Monday Bolts: 12.02.19

Make that two in a row for the Oklahoma City Thunder, both against the New Orleans Pelicans.  Brandon Rahbar recaps Friday night’s win and Sunday afternoon’s win.

Steven Adams hit some clutch free throws to close out the Pelicans in New Orleans, and he did so with an interesting strategy:

Maddie Lee (The Oklahoman) dropped five takeaways from Sunday’s victory, while Joe Mussatto (The Oklahoman) shared five takeaways from Friday’s triumph.

After scoring a career-high 23 points last week, Abdel Nader followed that up by adding 19 critical points on Friday.  Per Erik Horne (The Athletic), these performances are the fruition of the work Nader has been putting in.  “Nader works hard. But during his Thunder tenure, that has rarely translated to sustained on-court success, or it’s come with an asterisk. Even when he dropped a career-high 23 points in the Thunder’s blowout loss to Portland on Wednesday, 19 were in the fourth quarter, when the game was essentially over. All Nader did for an encore was score 19 points on 11 shots off the bench in the Thunder’s 109-104 win against the Pelicans on Friday.”

Connor Ayubi (107.7 The Franchise) digs into the numbers during crunch time.  “Almost a quarter of the way into the season, Oklahoma City sits at 6 wins and 11 losses. Of those defeats, 7 have been by less than 5 points. That’s more than any other team in the league. We haven’t seen this many competitive Ls since Jack “Fifle the Rifle” Fife took on Texas back in 2017.”

Yes, he’s Oklahoma City’s former coach, but Fred Katz’s (The Athletic) feature on the influence that Scott Brooks’s mom played in his life is a must read.  “‘If you didn’t fight for every inch, they were taking it from you, and it taught me so many different values,’ he said. ‘It taught me resolve and toughness and commitment and don’t back down from anybody. I wasn’t looking for fights, but I didn’t like to run from them either.’  But he’ll be the first, second and last to tell you, all these traits come from the woman who raised him.  ‘She taught me just about toughness and doing the right thing. … I would not be in the position that I am now if it wasn’t for her,’ he said. ‘She has given me so many important life lessons that I could never, ever, ever thank her enough.'”

Matt Ellentuck (SB Nation) shares his twelve biggest surprises so far, and one surprise is Chris Paul avoiding drama in OKC.  “Paul got a crap deal when he was shipped from a good Rockets team to a tanking Thunder one after being swapped with Russell Westbrook. With Paul George out of town, Paul is stuck with Danilo Gallinari, Steven Adams, and a bunch of young players. That’s not where superstars want to be in the final years of their career.”

Darius Bazley keeps fashion a focus with his 90’s style, writes Maddie Lee (The Oklahoman).

Remember at Media Day when Nerlens Noel said Nader would surprise people this year?  Maddie Lee checked in on that comment after Nader’s two big games:

In case you plan your wardrobe around the Thunder’s jerseys, the team announced the uniform schedule for December:

Hey, ya’ll.  Stay tuned…