBA team faces similar types of travel hardships – the Thunder knows that it can play better in just about every facet of the game compared to what it showed.”

As soon as I saw Domantas Sabonis lined up against Deandre Jordan at tipoff I knew the Thunder were going to get blown out. Sabonis has struggled all season against athletic power forwards, so how was he supposed to handle the preeminent freak center? Why not start Joffrey Lauvergne on him to at least give Jordan a defender who wouldn’t back down? Don’t get me wrong, this loss wasn’t Domas’ fault; Domas simply made it clear we had no chance of winning.

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Keeping an eye on Adams

“Adams has slowly evolved into one of the most important players on the Thunder roster. He is averaging a career-high 12 points per game, while his 7.5 rebounds per game match his career best. He also ranks third on the Thunder with .154 win shares per 48 minutes, per Basketball-Reference.com.”

Looking back, last night may have been the most important games of the season. Not because the Thunder had to win, but because we saw how influential Steven Adams is…on offense. We know all about his defense, but 12 points a game never screamed “offensive juggernaut!!” The Big Kiwi isn’t a juggernaut just yet, but his mere presence down low opens up so much space for Russell Westbrook to penetrate the defense. If he’s out Wednesday there’s almost no sense in watching; another blowout loss to GS will only bring more pain.

More from Thunderous Intentions

What Thunder players deserve end-of-season awards?

“We are at the NBA season’s midpoint, which means we finally have seen enough games and compiled enough stats to start a conversation about the NBA end-of-season awards. Nothing is close to locked in yet, this is more like a horse race that is just coming out of the backstretch and starting the sweeping turn towards the finish line — a lot of things can change, and there will be players making late runs at some of these awards.”

FINALLY A NON-OKC REPORTER/WRITER/BLOGGER GIVES ENES KANTER SOME CREDIT HE DESERVES!! As of now Eric Gordon is my Sixth Man of the Year, but Kanter is barely mentioned by most national pundits. Another thing that annoys me? Dan Harbaugh picking three Rockets to win five of the awards. If the 73-9 Warriors couldn’t get three than this Rockets team doesn’t deserve that sort of recognition. AKA Russ is the MVP.