In Oklahoma City, the source of civic pride is never in doubt.
Trying to walk or drive through the streets without seeing a Thunder sign or flag or banner is like trying to stand in Times Square without seeing a tourist. In fact, if you didn’t know any better, you would swear the name of the place is “Thunder” city rather than “Oklahoma City.”
On Thursday night, NBA royalty even appeared at courtside to take in a Thunder game. Beyoncè visited the Thunder’s home arena and brought husband Jay-Z with her.
Now, Jay-Z’s Roc Nation agency represents Thunder star Kevin Durant, so there was a business reason to attend. But if a Thunder game wasn’t a smart place to go, you can be sure that one of music’s glamour couples would not have been in the front row.
The Thunder are obviously one of the NBA’s elite teams but have recently experienced one of the irritating realities of being elite. A team that has been to the NBA Finals and lost but still has the ability to win titles is scrutinized in a different way than a lesser team.
Progress is not charted by results, but by the way they are achieved. Ugly wins may be wins, but if the team had a difficult time against an inferior team, then a win could be a problem.
Yes, that doesn’t make a lot of sense, but part of the charm of sports is irrationality.
The Thunder have achieved such scrutiny, and deservedly so. In their last three full seasons, they
have averaged 55 victories and were 47-19 in the lockout season. They have been to the Finals once, losing to the Heat in 2012. With Durant, Russell Westbrook and a team with only two key players 30 or older, the Thunder have been and will be a constant in championship discussions for years to come.
But to win a title, you have to do the little things right. And if you are not always doing the little things right, it can come back to bite you in the championship round. So although the Thunder are off to an 8-3 start and early in a six-game home stand, they are being nitpicked by the Oklahoma City area media, and deservedly so.
Their losses have been on the road to the Clippers, Warriors and Timberwolves – three teams above .500 – so those are understandable. Those will happen in the regular season. The problem is the one-point overtime win over Washington and the two-point win over Denver. In the latter game, the Thunder trailed for more than 46 minutes but rallied late to get the victory.
Slow starts have become such an issue that when asked about it Thursday morning after a shootaround, Durant said, “I’m going to stop talking about it … been talking about it for too long. Just got to go out there and do it.”