NBA roundup from Wild Wednesday - April 9th

Chris Paul #3 of the Los Angeles Clippers and Russell Westbrook #0 of the Oklahoma City Thunder greet each other after their game at Staples Center on April 9, 2014 in Los Angeles, California.

Oklahoma City 107–101 Los Angeles Clippers

This will not be a recap, so much as a marvel of athletic and basketball skill that I had the privilege to witness last night. As Randy Marsh would say, “My God”, that was such a fun game to watch. These two teams, at times, just seemed to overwhelm the television screen with athleticism, led by the greatest big man dunker of all time, DeAndre Jordan. If you haven’t seen his three first half dunks from last night, stop and watch these right now. Good, glad to have you back, because now I can tell you that KD and Blake and Russ and Serge all did things along these lines last night too. With apologies to Warriors fans and basically any other team’s fans that will be in the playoffs, this is the series I want to see above all. Four top 10 players, Serge threatening to make the leap into top 20, DJ, J Crossover, Grease Lightning (Matt Barnes), Reggie Jackson, and Steven Adams are all worth never taking your eyes off this potential series.

As for the game, it had runs where I was nodding my head in concurrence that this Thunder team is the class of the West, only to watch the Clippers come back time and again to make it a game. I have my doubts still about the Clippers as true title contenders, but they just keep whittling away at those doubts, such as this game where they took a full strength Thunder team, albeit on the second night of a back-to-back, to the brink, while not being full strength themselves. As the game was winding down, everyone seemed to be turning on Russ, who dominated the first quarter and carried the team as KD struggled from the field, but then tried his best to shoot the Thunder to a loss, only to go tip jam, rebound, free throws, rebound, free throws to end the game. It was just another example of how we need to let Russ be Russ.

I could go on and on about this game – Blake’s brilliance, CP3?s control at the end, Darren Collison’s blur-like drives, Serge’s flying defense, and KD’s will to battle back, but I wanna leave with the Thunder’s defense. They held the best offense in the league, per offensive rating from basketball-reference.com, to 42% shooting and left the Clippers generally discombobulated throughout the game. With KD and Russ, the Thunder get a lot of attention on their offense, but it really is their defense that makes them the title contender they are, as they employ a seemingly endless amount of long, freak athletes. Combine this with the freak athletes the Clippers have, and I only can hope the basketball gods don’t mess up this potential matchup.