The relatable, endearing authenticity of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending NBA champions is a wonder to behold<\/p>\n
Winter is over, though perhaps most NBA fans feel as if it\u2019s just beginning. After a midseason slump, the Oklahoma City Thunder have won 12 of their last 13 games They\u2019re clinging to a slim but steady three-game lead over the San Antonio Spurs atop the otherwise chaotic Western Conference. (The Lakers are good now? The Nuggets can\u2019t find their footing? The Rockets can\u2019t even stand up?<\/a>) The Thunder\u2019s flirtation with vulnerability was fun, but the defending champions look as invincible now as they did during their 24-1 run to begin the season. So, now as then, with nothing to criticize in the Thunder\u2019s basketball, we are compelled to discuss their character and vibes.<\/p>\n Reviews are usually poor. I myself celebrated the Spurs<\/a> when they recorded a hat-trick of wins over the Thunder in December, simply for injecting intrigue into a season that already seemed decided. The Defector podcast Nothing But Respect recently featured a series of anti-Thunder guests; after discussing the idea that artists don\u2019t like OKC with musician Will Anderson, a host announced, \u201cnext week, we will have a real, actual Thunder expert to defend his team\u2019s values\u201d. Most of the comments on that episode<\/a> seemed unconvinced by Ringer staff writer Tyler Parker\u2019s arguments.<\/p>\n Continue reading…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The relatable, endearing authenticity of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending NBA champions is a wonder to behold Winter is over, though perhaps most NBA fans feel as if it\u2019s just beginning. After a midseason slump, the Oklahoma City Thunder have won 12 of their last 13 games They\u2019re clinging to a slim but steady three-game … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-70037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=70037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=70037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=70037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=70037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}