Are the Oklahoma City Thunder ALREADY title contenders? 🌩

Are the Oklahoma City Thunder ALREADY title contenders? 🌩

Sgaa scoring 36 points as the Thunder top the league leading Celtics for their fifth straight win and it does feel to put myself in the producer role of those Sports debate shows Trey Kirby two questions coming out of this is OKC the best team in the league right now and

Possibly where is SGA on the MVP rankings how high does he go because uh this is a really really fun game great win we watched it on playback but what do you think to those uh you know to those two question really I think the Thunder are good okay I’ll say that

That’s not aot I’ll say that also SKS I think Shay Gil just Alexander is pretty good jeez yeah coming with all heaters today uh the question is are the Thunder title contenders and to that I say put them in that tier at the very bottom of that tier because we got to see

Something they haven’t won a playoff series together but they’re still one of the best teams in the league they’re top five on both sides of the ball they’ve got an MVP candidate in sheld just Alexander who is in in the early part of the prime of his career and has a game

That will seemingly translate well to the biggest moments in the playoffs he’s good at getting to the line for the most part though even if the grifting doesn’t come through he’s great in the mid-range got to make contested mid-range jumpers uh in the playoff and Shay has

Definitely got that I saw that he’s uh now up to Third on basketball references MVP tracker so I think at worst he’s third in the MVP rankings right now it’s hard for him I think at this point to jump Joel embiid who had a 30-point triple double in three quarters last

Night and also niic who has missed three shots in the past week the guy’s putting up great numbers as well Shay obviously is the MVP uh for this Thunder team and he looked like it last night so I think with the way he’s playing uh he’s got to

Be an MVP candidate and I think with the way the Thunder are playing you at least got to put them in the upper echelon teams in the NBA do you agree with that they belong in that Contender status I do think you with their net differential being the highest in the Western

Conference you look at them and you say well they’re the best team in the west but those other teams have been in the postseason I think are saving it a little bit for the postseason but OKC is just doing it each and every game so it

Makes them a contender sure yeah we just got to see them there and the reason why I say they’re that good in the regular season because they perform on both ends and when you watch this team and you think okay well Shake can go off for 35

Or whatever but because they are top five in offense and defense every guy contributes every single guy in every single way that’s what makes it fun watching Chad hongren last night block Jason Tatum twice that was awesome then he blocked christops porzingis in a standing position he didn’t jump he’s

He’s pretty smart in that he doesn’t jump everywhere and that he can box out everywhere they’re just smart on both sides you got Cas Wallace coming in he’s a 6-3 guard but he’ll grab you that offensive rebound like he did last night then he’ll fouled Jason Tatum at the end

Of the first quarter when Mark digno said you know what I’m going to challenge that and I like that they’re fighting for their coach as well I think the rest of the almost came back to bite them in the ass a couple times a little bit yeah sure but everybody’s fighting

Kenri Williams got a nickname called Kenny hustle I don’t know about that but uh anyways everybody was hitting threes in this game they they could do it on both ends every single guy every single guy and obviously offensively I mean I think they got a little Lucky in this

Game with everybody just splashing they’re literally just splashing giddy hit four Chad hit three sheay hit three tying his season High he’s shooting the the three a little bit more this year than last year uh Jay duub hit a couple hit that big shot from the middle of the

Lane uh so yeah put him in the status put him in that conversation I don’t I don’t see what’s wrong with that when you can when you see basically one through nine 1 through 10 they all are good every single one of them we can go through the entire roster yeah and this

Just isn’t one big statement win over the Celtics last night you go over the past two weeks sga’s Thunder have beaten jokic’s nuggets twice in Denver once SGA with the gamewinner the second game with the 40 Burger so that could maybe have some people bumping SGA ahead of yic in

In MVP rankings right now but I’m with you it’s probably embiid yic and then SGA and then OKC beat the Wolves the day after Christmas and then obviously the Celtics there on Tuesday night so you look at that zoom out the Thunder just went 4-0 versus the defending champs and

The top seeds in either conference so this is a hell of a run they on and you’re right it was SGA but it was homr Chen in it was giddy with his most you know explosive offensive game of the season season High 23 points this is a

Guy that doesn’t you know usually go for those type of numbers and uh they held on in the end because it was a fun sequence at the end Derek white hit that moonshot three-pointer in the corner with about 40 seconds to go that cut the

Lead to two but then you said it there Tas jdub he responded with a grownass take against Tatum TK and I on playback were going nuts like Tatum’s a big dude and he just sort of put his shoulder into him he bounced back a little bit and hit that little sort of Jumper

Floater there in the lane great that’s where he hits shots from he I mean he didn’t even have jdub a great game but he sort of stepped up in the fourth quarter when it when it got close and then porzingis hit that you know I was

Going to say three in the left corner with about four seconds to go but it was called a two the official was all over that one man he was like that’s a two that’s a two that’s a two he was like just like going nuts about it let me go

Prove it yeah and then they looked at it it didn’t take long because he was on the line it wasn’t LeBron situation here no they got that one right but a good uh entertaining ending because OKC looked like they were going to run away with this one they were up 18 points with

Like I don’t know about eight minutes or so to go and Boston because they’re so good got back into this game I just couldn’t believe the offensive execution from both teams these are good defensive teams like they switch a lot they got a lot of great guys that can play you

One-on-one they’re obviously talking out there and it didn’t matter on this night like 33 and 34 assists for Boston and OKC respectively in this game and if you watch it you’re like holy crap yeah they’re good they share the ball man and these guys can score it was fun fun fun

Yeah it was fun uh but I’m with Tess I do think uh the Thunder like this was a great game for the Thunder to get four threes from giddy who was shooting wide open shots every single time he’s only hit four threes twice so far this season

Shay like you’re saying hit three he’s only hit three threes in a game three times this season the Thunder ended up hitting 18 that was the eighth time this season they’ve hit that many it was kind of a fluky night shooting wise for the Thunder but that was also the game plan

For the Celtics like they were happy to let giddy shoot they were happy to go under screens from Shay and let him pop threes but the thunder made him pay which I thought was huge and then Chad I thought was awesome uh this guy has got the clutch Gene already in year 1.5

Whatever you want to call it uh he made two big threes uh late in the fourth quarter I think probably only one of them goes down as a clutch shot cuz it was like a six-point game when he made it nonetheless so far this season Chad

Is 57% from the field and 44% from three in clutch to situations and they’ve played quite a few of them he obviously hit that big shot against the warriors uh earlier this season and then uh yeah that take by Jaylen Williams that was really nice especially on Tatum because

Tatum locked down sheay gild just Alexander in the fourth quarter no made shots for Shay in the fourth got to the line made three free throws uh and some of those were including like foul situations right at the end but that’s why Jaylen Williams started taking over

And then on that last shot Tatum was out on Williams and he just bumped him out of the way those are two guy two big wings at this that was a really really impressive shot but yeah we got to just bind Chris porzingis feet these toes man

His toes are getting in the way he said he was nervous shooting it from the corner he’s like when I shoot I take a big step with my right foot took a big step with his right foot and it was right there that’s right he was behind

The line when he got the ball and if he had just gone straight up I mean it’s a three-pointer but yeah he takes that one step forward and he’s clearly on the line we were debating last night if there’s a way for guys to start painting

Their shoes to make it look like the court so it looks like they’re always behind the line so painted brown yeah yeah brown shoes who had the brown shoes Jamal Murray Murray wore brown shoes yeah anyway you got to try to get creative here to uh trick the referees

When you’re on the line but yeah he was well over it for sure uh but I love how Chris steps even though he wasn’t going to guard CH holen at the three-point line every single possession chat would just step into threes the thing about OKC and why you

Can put them in the Contender status is because they’re so confident on every possession like Chad gets the three-point shot with 18 19 left on the shot clock You’ think okay let’s let’s rotate the ball a little bit but he just stepped into every single three he took

Early in the possession and it looks so good and Jay dub Jaylen Williams didn’t look amazing throughout the game but that is his home just inside the free throw line so that’s how confident they are fourth quarter uh to be doing it like that and then you know the other

Jaylen Williams obviously ly hitting shots too so everybody everybody splashing uh and yeah the Celtics this this was the difference they both took 43s last night each team one hit 18 one hit 15 uh they’re both damn good and so you playing at OKC they won the game um going to Boston

That would probably have home court advantage they’d probably win that game but it’s yeah it’s just it’s just a damn good team it be fun fun finals matchup if it somehow happens you know this year moving forward uh the other reason Celtics lost is Jaylen Brown was garbage

Four of 18 right 0 of eight from three now he did score in the fourth quarter he sort of was doing sort of what uh jdb did there for OKC but he had uh some brutal turnovers as well it was just a really bad Jaylen Brown game and then

Drew holiday too um to the point where he wasn’t even out there for the final five minutes um Joe moua sort of going away from him so despite their two starters playing poorly they’ve still almost pulled this off with the way porzingis played especially in the first

Half and then Tatum as a superstar he is for for Boston um other funny note from this game did you guys catch uh Jaylen Williams the big jayen Williams and Trey man I believe it was with a very weird two-man clap on the bench it was late in

The game and you could see them here in the background um doing and they’ll commit to it here yes as they double clap one man on top and one man on the bottom there and I don’t know if they practiced this before if it happened just uh naturally there they were

Freestyling in the forest cuz I think what happened was perhaps it was giddy got subbed out Trey man is asking for the high five but no court awareness didn’t see it so Jaylen Williams had to go in just gave him a couple slaps to start but then they’re like this is kind of

Funny they tried to go for it good stuff anything else from the Thunder Celtics well yeah you guys were on playback for the group watch uh I was a little too tired to join but I was even getting excited watching this game because number one it was was just great but

Every closeup on the fans in that arena in OKC you could first of all they’re just jumping up but play playoff Lake atmosphere for sure it was but they’re also screaming let’s go every player every guy at least yeah every guy didn’t matter the age even if you’re 50 to 60 I

Saw a dad with his son I think yelling let’s go and that’s got me saying I didn’t say it for a long time but I’m in it you held off saying let’s go until now and I was a little too tired yeah that’s what people say all the time yes

Yes yeah I’m in they we were we were joking that there every shot of the crowd in OKC was a bearded man screaming let’s go or going like that like they have so many bearded dudes in OKC that are pumped and they were into it and how

Can you blame them cuz they got the win there they switch they switch to it which is nice sometimes you don’t get good fan shots yeah they do it a lot were they were committed there onc

Oklahoma City has won eight of its past nine games, putting the Thunder second in the Western Conference at 23-9. Could they win the NBA championship THIS season?

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