It hurts me to write the word “choke” in reference to sport. It hurts even more when I write it in relation to my favourite basketball team: Oklahoma City Thunder (OKC).
During the early hours (South African Time) of this morning – or last night, depending on where you are – social media was abuzz with the hashtag #Choklahoma. This was in reference to the heart-breaking defeat the OKC suffered to the Golden State Warriors, led by the two time NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP), Steph Curry.
This defeat was part of the Western Conference play-offs that will now see the Warriors face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the NBA 2016 finals.
This is how NBA play-offs (finals) work:
The league is divided into two conferences: West and East.
In each conference, the teams battle it out until the top two teams meet in a seven-game series play-off (i.e. best of seven). Whoever wins that series is the champion of their respective conference, and proceeds to take on the champion of the opposing conference. This was the case between OKC and the Warriors in Game 7.
As an OKC fan this has been a bitter pill to swallow.
For the last few seasons, OKC has been described as a “championship team”. Others have referred to it as “the most athletic team” in the league. They were not wrong.
I put it this way to a friend on Twitter: “OKC have all the right ingredients, the meal just doesn’t come together”.
OKC is one of the most talented teams in the NBA.
They have former MVP Kevin Durant, former All Star MVP Russell Westbrook, and some of the league’s best forwards in Serge Ibaka, Steven Adams, and Enes Kanter. The talent in the team is endless, but it just fails to translate into a “W” (win) for the Thunder.
What made this year’s pill even more bitter to swallow than previous years, is that this time, the Thunder was leading the seven-game series play-offs 3-1 a few days ago, only to have the Warriors not only level the series, but go on to beat them.
This can be attributed to the incredible leadership and three-point shooting abilities of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson, who have been dubbed the Splash Brothers for their ability to rain buckets (score baskets), especially from long range (three-pointers).
Together Curry and Thompson scored 23 points on 8-of-8 shooting (including 6-of-6 from 3-point range) in Game 7.
Given the size and athletic ability of the Thunder, it’s not surprising to see that they opted to go long range in a lot of cases.
One has to feel for the Thunder though. For many years, pundits have said their title win would just be a matter of time – and this year it seemed closer than usual.
Maybe next time?
All the best to the Warriors, who will now face the Cleveland Cavaliers led by Lebron James on Thursday Night (Friday morning SA time).
We’ll be sure to bring you a report on that!