National Basketball Association

Views from OKC: Yikes

Updated Mar. 4, 2020 5:07 p.m. ET

Fansided, Tony Heim/FanSided via Thunderous Intentions

January 18, 2017; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors center Zaza Pachulia (27) fouls Oklahoma City Thunder guard Russell Westbrook (0) receiving a flagrant foul during the second quarter at Oracle Arena. Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

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

Thunder cause riots in Oklahoma City

“Amid a third loss in as many games, Russell Westbrook finished with 28 points, eight assists, and five rebounds in 29 minutes of action. Overall, OKC shot just 38 percent from the field while placing Chicago at the foul line 30 times.”

I really don’t have much to say until later on in the column.

A FiveThirtyEight article on Russell Westbrook

“Westbrook is involved in an NBA-high seven transition plays per game. And according to an analysis run at FiveThirtyEight’s request by Brittni Donaldson of SportVU, which tracks nearly everything that happens on an NBA court, there have been 413 instances1 this season where, following a turnover or a defensive rebound in the backcourt, Westbrook took at least three dribbles and covered at least 20 feet with those dribbles. For context, John Wall, the next closest player, has done that 257 times.”

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This is crazy. Any time you do a deep dive on Russell Westbrook like this, there’s a 99% chance that he comes out miles ahead of the next closest person. If these last three games have shown you anything, it’s that Russ is not a human being. This roster should not be 28-22. But they are because of the incomprehensible season Russ is putting together.

Views from Twitter

There are two types of fans.

@thunderousint this is rock bottom. The skid starts now

— Hating with Facts (@IHateYourTeams) February 2, 2017

And

@thunderousint Thunder twitter needs to chill out. We all knew they were going to have bad games like this, shit happens. Learn and move on.

— Albino Maori (@JohnKiwara) February 2, 2017

If you think this is rock bottom than I’m gonna ask you to walk out the door. How do you think a Pelicans fans feel? This is not rock bottom. This is what we all should have expected this season. Oklahoma City fans need to understand something: we aren’t watching a championship contender anymore. This is what mediocrity feels like. Of course it’s not fun, but the boys will figure it out and they’ll rip off a five-game win streak soon enough. And you all will go back to praising them.